Education Commons^™

Continuing The Dialogue: Curriculum, Didaktik And Theories Of Knowledge, Norm Friesen

Educational Technology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Joseph Schwab’s famous remark, that the field of curriculum is ‘moribund’—no longer able ‘to …contribute significantly to the advancement of education’—has long echoed in curriculumstudies. Although its specific meaning has certainly changed, it still rings in our ears today. It now applies as much to discussions in the US and UK as it does to those in Northern Europe—where the cognate field of General Didaktik has been described as ‘quiet’ (Terhart, 2003, p. 25), or more recently, ‘dead’ (Zierer & Seel 2012, p. 16). This ‘virtual issue’ of the Journal of Curriculum Studies brings together five articles of direct relevance …

Gonski’S Model For Schools, Geoff N. Masters Ao

Teacher columnist – Geoff Masters

The recent Gonski report calls for a new model of school education. This is a big call. What is this new model? Professor Geoff Masters AO discusses. In delivering his recent report David Gonski described the report’s recommendations as a package of reforms to underpin a new model to improve performance in Australian schools.

Challenges In Stem Learning In Australian Schools, Michael J. Timms, Kathryn Moyle, Paul R. Weldon, Pru Mitchell

Policy Insights

Australian STEM education seems caught in a whirlpool of problems that are contributing to one another. Student engagement and performance in STEM are declining, but we do not have the supply of qualified teachers we need to improve learning. The STEM curriculum is unbalanced and fragmented, leading to less interest among students. It is not possible to break out of the downward cycle from within the current system and it requires policy changes that address the issues raised in this report. This means developing well-considered, systemic and joined-up policies that address the following challenges: Improving student outcomes, building the STEM …

Challenges In Stem Learning In Australian Schools: Literature And Policy Review, Michael J. Timms, Kathryn Moyle, Paul R. Weldon, Pru Mitchell

Policy Analysis and Program Evaluation

This literature and policy review outlines the complex context related to STEM learning in Australian schools and focuses on student outcomes, the teacher workforce and the curriculum. This paper also sheds light on possible policy directions by examining lessons from other countries. STEM education is a broad enterprise that starts in early childhood education, continues through the years of schooling and extends into tertiary education supported by contributions from extracurricular and enrichment activities, science centres and museums. However, the focus in this document is on primary and secondary schooling. Australian STEM education seems caught in a whirlpool of problems that …

What Is 'Equity' In Education, Geoff N. Masters Ao, Ray J. Adams

Teacher columnist – Geoff Masters

Equity in education is often viewed as equivalence or sameness. A more useful way to view equity is through the lens of ‘fairness’.

Redesigning The Frederick Meijer Honors College Curriculum, Kathryn Malia Brooks, Bradley Williams, Andrew Dzierwa, Kelsey Rutkowski, Bethany Chambers

Undergraduate Research

Welcome reader,

We appreciate your interest in our design challenge of reimaging the Frederik Meijer Honors College curriculum. Over the course of several months, we have worked diligently through the design thinking process to arrive at a solution that meets the needs of FMHC stakeholders. We have conducted interviews with these stakeholders in order to gain empathy and conducted secondary research which allowed us to broaden the scope of our insights and search for potential solutions. Many hours were spent ideating our own solutions and prototyping them through a collaborator debrief process. This portfolio contains the details of our process …

Creating A Fresh Start For The Gv Honors Experience, Logan Wiber, Adam Anderson, Riese Bierlein, Jinah Bak, Tessa Martin, Katarina Zomer

Undergraduate Research

Dear Reader,

Thank you for your interest in our team, The ASAP, and our work with the Grand Valley State University Frederik Meijer Honors College. At the time of undertaking the task of reimagining the current Honors College curriculum, we explored the current sentiments of stakeholders, unfulfilled needs, and how other colleges have provided solutions to these needs. Our hope is that you, whoever you may be, become inspired and that ideas from our final prototype become a reality in the Honors College curriculum.

The team working on this project consisted of 6 members, all introduced on the page prior. …

Trailblazers: Innovation Portfolio, Keegan Barth, Samantha Frankhouse, Taylor Keppel, Andrew Marckini, Melaura Rice

Undergraduate Research

We are so grateful for your interest in our proposal of redesigning the Frederick Meijer Honors College Curriculum. This journey spanned four months and included countless hours of researching, interviewing, collaborating, ideating, and prototyping. Our portfolio will navigate through the process to provide an in-depth overview of our insights and show how we used Design Thinking to create our final prototype concept. We would like to express our sincere gratitude toward our professor Linda Chamberlain, fellow classmates, collaborators, and stakeholders who were involved in the process. All of these individuals guided us through the Design Thinking process and allowed us …

Imsa 2018 Profile, Office Of College And Academic Counseling

IMSA Profile

The Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy (IMSA) fosters the discoverers. The thinkers. The innovators and experimenters. The problem-solvers of the future who can change the world through their life’s work. IMSA innovates the future of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education. It creates a strong and diverse pipeline of talented students at its tuition-free residential academy in Aurora, IL for 10th through 12th grade students. IMSA’s mission is to ignite and nurture creative, scientific, ethical minds that advance the human condition.

Graves, R. & Hyland, T. (Eds.). (2017) Writing Assignments Across University Disciplines. Bloomington, In: Trafford., Daniel P. Richards

English Faculty Publications

[First paragraph] For the last three years, I have been part of a team of multi-disciplinary faculty that holds a weeklong workshop each semester for approximately twenty teachers. These teachers, migrating to our cozy space in the library from all corners of campus, have applied—they get paid a modest sum, which is not nothing—to attend our workshop in the hopes of improving their ability to integrate writing assignments into their courses. The workshops are part of a larger initiative, Improving Disciplinary Writing, which was borne out of a needs assessment from our regional assessment body. It is designed to bring …

"Content Without Context Is Noise": Looking For Curriculum Harmony In Primary Arts Education In Western Australia, Sian Chapman, Peter Wright, Robin Pascoe

Education Papers and Journal Articles

Arts education in Western Australian primary schools consist of learning opportunities outlined by mandated curriculum. However, assumptions underlying this curriculum involving access, resources and support impact schools’ capacity to implement the curriculum without them being adequately addressed by the written curriculum. Drawing on the policy enactment theory of Ball, Maguire, and Braun (2012), four contextual variables (situated contexts, professional cultures, material contexts and external factors) are used to highlight the differences between the written published curriculum and the implemented, practised curriculum. Drawing on interviews with 24 participants across four schools issues of geographic location, use of arts specialists, appropriate learning …

Conceptual Framework For A Curriculum In Social Change, Iris M. Yob

Walden Faculty and Staff Publications

Colleges, universities, and many high schools are expressing their mission in terms of creating social change or contributing to the common good. Such a mission suggests that if they are going to graduate students who will fulfill this mission, they will need to consider how they will best prepare students to do this. The conceptual framework for a curriculum in social change in this article offers a holistic approach, taking into account what a student should know, be able to do, and what values and attitudes should be nurtured. To that end, the article identifies three competencies in the knowledge …

Global Climate Change In U.S. High School Curricula: Portrayals Of The Causes, Consequences, And Potential Responses, Casey R. Meehan, Brett L.M. Levy, Lauren Collet-Gildard

Educational Theory and Practice Faculty Scholarship

Broad misconceptions about global climate change (GCC) could hinder efforts to address this large-scale problem, and curricular materials can play a substantial role in what students learn about GCC. This study examines how U.S. high school textbooks and supplemental curricular materials published between 2007 and 2012 portray the causes, consequences, and potential responses to GCC. Our data included text segments related to these topics in five science textbooks, four social studies textbooks, and eight sets of GCC supplemental materials. To analyze these text segments, we conducted several rounds of coding, first categorizing curricula by their acceptance of the human causes …

Re-Theorising Inclusion And Reframing Inclusive Practice In Physical Education, Dawn Penney, Ruth Jeanes, Justen O'Connor, Laura Alfrey

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Inclusion remains a key political agenda for education internationally and is a matter that teachers across subject communities and phases of education are challenged to respond to. In physical education specifically, research continues to highlight that current practice often reaffirms rather than challenges established inequities. This paper critically explores the understandings of inclusion that contribute to this situation and addresses the challenge of advancing inclusion in physical education from conceptual and pedagogical viewpoints. DeLuca’s [(2013). “Toward an Interdisciplinary Framework for Educational Inclusivity.” Canadian Journal of Education 36 (1): 305–348] conceptualisation of normative, integrative, dialogical and transgressive approaches to inclusion is …

Dynamics Of Gender Justice, Conflict And Social Cohesion: Analysing Educational Reforms In Pakistan, Naureen Durrani, Anjum Halai

Office of the Provost

This paper analyses the role of national level reforms in the school curriculum and initial teacher education in gender justice in conflict-affected Pakistan, using a multidisciplinary framework applied to multiple data sets from selected teacher education institutions in Sindh. The school curriculum texts analysed potentially perpetuate gender injustice and foster conflict. While teacher education reforms offer the potential for transformative gender justice, gender remains peripheral in initial teacher education curriculum. Furthermore, institutional practices entrench gendered norms. Lecturers’ and teachers’ limited understanding of their role and capacity for transformative gender justice pose challenges to education for gender justice, social cohesion and …

Introduction To Jesuit Pedagogy In Colonial Brazil. Humanist Education And The Ratio Studiorum, Karl M. Lorenz

Education Faculty Publications

In 1599 the Society of Jesus approved the Ratio atque Institutio Studiorum Societatis lesu (Method and System of the Studies of the Society of Jesus). The document outlined policies and procedures on the administration, curriculum and teaching practices in its educational institutions in Europe and abroad. Part of the Ratio detailed a secondary program of studies in classical languages and literature. The subject of this study is the program of humane letters and the focus of the analysis is the professional behavior of the Jesuit teacher responsible for its implementation. This paper identifies the actions that a Brazilian Jesuit would …

Cyaf374: Purposeful Planning—Reflection And Practice In Enriching Students’ Lesson Design, Kelley Buchheister

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This portfolio documents my process of embracing, modeling, and implementing reflective teaching practices to enhance the lesson designs of my prospective early childhood professionals in CYAF374: Curriculum Planning in Early Childhood. Throughout this project I attended to and applied five critical components emphasized in the peer review of teaching project and integrated these ideas within the foundational elements of Japanese lesson study in order to implement instructional practices that would benefit my students. These five elements are extensively discussed throughout the portfolio on multiple levels: (a) understanding the role of reflective practice, (b) identifying goals through backward design, (c) outlining …

Best Laid Plans: How Community College Student Success Courses Work, Deryl K. Hatch, Naomi Mardock-Uman, Crystal E. Garcia, Mary Johnson

Department of Educational Administration: Faculty Publications

Objective: Beyond understanding whether first-year student success interventions in community colleges are effective—for which there is mixed evidence in the literature—this study’s purpose was to uncover how they work to realize observed outcomes, including at times unanticipated undesirable outcomes.

Method: This qualitative multiple case study used cultural historical activity theory (CHAT) to unpack interactions and tensions among programmatic-level features and individual-level experiences and actions. We conducted classroom observation, document analysis, and interviews with instructors and students in four student success courses across diverse contexts.

Results: Regardless of particular designs and course emphases, we found in all cases a blurring of …

Teaching Data Literacy For Civic Engagement: Resources For Data Capture And Organization, Brandon T. Locke, Jason A. Heppler

Criss Library Faculty Publications

Endangered Data Week emerged in the early months of 2017 as an effort to encourage conversations about government-produced, open data and the many factors that can limit its access. The event offers an internationally-coordinated series of events that includes publicizing the availability of datasets, increasing critical engagement with them, encouraging open data policies at all levels of government, and the fostering of data skills through workshops on curation, documentation and discovery, improved access, and preservation. The reflection provides an outline of the curriculum development happening through Endangered Data Week and encourages others to contribute.

Three Decades Of Universal Design - Defining Moments, Margaret Kinsella

Articles

This paper contributes to the growing research on incorporating Universal Design in the Higher Education landscape by presenting a Practitioner's Perspective on Universal Design as delivered in the Institute of Technology, Blanchardstown (ITB) in the first year of a creative digital media degree as part of the first year experience. This first year experience is a transition time for many students and has many complexities; while being an exciting and fulfilling time, the transition can also be challenging and isolating. Through Universal Design, the aim is to enable students to 'Get connected' and 'Stay connected'. Universal Design for Learning is …

Fostering Giftedness And Creativity: Implementing Engineering By Design In Kuwait, Nathan Mentzer, Philip A. Reed, Meshari Alnouri, Mohammad Barbarji

STEMPS Faculty Publications

The article offers information on a partnership between the International Technology & Engineering Educators Association (ITEEA) and the Sabah Al Ahmad Center for Giftedness and Creativity (SACGC) to support innovation and design education. The partnership is aimed towards the implementation of the Engineering byDesign (EbD) curriculum and contribute towards building a Kuwaiti society that fosters giftedness and creativity.

Diversity And Cultural Competence In The Lis Classroom: A Curriculum Audit, J. A. Jacobs, Nicole A. Cooke

Faculty Publications

In a case study examining a library and information science graduate curriculum, 18 graduate students engaged in a comprehensive diversity audit of the School of Information Science curriculum. The diversity audit was a student-generated review of 108 syllabi and permitted students to engage in an action-learning project that benefited the school and allowed them, and the school’s faculty, to see first-hand why diversity and cultural competence are important facets of library and information science curricula.

Innovation And Tradition: A Survey Of Intellectual Property And Technology Legal Clinics, Cynthia L. Dahl, Victoria F. Phillips

All Faculty Scholarship

For artists, nonprofits, community organizations and small-business clients of limited means, securing intellectual property rights and getting counseling involving patent, copyright and trademark law are critical to their success and growth. These clients need expert IP and technology legal assistance, but very often cannot afford services in the legal marketplace. In addition, legal services and state bar pro bono programs have generally been ill-equipped to assist in these more specialized areas. An expanding community of IP and Technology clinics has emerged across the country to meet these needs. But while law review articles have described and examined other sectors of …