<p><font face="Times-Roman" size="3"><font face="Times-Roman" size="3"> <p align="left">The purpose of this study was therefore to address the following primary research question: &lsquo / What effect would a specially designed, developed, implemented and evaluated Material Science (MS) course have on serving teachers in terms of their perceptions and knowledge/understanding regarding content in MS and instructional practice in D&amp / T?&rsquo / </p> </font></font></p>

The purpose of this study was to examine the manifestations of curriculum change on organizational culture of a primary school, with a specific focus on the culture of teachers. In this study, phenomenological design was used to investigate what meanings teachers attached to the changing nature and structure of their work, through the examination of the organizational culture of one primary school located in Ankara. Data were collected through face-to-face semi-structured teacher interviews aiming to find out the meaning of curriculum change and its manifestations on teacher culture for them. Findings revealed that although teachers perceived the change as a threat at the initiation process due to their experiencing lack of choice, they later expressed approval of the values and beliefs of the constructivist curriculum. However, when their meanings and perceptions regarding implementation are examined, it seems that the constraints regarding implementation are more decisive than these values and beliefs. Besides, it was found that teachers mostly defined factors outside them as constraints to their implementation of the curriculum, such as physical limitations or insufficient in-service training. Finally, findings showed that the working lives of teachers outside the classroom manifested change especially in aspects like lesson planning and preparation, and cooperation among teachers.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Wollongong, 2009. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references: leaf 203-213.

This research project examines whether the new 4-year curriculum is for local student development in the future and internationalization is the primary espouse of the reform. 8 in-depth interviews were conducted in five local universities. Student development is framed from a multi-functional mindset in which students get exposed to all kinds of possibilities, expand their intellectual thinking and capabilities as well as become self-reflective. There are changes in student demographics, workplace environment, social convergence and intercultural tolerance. The urge of graduates with global mindset, higher-order thinking and multiple skill sets is geographically indivisible. In elaborating on the findings, internationalization is one of the factors leading to student all-roundedness, the centrality of the curriculum reform. Realizing that there was learning experience re-conceptualization, participants evaluated the reform tended to be structural and administrative. There is little spared time for university teachers’ inspirations on students inside or even outside classrooms. But governmental and institutional foci are still put on more research than teaching in which participants were disheartened. A structural change could help little. In a long run, a revolution on the university teaching to wholly facilitate student development is vitally essential. To inspire students to be self-reflective and have sustainable growth, university teaching staff needs time for inspiring works and interdisciplinary co-operations. Too many research and administrative burdens hinders teaching practices, even though teachers are passionate. It is time for the government, UGC, universities and individual professors to put all small pieces together and make the current reform in a more holistic way. / published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

The purpose of this study is to ascertain, from a review and analysis of the literature, if any key messages emerge within which curriculum reconstruction of primary science education in South Africa can be undertaken. Firstly, three paradigms in education are equated with three philosophies of science and the compatibility of modes of inquiry are highlighted. It is argued that paradigms can be used as a form of analysis to locate particular approaches to the teaching and learning of science. Thereafter, an overview of major trends in science education is provided. The various views of and approaches to science education are analysed and located within particular paradigms. In order to assist in such analyses, a conceptual framework is developed. This draws on key determinants of curriculum development and locates these within each of the three paradigms. The framework is applied to a review and analysis of international emphases in primary science education, within which five different perspectives are identified. These are located within different paradigms. Science education in developing countries is considered thereafter and some recent trends in primary science curriculum development in South Africa are examined. It is shown that the recent syllabus revision process and the revised syllabuses in South Africa are still located in a technical approach to curriculum development. In seeking an alternative approach, the weaknesses of imported ready made solutions from more developed contexts are highlighted, and an exploration of alternative approaches that are more responsive to local contexts is then undertaken. Some innovative examples of curriculum development in other parts of Africa and South Africa are examined. From the review and analysis a set of key messages emerge for curriculum development in primary science education. In selecting appropriate programmes, it is vital that attention is given to children's' existing abilities and ideas, to the expected role for science in society, and to a particular society's values and norms. Material provision, of itself, does not bring about meaningful change, and teachers can and should be involved in the production of teaching materials. Another key message is that it is crucial for teachers to be involved in curriculum decision making, although they may need inservice support to make this possible. Approaches to inservice education must therefore give due consideration to this, and to developing classroom based teaching competencies. Finally, attention is given to some of the factors which may contribute to systemic change in science education. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of Natal, 1996.

This study is an exploration of power and how it is manifested in curriculum making. More specifically, it examines the responses of actors in the physics curriculum network to a proposal to introduce a Physics, Technology and Society (PTS) version of physics in the secondary schools of Bahrain. The proposal to introduce PTS created a point of entry to explore issues of power in curriculum making and highlight some of the strategies that actors used to maintain or reconstruct power relations. Data collection consisted of three phases during which interviews were conducted with Ministry of Education personnel, university physicists and physics educators, physics teachers, university and secondary students, and industry representatives. Interviews focused on responses to: 1) an example of PTS materials (Phase One); 2) the views of other actors (Phase Two); and 3) the Ministry's decision to proceed with piloting of the PTS materials (Phase Three). From Actor-Network Theory (ANT), the responses of the various actors can be understood in terms of their efforts to maintain or reconstruct the school physics network. Furthermore, the study shows that curriculum making can be seen as a networking process in which the success of the various actors is linked to the size and strength of the networks they are able to mobilize to their position. From this point of view, the Ministry, drawing primarily on local networks, is seen to move cautiously in response to the extensive international network which university physicists maintain and which provides high status pathways for students. Power relations are network effects, and in exploring them one gains a better appreciation of the network that constructed them. Therefore, this study illuminates aspects of the school physics network, revealing its constituent actors, the strength of the links between some of its actors, and the establishment of the curriculum as an obligatory passage point. Conclusions pertaining to the nature of this network and the strategies employed by actors in constructing and maintaining power relations as they engaged in negotiating the physics curriculum are drawn. Finally, these conclusions have implications for policy in curriculum change and, more specifically, for addressing issues of power and problems that emerge when fundamental changes in secondary science are introduced.

The purpose of this study is to understand why and how media education became legitimate in the Ontario educational system in the 1980s. The theoretical focus is on how a new social movement (the new social movement in Ontario) led to the legitimation of a new social curriculum (the media education program). This study on media education in Ontario is contextualized in the epochal shift to the information society. Adopting the approach of historical sociology, it documents the influence of those social forces which gave rise to media education and investigates how key individuals brought media education into schools. In the 1970s and 1980s, the societal shift brought with it rapid development in media technologies and induced new social tensions. This study finds that the conceptualization of the mass media as "invisible curriculum," the ideology of techno-cultural nationalism and the moral controversy over media sex and violence directed public attention to the importance of media literacy. The media literacy movement in Ontario subsequently placed media education in the formal school curriculum. Legitimating media education can be regarded as a social and educational response to the technological changes in the information age. This study also indicates that less powerful groups in the community and the educational field were able to put a body of low-status knowledge into the formal school curriculum. In order to analyze the process from social movement to subject formation, a theoretical framework is put forward identifying strong justification, effective lobbying, proper positioning and unofficial support for curriculum-building as the four key elements for legitimating a new social curriculum. Instead of justifying media education in terms of utilitarian and academic values, the advocates emphasized the pragmatic solution provided by the new curriculum to social problems. The manipulation of public support by creating a "climate of opinion" was vital to the success of lobbying. "Subject inhabitancy" was an effective way to find a curricular niche for a new social curriculum. Finally, the advocates' support for the curriculum development and implementation played an important role in strengthening the government's confidence in mandating a new program.

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