This study examined how student achievement data are used to guide the development of curriculum documents in public school districts and within a commercial curriculum supplier. Two research questions guided this study: (a) How do public school districts in Central Texas use formative and summative assessment data to inform the written curriculum, and (b) how do commercially produced curricular programs use formative and summative assessment data to inform the written curriculum? A qualitative multiple-case study included curriculum developers from public school districts and a commercial entity. Data included semistructured interviews with curriculum developers from each organization as well as an extensive document review from each entity. The data were coded according to first-level coding and pattern coding. These themes were then analyzed through pattern matching and cross-case analysis. The research revealed that formative and summative assessment data were used to guide the development of the written curriculum in terms of guiding vertical alignment, determining the scope and sequence of the curricular content, adding specificity to the curriculum documents, identifying and correcting curriculum gaps, guiding development of formative assessment, and adapting to state and national change. In addition, the organizations utilized available resources in curriculum development and created a culture of data-rich dialogue. Findings also revealed that the ability of curriculum developers to use assessment data to inform the written curriculum is impacted greatly by organizational size and capacity. Sustainability of organizations to maintain a comprehensive, aligned curriculum is influenced by the rate of change coming from the state and national level. In conclusion, districts need to develop or obtain a guaranteed and viable curriculum that is strategically planned, comprehensive and aligned, as well as shaped by assessment data. The research reinforced that how data are created, presented, and used is important. Data sources need to be valid and reliable and shared in a risk-free culture that allows educators to move beyond elementary data uses to use data to inform the written curriculum as an integral part of school improvement. / text

While Western science education has always been ubiquitous in the Canadian educational system and society, many researchers have recognized the scientific and educational values of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK). This study aims to contribute to the understanding of TEK and the integration of TEK into science curricula. The prevalence and representation of TEK in grades 7 and 8 official science curriculum documents used in Canada were examined. To describe TEK in the documents, both quantitative and qualitative content analyses were conducted. The results show the high variation of the prevalence and representations of TEK. Overall, Nunavut and Saskatchewan show the highest prevalence and representation of TEK in their curriculum documents, which could establish a benchmark for developing a national learning framework for integrating TEK.

The research described in this report was undertaken with four teachers of English as Home Language in two different secondary schools in Johannesburg. The researcher’s purpose was twofold: (i) to uncover the attitudes of selected grade nine teachers to the English Home Language curriculum statement for grade nine; (ii) to establish how, if at all, the Revised National Curriculum Statement featured in the teachers’ construction of the subject English as home language. The data for this case study consisted of individual teacher interviews, notes from observations in the classroom of each teacher and artefacts such as teachers’ term plans and examples of learners’ texts. Findings from an analysis of this data indicate varied understandings of and attitudes towards this curriculum statement. These have translated into equally varied implementation of the curriculum. Analysis of the teachers’ interviews gave little indication of the rich and varied learning activities that they planned and implemented. In this case study, the difference between how teachers talked about the new curriculum and how they enacted it in their classroom practice was marked.

While Western science education has always been ubiquitous in the Canadian educational system and society, many researchers have recognized the scientific and educational values of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK). This study aims to contribute to the understanding of TEK and the integration of TEK into science curricula. The prevalence and representation of TEK in grades 7 and 8 official science curriculum documents used in Canada were examined. To describe TEK in the documents, both quantitative and qualitative content analyses were conducted. The results show the high variation of the prevalence and representations of TEK. Overall, Nunavut and Saskatchewan show the highest prevalence and representation of TEK in their curriculum documents, which could establish a benchmark for developing a national learning framework for integrating TEK.

While Western science education has always been ubiquitous in the Canadian educational system and society, many researchers have recognized the scientific and educational values of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK). This study aims to contribute to the understanding of TEK and the integration of TEK into science curricula. The prevalence and representation of TEK in grades 7 and 8 official science curriculum documents used in Canada were examined. To describe TEK in the documents, both quantitative and qualitative content analyses were conducted. The results show the high variation of the prevalence and representations of TEK. Overall, Nunavut and Saskatchewan show the highest prevalence and representation of TEK in their curriculum documents, which could establish a benchmark for developing a national learning framework for integrating TEK.

This dissertation is based on a survey carried out in a particular Prague high school with both sports classes students and universal classes students. It is also based on school curriculum documents analysis. The author's aim was to reveal how a first aid issue is being dealt at this particular school. As well as find out the level of knowledge in first aid area both types of students possess. The last but not least goal was analysing students answers and evaluating whether there are differences between sports students' knowledge and universal students' knowledge. At the end the author will attempt to deduce practical advice out of all collected facts. Key words First Aid, School Curriculum Documents, Survey

Food insecurity is on the rise worldwide and within Canada due to a myriad of factors such as climatic instability, rising food prices and unsustainable food production practices. In this context, educational systems (e.g. schools and universities) can contribute to developing knowledge and awareness of food insecurity as well as fostering new ways of thinking and engaging with food premised on just and sustainable food systems. This study is situated within the field of environmental education where there is a growing body of research at the intersections of food and the environment. Likewise, it was guided by the theoretical framing of EcoJustice Education, which offers a way of teaching and learning premised on the belief that our thoughts and actions can foster and enhance more social and ecologically equitable connections between food and the environment. By engaging in semi-structured interviews with teacher educators in select teacher education programs in Ontario and conducting document reviews, I investigated how the integration of the topic of food security is taking place—or not—in the initial training of future teachers in the province. The results showed that integration is not consistent across the different organizational levels of the programs investigated (i.e. whole-program level and classroom level). Moreover, the interviews with teacher educators revealed that any practices aiming at the integration of food security topics in BEd programs were primarily guided by a sustainable cultures perspective, which sees the world as having interconnected relationships amongst all living things. This view is supported by the data analysis of interviews with teacher educators, the Ontario Ministry of Education curriculum documents, and select course syllabi. On the other hand, the school curriculum documents contained conflicting views on the topic, including an understanding of the world as being based on hierarchized relationships. This research advances the field of environmental education by further adding to the limited scholarship on the topic of food security in the context of EE, as well as contributing to an account of food security education and EE with a focus on teacher education in Ontario.

(in English): This Diploma work is examining the relation between contemporary social conceptions and aims of education how these are expressed by curriculum documents mainly in Czech Republic. But this relation is not the case of easy and unidirectional impact of social knowledge to educational science. That is why the first part of this thesis is focused on four important postmodern philosophical and sociological concepts differently delimiting as distinct from modern society. General overview of contemporary society change characteristics proceeding from these analyses is the basis of rather different ways of pedagogical thinking followings. With three pedagogical conceptions simultaneously present in nowadays pedagogical discourse, but originally emerged in different eras and different social backgrounds I am trying to point to considerable antinomy demands on present aims of education. I am delineating which phrasings of social reality the contemporary Czech educational policy is rising from. I am stating that the reduction of social reality as background of education in general can lead to formation of ambivalences in suggested educational policy solutions. Finally this diploma work is trying to put forward brief proposals for solution of these new problems of education.

Orientador: Marcelo Carbone Carneiro / Banca: Fernanda Aparecida Meglhioratti / Banca: Jehud Bortolozzi / Banca: Marcos Rodrigues da Silva / Banca: Osmar Cavassan / Resumo: A tese foi desenvolvida buscando identificar os elementos necessários para uma compreensão da visão biológica sobre a natureza, numa perspectiva histórica e filosófica. Foi realizado um estudo teórico fundamentado no pensamento materialista dialético, visando identificar as principais questões que sustentam a biologia, considerando a sua história de construção e o olhar da filosofia da ciência sobre ela. Fez-se um levantamento documental principalmente nas fontes secundárias sobre a história e filosofia da biologia, também em algumas fontes primárias. Tendo realizada esta etapa, fez-se uma análise do conteúdo disciplinar dos Parâmetros Curriculares Nacionais do Ensino Médio (PCNEM), PCNEM+ e as Orientações Curriculares. O estudo foi direcionado por três questões: Quais são os elementos que caracterizam a biologia como tal ao longo da sua construção? Como estes elementos se caracterizam e se articulam? Os documentos curriculares oficiais consideram estes elementos na sua formulação? Como resultado, é trazida a história das ideias sobre os seres vivos na Antiguidade à Idade Média, sendo possível identificar algumas das questões que a biologia veio a se debruçar nos séculos seguintes. Em seguida, enfatiza-se a mudança ocorrida na visão de mundo na Idade Moderna que se opôs a Escolástica e suas implicações na organizaçãoda ciência que culminou na Revolução Científica. O século XIX marca o surgimento da biologia enquanto ciência. No início do século alguns ramos já se configuravam, porém ainda vinculados com a filosofia da natureza. Constitui-se a partir daí um olhar específico sobre a natureza considerando-se três teorias principais: teoria celular, teoria do equilíbrio interno e a teoria da seleção natural e origens das espécies. Duas perspectivas centrais se estruturaram, uma Mecanicista e outra Histórica, as quais sustentaram ... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: The thesis was developed in order to identify the elements necessary for an understanding of biological vision about the nature, historical and philosophical perspective. We conducted a theoretical study based on dialectical materialist thought, to identify the key issues underpinning biology, considering its history of construction and look at the philosophy of science about it. There was a documentary survey mainly on secondary sources on the history and philosophy of biology, also in some primary sources. Having performed this step, there was a review of disciplinary content of National Curriculum of Secondary Education (PCNEM) PCNEM + and Curriculum guidelines. The study walked directed by three questions: What are the elements that characterize the biology as such throughout its construction? How these elements are characterized and articulate? Documents of curriculum consider these elements in its formulation? As a result, it brought the history of ideas on living in antiquity to the Middle Ages, it is possibile to identify some of the questions that biology came to look over the following centuries. Then, we seek to emphasize the change in worldview in the modern era who opposed scholasticism and its implications to the science that culminated in the Scientific Revolution. The nineteenth century marks the emergence of biology as a science. At the beginning of the century there were already some branches, but still tied to the philosophy of nature. It consists from there a specific look on nature by considering three main theories: cell theory, theory of internal equilibrium and the theory of natural selection and origin of species. Two central perspectives are structured, a Mechanistic and another Historic, which ... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Doutor

The thesis is focused on the analysis of the Scottish education system in the context of community education. The thesis focuses on the analysis of the educational system in terms of structure and curriculum documents and analyzes the conception of community education. Great emphasis is placed on linking community education with the school. Work is supplemented with a content analysis of school - political and curricular documents that form the basic theoretical framework for practice. These documents are also an inspiration for the creation of similar documents in the Czech Republic. Conducted content analysis summarizes theoretical information and highlights the importance of community planning and cooperation in the community education. The results of this study allow to dissemination of the Czech comparative pedagogy and contribute to the debate on the conception of community education in the Czech Republic.