Curriculum

Regression and neural network models of wage determination are constructed where the explanatory variables include detailed information about the impact of school curricula on future earnings. It is established that there are strong nonlinearities and interaction effects present in the relationship between curriculum and earnings. The results have important implications in the context of the human capital versus signalling and screening debate. They also throw light on contemporary policy issues concerning the desirability of breadth versus depth in the school curriculum

Road Maps: a guide to learning system dynamics

MIT System Dynamics Education Project developed Road Maps, a series of self-guides, modeling and selected literature to help students and teachers learn the principles of system dynamics. This site is part of that project, and provides listings of articles and othe webpages containing discussion of Road Maps publications. Road Maps are a series of self-guides that use modeling exercises and selected literature to provide a resource for learning about the principles and practices of system dynamics. Educational levels: High school, Middle school, Undergraduate lower division, Undergraduate upper division

The story of a physiclal science curriculum: transformation or transmutation?

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in African Journal of Research in Mathematics, Science and Technology Education on 20 Aug 2013, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/10288457.2012.10740745.Recently Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statements (CAPS) were introduced in South Africa in response to confusion precipitated by previous curriculum documents. The purpose of this paper is to explore that confusion in the subject 'Physical Sciences' and consider the nature of the transformation from the previous curriculum by looking at curriculum documents and examination papers. We present a two phase curriculum change model which suggests that congruency between curriculum documents and examinations is critical for effective curriculum change. We analyse the pre-CAPS curriculum, the National Curriculum Statement (NCS), on its own terms by using the stated outcomes as our reference point. Our analysis reveals that the weighting and conceptualization of the outcomes shifted through successive documents, which undermined congruency between the documents and meant that content-oriented science masqueraded as inquiry-oriented science. This led to a retreat from the original vision of weighting skills and relevance equally with content. The examinations took this retreat a step further. Evidence of the retreat is that the nature of the questions asked in the 2008 examinations on the NCS was similar to that of the 2007 examinations on the previous curriculum which had not changed since apartheid. However, in the NCS examinations there was a small shift towards contextualisation and inquiry oriented science. The retreat means the vision of transformation which was the rationale for the NCS curriculum was eroded – instead of transformation, there was transmutation back to the old apartheid curriculum. The Physical Sciences CAPS cements the retreat and creates new confusion by changing the syllabus again without signposting the change

The context of contemporary curriculum change.

The aim of this paper is to provide an introduction to the broad field of curriculum change, with the focus being on school curriculum. The first part of the paper provides a brief overview of curriculum change in New Zealand at the national level. In the early years of a state system of schooling, curriculum revision was highly centralised, giving way in recent decades to a wider involvement of stakeholders. The second part examines how national curriculum implementation in schools involves input from the state and schools; in particular, reference is made to a greater emphasis upon school-based curriculum development. It is argued that to achieve greater teacher involvement in school-level decisions, ongoing professional development of teachers is necessary

Freshwater Macroinvertebrates

The purpose of this resource is to sample, identify, and count macroinvertebrates at a Hydrology Site. Students collect, sort, identify, and count macroinvertebrates from habitats at their site. Educational levels: Middle school, High school, Intermediate elementary, Primary elementary

Reinspection of curriculum areas 1996-97: report from the Inspectorate

FEFC INSPECTION REPORT 109/97 REINSPECTION OF CURRICULUM AREAS, OCTOBER 1996 TO MAY 1997 The Council has agreed that colleges with curriculum areas judged by the inspectorate to have more weaknesses than strengths (grades 4 or 5) may have their funding agreement with the Council qualified to prevent them increasing the number of new students enrolled in those areas until the Council is satisfied that the weaknesses have been addressed satisfactorily. The Council requires that colleges are given the opportunity to have curriculum areas graded 4 or 5 reinspected within a year of their original reinspection. Colleges may request the Council to defer reinspection if they do not believe that sufficient improvements in provision have been achieved. This is a report on those curriculum areas, reinspected between October 1996 and May 1997. Inspectors visited 18 colleges to reinspect 19 curriculum areas which had been judged by the inspectorate to have more weaknesses than strengths. Significant improvements were found in all but one of the curriculum areas. The reinspection grades are shown in the table below. The table also indicates those colleges with curriculum areas graded 4 or 5 which will be included in a future reinspection report