This book is a manual for educators to use in curriculum planning and development. Chapter 1 examines the nature of curriculum and its relationship to instruction by (1) defining curriculum and the four main levels of curriculum work (curriculum policy, field of study, program of studies, and course) and (2) distinguishing between six types of curriculums (recommended, written, taught, supported, tested, and learned). Chapter 2 explains the process of reflecting district goals in the curriculum. Chapter 3 explains how to improve the curriculum in a given field of study. Chapter 4 discusses improving a program of studies at a given level through aligning goals, achieving balance and curricular integration, improving skills, achieving open access, and responding to student needs. Chapter 5 discusses improving a set of skills across the curriculum in areas of writing, reading, and critical thinking. Chapter 6 reviews the standard model for developing new courses and then explains a naturalistic model that emphasizes quality of learning. Chapter 7 discusses responding to individual differences and describes three specific approaches: mastery learning, cooperative learning, and computer-assisted instruction. Numerous figures illustrate chapter contents. An appendix contains a bibliography of resources for the subject fields of art, business, English/language arts, foreign language, health, home economics, mathematics, music, reading, science, social studies, and technology. (IW)