Curriculum Landscapes and Trends

Curriculum problems are everywhere: alert observers with a practiced eye and educated mind will find it almost impossible to read a newspaper without discovering curricular issues. The media often report about educational reforms or even about curriculum wars with opposing parties fiercely debating the aims, content and organization of learning. Few people analyze these trends and discussions from a curricular conceptual framework. In addition, people sometimes think that their curriculum approaches and problems are unique and context-specific. However, international experience shows us that we can learn a lot from curriculum issues elsewhere.
This book aims to sharpen the eyes and minds of a broader audience in identifying, understanding, addressing and reflecting upon curriculum problems. It also aims to contribute to the increased exchange, discussion and reflection on all the current curriculum problems that form such a crucial part of learning worldwide.

1. Curriculum Perspectives: An Introduction. - 2. Contrasting Traditions: The English Experience of Curriculum Change 1960 2000. - 3. Images of the Inquiry Curriculum: Innovative Profiles of Primary Schools in Germany. - 4. Curriculum Reform in Israel: The Power of Individuals and Other Forces. - 5. Dutch Secondary Curriculum Reform Between Ideals and Implementation. - 6. Mathematics Textbooks and Their Use by Teachers: A Window Into the Education World of Particular Countries. - 7. Implications of the Modular Curriculum in the Senior Secondary School in Finland. - 8. Efforts to Implement an Open Environmental Education Curriculum. - 9. Substantive Trends in Curriculum Design and Implementation: An Analysis of Innovations in the Netherlands. - 10. Social and Political Factors in the Process of Curriculum Change. - 11. Curriculum Development from a technical-Professional Perspective. - 12. ICT Tools for Curriculum Development. - 13. Consequences of ICT for Aims, Contents, Processes, and Environments of Learning. - 14. Digital Learning Materials: Classification and Implications for the Curriculum. - About the Authors.