Curriculum Restructuring Research Articles

The Role of Planet Earth in the New Science Curriculum

Earth science is very poorly represented in the nation's science curriculum. The two major science curriculum restructuring projects inadequately present planet Earth in their major understandings. The earth sciences, in turn, have undergone radical changes in the past 20 years resulting in a conceptual shift to what is being called the Earth System. Earth System concepts must be infused throughout the nation's science curriculum. The Earth System, in fact, could very well serve as the conceptual framework upon which to base the entire K-12 science curriculum as the new integrated science curricula evolve. For this to happen, there must be a more accurate understanding of the nature of science among the nation's science-curriculum builders, a better understanding of the naive theories about the Earth System that children bring to the classroom, and adequate resources allocated to the study of science in the nation's schools. Hanging in the balance is a science, political and business leadership, that is e...

Redesigning courses and textbooks for the twenty-first century

There is evidence that a confluence of pressures to change the current physics syllabus is building from many sources. Texts for science and engineering students do not usually have much contemporary physics content. There is a need to update textbooks to include areas of current interest in physics research, to include important facets of 20th-century physics that have gone virtually unnoticed in the present generation of physics textbooks. The consequence of additions of topics must be restructuring of the physics curriculum and may lead to corresponding deletions among topics presently discussed.

History in Crisis: Crisis Management through Curriculum Planning

THE PURPOSE OF THIS PAPER is to argue that a bold restructuring of curriculum is a more effective response to critical problems posed to undergraduate history teaching than stoic resignation,1 piecemeal course innovations, and minor tinkering with requirements that have constituted reactions of most universities. The program planning that is advocated seeks to avoid that back-and-forth movement between structuring and freedom of choice that has a long history. Phyllis Keller recently called it the Great Game of Academe, endless reinvention of curricular wheel (which of course keeps coming full circle), or to change metaphor, perpetual shuttle between extremes of prescription and permissiveness.2 It does so by carefully reformulating curriculum objectives and aims for courses at different program levels, by using methodology courses as core courses, drawing upon present ferment in discipline, especially on-going debates on methods and ends, as a teaching tool. Such far-reaching reform necessitates reflection and discussion of how and why of undergraduate teaching and, in our case, led to changes in teaching methods. The argument presented here is based on recent experience of history department of Universit6 Laval, Canada's leading francophone university, where out of a total student enrollment of over 30,000, some 300 undergraduates take history majors and honors programs. After long discussions, both programs were radically reformed in 1979.3

The Curricula in the Reform of Secondary Education: The Case of Philosophy

At the end of the year an important congress took place in Turin on the "Restructuring of the Curricula in Higher Secondary School" on the background of the Tecnodidattica ′78, an international exhibition of teaching materials and equipment.

The Beginnings of Curricular Reform: The Reports "Fifteen to Eighteen" and "Half our Future"

Late in 1959, the Ministry of Education published a report on the situation of youth between the ages of 15 and 18. (89) The focus of the study, also known as the Crowther Report after the chairman of the committee authoring it (90), was the age group that was past the compulsory school age, a large segment of which was already gainfully employed with no further contact with formal education. The report, which contained important reform proposals on the organizational and curricular restructuring of the secondary school system, focused upon the following task, spelled out by the minister: "to consider the education of boys and girls between ages 15 and 18 in relation to the changing social and industrial needs of our society and the needs of its individual citizens, and in particular to consider the balance between these ages at various levels of general and specialized studies and to examine the interrelationship of the various stages of education." (91)

Task analysis in health manpower development and utilization.

Job analysis and tast analysis are systems methods which examine the functions of individuals and allocate these functions into job descriptions which can make for a better utilization of health manpower by a restructuring of the jobs of health professionals and a restructuring of curricula as a reflection of the jobs to be performed. These analytic methods have had limited application to the health field. This methodology was applied to the education of a nonphysician family health team for an inner-city prepaid comprehensive health center and staff development at a health maintenance organization, and has served as the basis for the curriculum of an associate degree physician's assistant program and a baccalaureate degree health associate program. Among the advantages for the application of this method are the interrelationship of resulting jobs rather than isolation and career mobility in both the work situation and curricula. Constraints include the lack of entry level jobs, the prestige of the Bachelor's Degree, the need for proficiency tests for advanced standing, tuition costs, and the traditional attitudes of health agencies on release time and educational institutions on basic requirements.

"Society as a Factory"

Social Sciences in modern China are transformed from purely academic disciplines into strategic studies of manipulated change. In this transformation, social scientists are no longer professionally trained elites but voluntary workers engaged in the 'sacred' task of implementing Maoist policies and programmes. The process of change involves substantive restructuring of curricula, research methodology and goals of social science education. In its totality, it is neither a Marxist-Leninist experiment nor a Soviet-type socialistic reform. The Maoist approach has to be understood strictly in terms of its Chinese context. It reveals dilemmas of continuity and change, relative to the higher-order structure of Chinese values. These dilemmas persist in the current 'revolutionary reforms" of social sciences. This paper is part of a larger research project on Higher Education in China.

Towards Restructuring Library and Information Science Curricula for the Challenges of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Environment in Nigeria

This paper deals with restructuring of library and information science curriculum for the challenge of ICT environment. The paper highlights the following areas: conceptual framework, qualities of Library and Information Science curriculum, rationale for restructuring library and information science curriculum, areas in library and information science curriculum that requires changes, rolls of National Association of Library and Information Science Educators (NALISE), Nigerian Library Association (NLA), Librarians Registration Council of Nigeria (LRCN) and other related bodies in restructuring of library and information science curriculum. The following Information Communication Technology (ICT) courses: electronic resources management, management of social media tools, website design and management, networks and networking, software design and management, database design and management, innovation and creativity were identified as ICT fields that can be integrated into the curriculum. The paper reveals that the curricula of most library schools in Nigeria examined do not contain some ICT components that are relevant to librarians in training for them to be effective in the modern society. The implication of the paper is that heads of library schools in Nigeria should identify the loop-holes in the curricula and take pragmatic measures in reviewing and restructuring the curriculum for library and information science education professional that can deliver in ICT dominated society.Key words: Library Science, Library School, Information Science, Curriculum, ICT Environment