In Victoria, Australia, outdoor education has been a legitimate subject in the school curriculum for over 25 years. However its place has been debated and challenged over this period. This paper traces the history of the subject, its current status in the Victorian Certificate of Education, future challenges to its place in the curriculum…

Understanding one's sexuality is a lifelong process. This pamphlet outlines developmental markers for what children need to know about sexuality, from infancy through adolescence. These guideposts can help parents, caregivers, and educators decide when a discussion of a given subject is age-appropriate. They may be particularly helpful for those…

In this companion to "Opening Doors", Friedman and Webb provide more helpful, hand-on tips for bringing SEM to life in your school. Readers learn, step-by-step, how to create a schedule that includes a weekly E-Slot for enrichment learning experiences as well as ideas for injecting interest-based experiences into the E-Slot, regular curriculum,…

There is no single script for effective character education, but there are some important basic principles. This document presents eleven principles that schools and other groups can use to plan a character education effort and to evaluate available character education programs: (1) Promotes core ethical values and supportive performance values as…

It is now six years since schools and education authorities were encouraged to review how available time is used to provide all learners with a motivating and challenging experience. Circular 3/2001 "Guidance on Flexibility in the Curriculum" set out the rationale for innovation within the curriculum and the need to think creatively about how best…

The article grapples with the question of how much curriculum change is appropriate in a given context and in a given time frame. How can a balance be struck between stagnation, on the one hand, and the promotion of unrealistic innovation on the other? In answer to this dilemma, the concept of a zone of feasible innovation (ZFI) is proposed and…

Freed from the nuisances of paper-based methods, districts are making creative use of digital tools to move their curricular documents online, where educators can collaborate on course development and lesson planning. Back in 2003, Amarillo Independent School District (Texas) had begun using the Blackboard Content System to provide lessons online.…

Recent trends in general education focus on integrating liberal studies considered intellectual, but not practical, and professional fields, which are "viewed as practical but, for that very reason, inherently illiberal." The trend toward capstone experiences in liberal studies assists the integration of general education components with…

Kenya now has a 2-8-4-4 system, which means two years of preprimary (nursery, age 4-6), eight years in primary school, four in secondary, and four at university. However, at the end of the primary education course, pupils still sit for the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE), a very competitive examination that determines who will…

Teaching about the Holocaust is a deeply sensitive and controversial topic in the Republic of Latvia. Due to a Soviet-imposed silence on the topic and the developing nature of democratic education in Latvia, many schools cover this history superficially, if it is covered at all. This study examines a cross-cultural curriculum development project…

This article discusses a systematic approach to designing significant learning experiences, often referred to as the "backward design process," which has been popularized by Wiggins and McTighe (1998) and is included as a central feature of L. Dee Fink's model for integrated course design (Fink, 2003). The process is referred to as backward…

This essay describes how in the 1890s the Committee of Ten arrived at their recommendations about the organization of the high school biological sciences and seeks to correct the frequently held, but erroneous view that the Committee of Ten was the initiator of the Biology-Chemistry-Physics order of teaching sciences prevalent in high schools…

This paper describes the Reinventing Computer Science Curriculum Project at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Motivated by rapid and significant changes in the information technology and computing areas, high diversity in student aptitudes, and high dropout rates, the project designed and implemented an integrated instructional/research…

In this article, we describe our efforts as project coordinators to negotiate directions and meanings at the initial stages of a childcare curriculum development project for children from birth to age five in the Province of New Brunswick, Canada. Understanding curriculum as a complex relational dynamic that is shaped by the multiple social and…

This article is based on research and development carried out at the Centre for Outcomes-Based Education at the Open University (OU). It explores the way in which higher education (HE) assessment could meet specific criteria in order to assess the unique qualities that underpin the relationship between practitioner-researchers and the workplace.…