School curriculum principles perspective learning and knowledge

Curriculum theory and practice.The organization of schooling and further education has long been associated with the idea of a curriculum. But what actually is curriculum, and how might it be conceptualized? We explore curriculum theory and practice and its relation to informal education. Contents: The idea of curriculum is hardly new – but the way we understand and theorize it has altered over the years – and there remains considerable dispute as to meaning. It has its origins in the running/chariot tracks of Greece. It was, literally, a course. In Latin curriculum was a racing chariot; currere was to run. A useful starting point for us here might be the definition offered by John Kerr and taken up by Vic Kelly in a standard work on the subject. Kerr defines curriculum as, ‘All the learning which is planned and guided by the school, whether it is carried on in groups or individually, inside or outside the school. (quoted in Kelly 1983: 10; see also, Kelly 1999). This gives us some basis to move on – and for the moment all we need to do is highlight two of the key features: L earning is planned and guided. We have to specify in advance what we are seeking to achieve and how we are to go about it. The definition refers to schooling. We should recognize that our current appreciation of curriculum theory and practice emerged in the school and in relation to other schooling ideas such as subject and lesson. In what follows we are going to look at four ways of approaching curri...

The development, dissemination, and implementation of relevant and effective curriculum and expected learning outcomes can improve teaching and learning. The curriculum framework, including the expected learning outcomes, communicates what teachers and learners should know and do. Curriculum is a description of what, why, how, and how well students should learn in a systematic and intentional way.(14) Expected learning outcomes define the totality of information, knowledge, understanding, attitudes, values, skills, competencies, or behaviours a learner should master upon the successful completion of the curriculum.(14) To improve education quality special efforts are needed to align the intended curriculum (the official guidance), the implemented curriculum (what teachers and learners actually do), and the attained curriculum (what students actually learn).(14) An extensive collection of resources on improving the quality and relevance of the curriculum, as well as its linkage to teaching, learning, and assessment processes, is available through the Issues and Discussion Curriculum organization: Curriculum frameworks reflect the political and social agreements of education and aim to guide regulation, implementation, and evaluation of curricula.(1) They can be organized by competencies, disciplinary subjects, learning areas, and interdisciplinary or cross-curricular topics.(1) They also define the appropriate learning objectives, or expected learning outcomes, for successi...

Open Access is an initiative that aims to make scientific research freely available to all. To date our community has made over 100 million downloads. It’s based on principles of collaboration, unobstructed discovery, and, most importantly, scientific progression. As PhD students, we found it difficult to access the research we needed, so we decided to create a new Open Access publisher that levels the playing field for scientists across the world. How? By making research easy to access, and puts the academic needs of the researchers before the business interests of publishers. We are a community of more than 103,000 authors and editors from 3,291 institutions spanning 160 countries, including Nobel Prize winners and some of the world’s most-cited researchers. Publishing on IntechOpen allows authors to earn citations and find new collaborators, meaning more people see your work not only from your own field of study, but from other related fields too. The purpose of this chapter is to explore and analyze the kind of knowledge curriculum integration (CI) required of teachers and how teacher education should be developed to prepare teachers better for CI. The chapter is organized as follows: first, the concept of CI is briefly introduced in the context of the Finnish curriculum for comprehensive schools. Then Lee Shulman’s theory of teachers’ knowledge is discussed and applied to the framework of CI to identify the challenges teachers may face in implementing it. Finally, imp...

Learning Principles Theory and Research-based Principles of Learning The following list presents the basic principles that underlie effective learning. These principles are distilled from research from a variety of disciplines. • Students come into our courses with knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes gained in other courses and through daily life. As students bring this knowledge to bear in our classrooms, it influences how they filter and interpret what they are learning. If students’ prior knowledge is robust and accurate and activated at the appropriate time, it provides a strong foundation for building new knowledge. However, when knowledge is inert, insufficient for the task, activated inappropriately, or inaccurate, it can interfere with or impede new learning. • Students naturally make connections between pieces of knowledge. When those connections form knowledge structures that are accurately and meaningfully organized, students are better able to retrieve and apply their knowledge effectively and efficiently. In contrast, when knowledge is connected in inaccurate or random ways, students can fail to retrieve or apply it appropriately. • As students enter college and gain greater autonomy over what, when, and how they study and learn, motivation plays a critical role in guiding the direction, intensity, persistence, and quality of the learning behaviors in which they engage. When students find positive value in a learning goal or activity, expect to successfully achi...

Why do you have the curriculum you have? Why do you make the choices you do? How do your educational principles impact your curriculum? In this blog, Melanie Moore, Cornerstones’ Curriculum Director, looks at how to identify your curriculum principles and why knowing your principles well is crucial for an authentic curriculum. What are principles? There is little doubt that as a primary teacher or senior leader, you’ll be asked to make many critical daily decisions that can form a large part of the workload in any primary school. You are often expected to make your choices quickly. Sometimes we make our choices based on a gut feeling, but when judgements are more substantial, we often need to dig deep within ourselves to find the answer. Although we may not always realise it, when we make a decision on any scale, it is our principles, or core values, that provide us with the internal compass by which we navigate. Why curriculum principles are so important in your primary school Just as we use our personal principles to help us make important decisions about how we act and what we do, having a clear set of curriculum principles can help you to build an authentic curriculum that meets the needs of your school and learners. Trying to build your curriculum on goals that aren’t derived from your principles and core values is like building a house on sand. With clear and well-defined principles, you will have firm foundations on which to build. Schools can often feel pressured t...

NAEYC’s guidelines and recommendations for developmentally appropriate practice are based on the following nine principles and their implications for early childhood education professional practice. These principles reflect an extensive research base that is only partially referenced here. 13 Because these principles are interrelated, this linear list does not fully represent their overall complexity. • Development and learning are dynamic processes that reflect the complex interplay between a child’s biological characteristics and the environment, each shaping the other as well as future patterns of growth. Advances in neuroscience over the last two decades have provided new insights regarding the processes of early brain development and their long-term implications for development and learning. The findings provide robust evidence supporting the importance of high-quality early learning experiences for young children for promoting children’s lifelong success. Neural connections in the brain—which are the basis for all thought, communication, and learning—are established most rapidly in early childhood. 14 The processes of forming new neural connections and pruning the neural connections that are not used continue throughout a person’s lifespan but are most consequential in the first three years. 15 When adults are sensitive and respond to an infant’s babble, cry, or gesture, they directly support the development of neural connections that lay the foundation for children’...