What year are you preparing your students for? 1973? 1995? Can you honestly say that your school s curriculum and the program you use are preparing your... students for 2015 or 2020? Are you even preparing them for today?With those provocative questions, author and educator Heidi Hayes Jacobs launches a powerful case for overhauling, updating, and injecting life into the K 12 curriculum. Sharing her expertise as a world-renowned curriculum designer and calling upon the collective wisdom of 10 education thought leaders, Jacobs provides insight and inspiration in the following key areas: * Content and assessment--How to identify what to keep, what to cut, and what to create, and where portfolios and other new kinds of assessment fit into the picture. * Program structures--How to improve our use of time and space and groupings of students and staff. * Technology--How it s transforming teaching, and how to take advantage of students natural facility with technology. * Media literacy--The essential issues to address, and the best resources for helping students become informed users of multiple forms of media. * Globalization--What steps to take to help students gain a global perspective. * Sustainability--How to instill enduring values and beliefs that will lead to healthier local, national, and global communities. * Habits of mind--The thinking habits that students, teachers, and administrators need to develop and practice to succeed in school, work, and life. The answers to these questions and many more make Curriculum 21 the ideal guide for transforming our schools into what they must become: learning organizations that match the times in which we live.

This compact, scholarly book treats creating a curriculum as an ongoing process, the product of which is a composite of what is intended (planned... curriculum), what actually happens (enacted curriculum), and how what happens influences those involved (experienced curriculum). It proposes that desirable educational experiences arise when the interaction of these three curricula is flexible and evolving; and, therefore, the authors never advance specific, “best” practices or “most correct” answers to fundamental curriculum questions. Rather, through a finely honed discussion of essential theoretical and practical alternatives, they invite readers to develop their own points of view. Major discussions of postmodernism, autobiographical techniques, gender, and race. The book also includes coverage of recent actions by state governing agencies and boards of education and aligning curriculum with state standards. For professionals in the field of teaching.

Educational Theory says...''[This series] does a masterful job of bringing together the basic issues and teaching methods that should frame social and... philosophical foundations curricula.'' -- Reviewing the first edition The revised Fifth Edition of Curriculum and Aims provides a broad perspective on the basic curriculum questions educators face regarding the purposes, content, design, and structure of educational programs. After examining aims that have been proposed by classical educational thinkers and reviewing the dominant educational debate of the 20th century between traditionalists and progressives, authors Decker F. Walker and Jonas F. Soltis deal with fundamental contemporary issues of curriculum theory and instructional practice.As in the other volumes in the Thinking About Education Series, this new edition provides realistic case studies that inspire pre-service teachers to grapple with the issues of curriculum and aims in the context of classroom situations. The Fifth Edition features a new case on Education and Equity: Closing the Achievement Gap and includes updated references to important recent ideas in a new section at the end of each chapter called For Further Inquiry.Curriculum and Aims is one of the five books in the highly regarded Teachers College Press THINKING ABOUT EDUCATION SERIES, now in its Fifth Edition. All of the books in this series are designed to help pre- and in-service teachers bridge the gap between theory and practice.

This timely volume provides a complete guide to designing and implementing personalized curricula for K-12 students with moderate and severe... disabilities. The author delineates a comprehensive assessment model that provides a framework for pinpointing educational priorities, planning instruction in specific areas, and evaluating student progress. Emphasizing the values of self-determination, family-centered planning, multicultural awareness, and educational accountability, the strategies presented are teacher-friendly and data-based. Case studies in every chapter illustrate the educational needs and accomplishments of students with a variety of disabilities, including autism, mental retardation, severe behavior disorders, and multiple disabilities. Further enhancing the practical utility of the volume are sample assessment notes, reports, and instruction plans; inventories of key skills in different domains; and descriptions of commercially available instructional resources. Included are more than 15 reproducible forms. An ideal undergraduate or graduate-level text, this is also an invaluable resource for teachers, school psychologists, and other special education professionals.

Unlike texts that focus on either the “how” or “what” of teaching, Curriculum and Instructional Methods for the Elementary and Middle School... explores both the “how” (instruction) and “what” (content), and provides an integrative approach to ensure teachers a broad knowledge base when they enter the classroom.   This successful K-8 elementary methods text includes both general topics of classroom management, learner differences, planning, assessment, and models of teaching with unique chapters on integrating the best teaching strategies for each content area.  By incorporating detailed teaching scenarios, this text offers teacher candidates a hands-on, real-world approach with practical instructional strategies and teaching hints related to research, ELL, planning, and more!   The new edition includes coverage of current issues and topics impacting teachers and students in today's classrooms are including bullying (Ch. 2 & 14), school safety and violence (Ch.1), home schooling and charter schools (Ch. 1 & 14), and much more.

This book integrates the systematic (pre-determined or system-directed) and constructivist (student-centered) approaches to classroom instruction by... bridging the gap between the seemingly divergent philosophies and discussing how teachers can combine and apply the strengths of each approach to reach all learners. The book defines and critiques the two approaches, and - pulling from research and case studies - shows how an integrated approach can be applied effectively to the issues of cultural and linguistic diversity, literacy instruction, math instruction, arts instruction, project-based learning, and inclusion of students with challenging behavior and/or severe disabilities. This book demonstrates that systematic and constructivist methods are not only complementary but that the use of both is necessary to allow all children to receive a quality education.

This contributed volume, written by scholars in the field, provides readers with critical information regarding moderately to severely disabled... students. Curriculum and Instruction for Students with Significant Disabilities in Inclusive Settings offers a description of appropriate curriculum content for students with moderate or severe disabilities in inclusive settings, and a process through which collaborative education teams can identify appropriate functional and general education curriculum content. In addition instructional approaches that facilitate the infusion of instruction and curriculum for students with significant disabilities within general education contexts are discussed. This book also provides background on inclusion for students with moderate or severe disabilities, related to both legal considerations and research findings. Developers of special education curriculum, special education teachers, school administrators.

Curriculum and the Aesthetic Life brings together over 20 years of scholarly work by dancer, educator, and scholar Donald S. Blumenfeld-Jones on the... intersection of curriculum theory and practice with aesthetics, ethics, and hermeneutic inquiry, focusing on the body and emotions and the theory and practice of Arts-Based Education Research, including his noted Hogan Dreams. He brings to his work an aesthetic sensibility developed over 40 years of active involvement in the arts as well as a Frankfurt School critical theory orientation and a constant concern for building an ethical world through cultivating an aesthetic awareness. This linking of aesthetics and ethics makes a unique contribution to the theoretical foundations of curriculum theory and educational philosophy. Always concerned with connections to practice, this book provides many examples of curriculum practice and teaching as well as scholarly studies of curriculum work. This book is essential reading for anyone involved in the arts and education.

For undergraduate and graduate courses in Curriculum Development and/or Curriculum Planning. Defining curriculum broadly, as "what is taught in... schools," this practical text arranges content around two major themes: 1) curriculum processes involve decision making by people who are guided by their beliefs and values about what students should learn; and, 2) curricular change occurs only after individuals have made internal transitions. Unlike its competition, this text painstakingly bridges curriculum theory to practice, exploring ways to develop curriculum, implement a curriculum plan, and assess a school's curriculum by applying chapter content to sample curriculum projects. Through accessible, jargon-free language and student-friendly pedagogy, the author shows both how practice informs theory and how use of theory helps educators engage in curriculum tasks appropriately.

“Applebee's central point, the need to teach 'knowledge in context,' is absolutely crucial for the hopes of any reformed curriculum. His experience... and knowledge give his voice an authority that makes many of the current proposals on both the left and right seem shallow by comparison.”—Gerald Graff, University of Chicago

This book combines curriculum and instruction studies with assessment, and assessment is very popular in higher education today. New laws in special... education focus on assessment, and the new tools and forms are given here in this text. Strategies and practical applications for teaching special education are combined in one source. The theories for teaching exceptional learners and the assessment applications to do it are merged for the special education major and the elementary education major just taking their one mandatory introductory course.