The Curriculum: Theory and Practice / Edition 6

by A Vic Kelly

Overview

A V Kelly's bestselling and classic text is now brought up to date with the latest curriculum changes and current thinking in education. It's great on general principles and the philosophical background to education, making it core reading on all types of education courses.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781847872753
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Publication date:	02/03/2009
Edition description:	Sixth Edition
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	6.60(w) x 9.40(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

For many years A.V. Kelly was Dean of Education and Professor of Curriculum Studies at Goldsmiths College, University of London. He is now retired but continues to work in Education.

Table of Contents

	Introduction	xiii
1	The Curriculum and the Study of the Curriculum	1
	What is the curriculum?	2
	The educational curriculum	2
	The total curriculum	4
	The 'hidden' curriculum	5
	The planned curriculum and the received curriculum	6
	The formal curriculum and the informal curriculum	7
	The centrality of the teacher	8
	'Teacher-proofing' does not work	8
	The teacher's 'make or break' role	9
	Key aspects of Curriculum Studies	11
	Strategies for curriculum change and control	11
	Assessment, evaluation, appraisal and accountability	12
	The politicization of curriculum	13
	Curriculum planning	14
	What is involved in the study of the curriculum?	17
	A study in its own right	17
	Practice as well as theory	18
	Not an applied science	19
	Beyond methodology	20
	Conceptual analysis	22
2	Knowledge and the Curriculum	25
	The problematic nature of human knowledge	26
	Absolutist theories	26
	Objections to absolutism	27
	The politics of knowledge	35
	Totalitariansim - open and concealed	35
	Resistance to change	37
	Ideological dominance	38
	The legitimation of discourse	39
	Responses to the problem of the politics of knowledge	43
3	Curriculum as content and product	46
	Curriculum as content and education as transmission	46
	The philosophical case	47
	Education as cultural transmission	48
	The political selection of curriculum content	53
	Curriculum as product and education as instrumental	56
	The aims and objectives movement	56
	Some problems presented by this model	59
	The combined model - 'mastery learning'	70
	The unsuitability of these models for planning which is to be genuinely educational	72
	Summary	73
4	Curriculum as Process and Development	76
	An overtly value-laden and ideological model	76
	The growth of this view	78
	Early conceptual inadequacies	78
	A sound theoretical base	79
	Curriculum as process - aims and principles	80
	Procedural principles	80
	Principles and aims	81
	Intrinsic aims	82
	Education as development	84
	Active and passive views of humanity	84
	Individual autonomy	84
	Education and individual experience	85
	The growth of competence	86
	Development on every front	87
	The social dimension of development - democratic empowerment	88
	A partnership curriculum	90
	Some criticisms of the developmental model	91
	Political objections	91
	Philosophical objections	91
	The contribution of developmental psychology	95
	The major merits of this model	96
	Curriculum ideologies and planning models	97
	The need for conceptual clarity	98
	The need for informed choices and justification	99
5	Curriculum Development, Change and Control	101
	National agencies for curriculum development	102
	A politically independent national agency	103
	Lessons from the School Council's work	104
	Reconstitution and disestablishment	106
	The dissemination of innovation and change	107
	Models of dissemination	108
	The inadequacies of the centre-periphery approach	110
	Some consequent modifications	112
	School-based curriculum development	115
	Key features of these developments	116
	Action research and 'the teacher as researcher'	118
	Continuous self-evaluation	119
	External support	119
	The teacher's role continues to be central	121
	Changing the curriculum through centralized control	122
	Testing and inspection	123
6	Assessment, Evaluation, Appraisal and Accountability	126
	Pupil assessment	126
	Assessment and the curriculum	127
	Uses of assessment	128
	Purposes of assessment	129
	The realities of National Curriculum assessment	130
	Styles of assessment	131
	Evaluation theory	136
	What is curriculum evaluation?	137
	Developed approaches to curriculum evaluation	139
	The politicization of curriculum evaluation	146
	Evaluation and pupil assessment	148
	Evaluation as curriculum control	148
	Teacher appraisal and accountability	149
	Models of accountability	150
	Current policies and practices	153
	Implications for educational research	154
	Limitations on research	155
	The 'school effectiveness movement'	156
	Summary	159
7	The Politicization of the School Curriculum	161
	Direct and indirect political influences	162
	Competing ideologies	163
	The early historical context	164
	The 'Golden Age'	164
	Contradictory developments	165
	The challenge to teacher autonomy	166
	The initial ambivalence of officialdom	167
	The shift to direct intervention and control	168
	The end of the 'Golden Age'	169
	Major landmarks in the move towards central control	171
	Events since 1988	180
	The major underlying flaws	184
	The adoption of a commercial model	184
	The refusal to learn from developments in curriculum theory	186
	The de-intellectualization of the curriculum debate	187
	The premises of direct intervention	188
	That the purpose of the schooling system is only to support the economy	188
	That the education system is deficient	189
	That teachers should be merely operators	189
	That educational planning is a scientific acticity	190
8	A Democratic and Educational National Curriculum	192
	The pressures for a national curriculum	192
	Before the National Curriculum	193
	The case for a common core to the curriculum	194
	The argument from the nature of knowledge	195
	The argument from the principle of equality	195
	Some problems and difficulties	197
	The nature of knowledge and values	197
	The politics of knowledge	198
	A 'balanced' curriculum	199
	A metaphor	199
	Planning the curriculum as a totality	199
	Balancing other factors	200
	Balance as an individual matter	200
	Common processes and principles	201
	Learning through subjects	201
	The need for guidelines and broad procedural principles	202
	Areas of experience	203
	Curriculum as process and education as development	203
	The political case for the National Curriculum	204
	The lack of a theoretical frame	204
	The underlying instrumentalism	205
	Its intrinsic elitism	206
	The National Curriculum and curriculum research and development	207
	Developmental psychology	207
	A developmentally appropriate curriculum	208
	Curriculum dissemination	208
	Assessment and evaluation	209
	Two underlying messages	210
	Implications for curriculum theory and research	211
	The importance of the freedom to experiment	212
	Maintaining the understandings and insights	213
	The loss of opportunities for empirical research	214
	Democratic imperatives	215
	Democracy as a moral system	215
	Anti-democratic ideologies	215
	Loss of freedom	216
	The key features of a democratic and educational national curriculum	217
	A curriculum for equality	217
	The role of the professional educator	218
	Key features	219
	Fundamental principles	219
	A Chronology of Curriculum Development and Change	222
	Bibliography	226
	Government reports and other official publications referred to in the text	238
	Author Index	240
	Subject Index	244

Editorial Reviews

‘The Fourth Edition of this comprehensive and in-depth guide to the curriculum re-aserts the values and principles put forward in previous editions.. This book will be a welcome addition to current educational debate and will be of particular interest to senior managers within schools and those involved with policy-making from the highest level down' - Educational Review

‘The book is written in a manner that is appropriate for most of the target audience and the reader is taken through the arguments in a considered, effective and coherent way. As Kelly so effectively points out, the previous and present governments do not appear to believe in education, but only control and training. Their's is a different mindset, and so this book will not speak to them. Its great strength is that it builds on the previous editions while arguing for change' - Goldsmiths Journal of Education

From the Publisher