Decker F. Walker - Böcker

One of the educationist’s major concerns today is to find effective ways of translating new goals for the curriculum into classroom practices. American and British contributions analyse curriculum change as it actually occurs, with people, institutions and constraints of time and money acknowledged and accepted as a necessary and rightful part of the whole process. Detailed accounts are given of curriculum change in a wide variety of settings: American and English school systems, a college of education, an art curriculum project, Scottish classrooms. Analytic perspectives are employed that help to clarify the underlying forces at work. The contributors probe the adequacy of current theorizing about curriculum development, and suggest new ways of thinking about the problems involved in bringing about change.

One of the educationist’s major concerns today is to find effective ways of translating new goals for the curriculum into classroom practices. American and British contributions analyse curriculum change as it actually occurs, with people, institutions and constraints of time and money acknowledged and accepted as a necessary and rightful part of the whole process. Detailed accounts are given of curriculum change in a wide variety of settings: American and English school systems, a college of education, an art curriculum project, Scottish classrooms. Analytic perspectives are employed that help to clarify the underlying forces at work. The contributors probe the adequacy of current theorizing about curriculum development, and suggest new ways of thinking about the problems involved in bringing about change.

Graduate students and teachers of introductory graduate courses in curriculum have many textbooks to choose from. What is special about Fundamentals of Curriculum: Passion and Professionalism, Second Edition?Content and approach: Clear, focused, and tightly structured, this text provides essential information and resources education professionals need to effectively deal with the urgent and important curriculum problems they face in schools today. Part I ("Perspectives") looks at curriculum from five fundamental perspectives: curriculum work, traditions of curriculum practice, curriculum theories, curriculum reforms, and curriculum studies. Part II ("Practice") applies these perspectives to important curriculum challenges that arise when people try to improve curriculums in schools and classrooms. Chapter features: Each chapter opens with a thought-provoking quotation and a set of guiding questions, and ends with "Questions and Projects" and "Further Studies" essays that recommend readings, Web resources, and other ways to study more about the topic. Distinctive qualities:Comprehensive. Readers are acquainted with the major schools of thought, value systems, lines of activity, and forms of inquiry in the field. Rigorous. The most rigorous research and scholarship on curriculum questions is cited and described; research and scholarship are used to ground discussions of curriculum questions; readers are introduced to the considerations involved in doing rigorous studies of curriculum questions. Practical. First, the focus is on curriculum practice. Theory, research, and other important facets of curriculum studies are presented as vitally important to practice, but the primary subject is what teachers and others do that students experience. Second, the text is practical in a more philosophical sense, taking the fundamental questions of curriculum studies to be practical questions and the primary task of curriculum inquiry to be informing decisions about what to do. Professional. Curriculum matters are approached professionally both in the sense that the text is designed to prepare readers for professional roles doing curriculum work, and also in the moral and ethical sense that attention is paid throughout the book to the responsibility of curriculum professionals in the public schools to serve the public interest. New in the Second Edition: The essential message and basic structure of the first edition is preserved, but the text has been significantly reworked to be: *leaner and simpler--the number of chapters is reduced from 13 to nine and the number of pages reduced almost as much; *more tightly focused on the ideas, arguments, and examples that are essential learning for anyone entering the study of curriculum--chapters less central to the primary concerns of curriculum professionals and scholars have been cut; *throughly updated and strengthened as an introduction to research and scholarship in curriculum studies--many new excellent studies have been integrated, and examples, references, and recommended readings included; and *more direct--the practical, professional message that is the book's main message is more clearly articulated.

The revised Fifth Edition 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, the authors deal with fundamental contemporary issues of curriculum theory and instructional practice. Providing realistic case studies that inspire pre-service teachers to grapple with the issues of curriculum and aims in the context of classroom situations, the new edition features: a new case study on Education and Equity: Closing the Achievement Gap and 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.