This work presents a novel and pragmatic approach to Curriculum Development by combining theoretical knowledge with expertise in the form of practical rules within a Knowledge-Based System. As a broad generalisation, the literature on Curriculum Development tends to focus on theoretical issues and fails to address the practical needs of course designers in engineering, particularly in countries with developing educational systems. The main achievements of the present research are: " demonstration that Knowledge-Based Systems can be successfully applied to Curriculum Development. Reports of Verification and Validation by experts and end-users are presented. " an innovative approach to Curriculum Development by providing course designers in engineering with sound advice concerning their specific needs (by combining built in expertise with their own data as input from the keyboard) in the subdomains of Introduction to Curriculum Development, Methods of Curriculum Content Identification, Course Structure, Learning Outcomes and Student Assessment. This approach has led to the representation of expertise through practical and numerical rules which has never been published. "a framework for building Knowledge-Based System which incorporates a novel strategy for knowledge acquisition using several experts. This was the result of devising the concepts of Boundaries, Limits, Inputs and Outputs which ensured that the size and integration of the knowledge base were kept under control and prevented the conflict of expertise. " an element for training in Curriculum Development by developing an Explanation Network which provides the end-user with concepts and principles relevant to the curriculum theory. This vehicle for training, which comes in addition to the advice given in the main consultation, is also a novel feature in the development of Knowledge-Based Systems. Indeed the research has shown that there is scope for acquiring expertise on Curriculum Development yet a wide variety of techniques of knowledge elicitation were needed to acquire specific rules from the Curriculum Development experts. The research also has demonstrated that these rules can be implemented in a portable, standalone system. The work concludes with a reflective discussion about the major findings of this research which underpins the recommendations about the use and dissemination of this Knowledge-Based ystem.

This study has taken the historical development, characteristics and students¡¦ backgrounds and life experiences of Tainan City into consideration. The researcher has chosen the Fogarty¡¦s webbed curriculum integration model to blend in ¡§glocolization¡¨ theme into the teaching curriculum. A ¡§glocolization¡¨ curriculum (consisting of a total of six units) suitable for the fourth grade students was constructed with the hope to help the students to walk out from their own life experiences to re-experience the relationship between global and local living space. A qualitative research was adopted by this study, and the fourth grade students from a class in a certain school that the researcher teaches was taken as the research subjects to implement a year of curriculum teaching. Relevant data were collected through observation, content analysis, interview, documentation, reflective notes, etc., and the data were then sorted, analyzed and cross-examined. After summarizing the research results, the paper has obtained the following conclusions and suggestions: 1. From time-space perspective, the curriculum integration design and implementation outcomes of ¡§The stories of Tainan City¡¨ are: (1) To understand the correlation between the local historical and global events; (2) the teachers must possess the abilities to self-compile and support the historical teaching materials; (3) the effectiveness and limitations on the application of Google Earth software and electronic whiteboard; (4) the use of old photographs, old maps and animation is beneficial to historical teaching; and (5) to adopt multiple assessment method to evaluate the students¡¦ awareness on historical aspect. 2. From environmental perspective, the curriculum integration design and implementation outcomes of ¡§The stories of Tainan City¡¨ are: (1) To combine the environmental issues of ¡§local¡¨ characteristics and ¡§globalization¡¨; (2) as affective are hard to evaluate, they need long-term follow-up observations; (3) field investigation is able to simulate students to care about the environment, strengthen the research depth and further enhance the students¡¦ motivation in learning; (4) to combine the community resources by inviting relevant people to perform cooperative teaching; (5) to blend in the school¡¦s major activities into the curriculum; and (6) the scaffolding learning sheet is beneficial to learners to comprehend, apply and stay focus in thinking. 3. From living perspective, the curriculum integration design and implementation outcomes of ¡§The stories of Tainan City¡¨ are: (1) Tainan¡¦s snacks have its ingenuity and cultural diversity; (2) to introduce a model of transitional Taiwan snack ¡V Zhou¡¦s Shrimp Rolls; and (3) to broadcast and review the advertising images are beneficial to help students to analyze the transformation of ¡§globalization¡¨ to ¡§glocolization¡¨. 4. From cultural perspective, the curriculum integration design and implementation outcomes of ¡§The stories of Tainan City¡¨ are: (1) The students are able to deepen their impressions on local cultural customs through physical exhibitions and sharing of personal experiences; (2) learn to respect the cultural diversity; (3) YouTube, Digital Archives, Council for Cultural Affairs and other Internet resources are beneficial to carry out teaching activities; (4) the local cultures have encountered two major crises; and (5) in response to globalization, we must begin to promote local identity first. Finally, based on the aforesaid research findings, the study has proposed relevant suggestions to educational administrative organizations, teacher training institutes, schools and future follow-up studies on curriculum design and implementation of ¡§glocolization¡¨ theme perspective. This aims to serve as a reference for educators and curriculum researchers to use in developing and integrating the ¡§glocolization¡¨ curriculum.

<p> The curriculum for Molecular Biology 3A06 aMolecular Biology Laboratorya was evaluated according to J.J. Schwab's concepts of the practical. Persons were identified whose beliefs represented the four commonplaces of Ieamer, teacher, subject matter, and milieu. These persons were consulted for their evaluation of the curriculum, using questionnaires and interview/discussions. The data were used to formulate suggestions for a revision of the course curriculum. Conclusions were drawn about the nature of the kind of deliberation which might take place in this particular setting. </p> / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

Yes / This article discusses the data obtained from an online survey of academic staff who are involved in module design and who are employed within one university. The survey was used as a baselining tool to explore the nature of current module design practice within the survey sample. Do academics consistently employ the pragmatic approaches recommended by educational developers and theorists or is module and curriculum development a more informally constructed process? By comparing the initial findings of this project with survey and interview data produced by evidence-based projects, this article suggests that module design practice is not set in stone and that we need a deeper analysis of the process of module and curriculum design in terms of social practice and socio-cultural theory in order to gain a deeper understanding of it.

Yes / This paper discusses some of the qualitative data obtained from a small number (23) of semi-structured interviews of academic staff who are involved in module design, and who are employed within one UK university. Analysing the interview transcripts produced eight main themes. One of these themes was the perceived pressures or constraints on design. Using verbatim responses given by the interviewees, a discussion of the data used to illustrate this theme compares the findings of this project with those from the existing literature.

In the global world, cultural issues relating to the subject of English as Foreign Language (EFL) have become important. This is especially the case when considering the EFL curriculum for Chinese Primary Education. Many writers have addressed the nature of curriculum design as knowledge and cultural reproduction, but usually in the North American and European literature. This research takes these debates and relocates them in the context of China as it enters a new market economy, embedded in its own version of ‘internationalism’. The 2001 national curriculum marked the beginning of China’s educational reform. From a reading of this literature, two main questions emerged: 1) what cultural values are transmitted through EFL textbooks for Chinese Primary Education?; 2) how do curriculum-making processes impact upon textbook production? The findings provide an important insight into knowledge and cultural reproduction in Chinese Education, especially in the subject of EFL. Two volumes of EFL textbooks, which were used in primary schools, were selected to examine the delivery of cultural values. Based on these initial findings, the researcher conducted a series of interviews and focus groups in order to trace the process of textbook production and curriculum creation. Participants included educational administrators in the Ministry of Education in China, curriculum designers, textbook editors from both Chinese and foreign publishers as well as classroom teachers. Research findings suggest that, the production of EFL textbooks should be recognised as a part of curriculum-making processes in the context of Chinese Primary Education. The ‘textbook’ can be seen as the ‘official’ interpretation of the Chinese culture. Indeed, the EFL curriculum is recognized as a vehicle for moral education by policy makers and educators. EFL textbooks include many moral messages promoting expected behaviour in contemporary China – ‘diligence, independence, respect and obedience, patriotism and collectivism’. The processes of generating this ‘production’ have spaces for less ‘official’ and more ‘hidden’ curriculum messages. Indeed, ‘lacunae’ – hidden spaces – in EFL curriculum design and textbook production have been identified. Various key players are involved in the curriculum-making process, including the State, its agencies, and intellectuals. However, instead of being a straight top-down structure led by the political elites, the strict control of the State over curriculum policy-making is finely nuanced. In fact, it was found that the practices of curriculum-making involve a complicated State-intellectuals partnership. Further, it is mainly the culture of the intellectual group which is reproduced through the EFL subject in Chinese Primary Education. Textbook editors and censors, inherently part of the intellectual elites, and key players in the curriculum designing process, rely heavily upon their own version of ‘common sense’. This thesis therefore concludes that the ‘hidden spaces’ through which curriculum design, development and delivery take place, generate a more nuanced understanding of Chinese cultural reproduction, than has previously been thought.

Questionnaires were sent to parents of three hundred and fourty six year 7 and 8 students attending an independent, comprehensive school. Parents were asked to indicate the nature and extent of talent they believed their child possessed. Their replies were used as the basis for the range of talents - some fifty two areas - considered in this study. The questionnaire, together with questionnaires given to students and teachers, also served to identify seventy five exceptionally talented children. The talent areas were grouped into talent 'clusters' and students representing each cluster were selected for interviews. During the interviews, parents were asked whether their son had previously been identified as exceptionally talented, and what they perceived to be the educational needs of their son. These needs were looked at in terms of the formulation of a differentiated curriculum for exceptionally talented children. The curriculum is described mainly in terms of three teaching modes traditionally associated with gifted children : grouping, acceleration and enrichment. Each of these is explored in relation to the stated needs of the students and their consequent applicability to designing curricula for these students.

This study is to investigate the factors for successful training programs in the life insurance industry. From the aspects of curriculum design, instructors¡¦ arrangements, and trainers¡¦ self-evaluation on their efforts in the training program, this study analyzed the trained and on-schedule promoted trainers to understand how much the trainers identify with the program arrangements. This study further pointed out that, on the premise of the same instructors and curriculum, the trainees¡¦ quality and how their supervisors do the mentoring determine if the training program will succeed. This study used the survey and randomly chose 180 trainees to be the research participants, with 143 valid responses. This study concludes some trainees¡¦ and their supervisors¡¦ qualities that tend to generate the training success. The qualities will be used as some referential indicators for recruitment and adjusting curriculum in the future.

Facing environmental violent changes, rapid technological development and irresistible trends towards to internationalization of enterprises, the management suffered from more competitive pressure which makes further study become an important issue. Accordingly, more and more EMBA programs are becoming the channels of further study for the top management of company. However, under the situation of over-supplied on-job education, it would be an critical issue how managers choose the courses which meets their needs and universities utilize their core competences to develop the differentiate position. Therefore, the case study and questionnaires are addressed in the thesis. First, four cases of National Taiwan University, National Cheng-chi University, National Sun Yat-sen University, and National Taiwan University of Technology were explored to delicately compare each other on courses and programs. In perspective of educational marketing, effective marketing strategy was well planned based on the current resources of NSYSU. Then, the questionnaire was delivered to the students majoring in NSYSU EMBA/IEMBA programs to verify if the well-planned marketing strategy can promote their willing and satisfactions. The research findings are shown as the followings, The major findings of this study are summarized as following: 1. The domestic EMBA programs need a strategic positioning to driver a unique type of value to executive managers and to achieve competitive advantage. 2. The domestic EMBA programs need to combine the theory with practice and to advance interaction among students. If the domestic universities can develop much more teaching methods, they will create better learning effectiveness. 3. However, class time, location convenience, programs design internationalization degree, material with practice, students with varies background and establish human network relations are the six important factors for EMBA students to chose EMBA/IEMBA programs. 4. About 50% subjects think that the class location is more flexible to learning in Taiwan, China and Singapore at the same time. 5. Over 60% subjects think that the class time is more favorable for them if they can get the overseas universities¡¦ EMBA/IEMBA programs according to their working locations. And the credits can be approved by NSYSU. 6. If the NSYSU EMBA/IEMBA programs can cooperate with China and Singapore to plan a ¡uAcross the universities and get double master degree¡vsystem or to design much more practice materials about Taiwan, China and Singapore, they will increase students¡¦ learning satisfaction. 7. Over 80% subjects think that it¡¦s beneficial for them to meet EMBA students coming from diverse countries vie NSYSU EMBA/IEMBA programs. 8. All in all, the NSYSU Asia-Pacific EMBA and marketing strategy developed in this study indeed fit EMBA students¡¦ needs.

Taking as an object of study the current official curriculum, this article analyzes the discourses of body underlying the curriculum. Five types of discourses have been identified: body that knows; expressive body; body as a trait of personality; universal body, and moving body. The study mentioned the changes of these discourses in relation with the different levels of the basic education (initial, primary, secondary). / El presente estudio analiza los discursos sobre el cuerpo en el currículo oficial (Diseño Curricular Nacional) a lo largo de los tres niveles de la Educación Básica Regular (inicial, primaria y secundaria). El análisis evidencia cinco tipos de cuerpo en este documento: (i) el cuerpo que conoce; (ii) el cuerpo expresivo; (iii) el cuerpo como marca de la personalidad; (iv) el cuerpo universal (objetivo), y (v) el cuerpo móvil. El estudio explicita los cambios que ocurren en estos discursos a lo largo de los tres niveles de la educación básica.