JOURNAL OF CURRICULUM STUDIES (J.C.S.)
Year:2009 | Volume:4 | Issue:13-14|Papers Count:9

The adaptation and validation of the Epistemological Beliefs Assessment for Physical Science (EBAPS) was the purpose of the present study. To achieve this end 415 third year Guidance school students (207 females and 208 males) were selected from schools for gifted, schools for high-achievers and regular public schools in the city of Shiraz through the use of purposive sampling. The construct validity of the scale was investigated through factor analysis. This analysis showed the following 4 factors: complex structure of knowledge, gradual/summative learning, incremental ability and evolving knowledge. The internal consistency 6f EBAPS for subscales through the use of Cronbach alpha was acceptable. The findings of this study revealed that the EBAPS is a valid and reliable instrument for use with Iranian guidance school students. In addition, the present study showed a pattern of gender differences in the students' epistemological beliefs about physical knowledge. Also, this investigation revealed that students' beliefs about the structure of knowledge, incremental ability and evolving knowledge were in fluenced by their educational environment.

One of important approaches in moral education is character education. stressing on development of particular core values. Presently, various factors including declining role of family in education, vulnerability of children and adolescents, individualism and relativism along with important role of ethicaf values in tackling social problenis resulted in paying more attention to character education. Thomas Lickona has developed a comprehensive model for character education to be implemented at two levels: in-classroom and off-classroom. He suggested twelve strategies for the two levels. In this paper, firstly the basis of the model including ontological, anthropological, epistemological, and ethical foundations were examined and its strategies, goals, principles and methods were discussed. Then, the viewpoints of Allamah Tabatabaei, the contemporary scholar, on character education were briefly reviewed as a basis for critical analysis of the Lickona model.

This paper initially aimed to bring the philosophy of the teaching to the attention of educators as a scholarly debate. A brief historical review of philosophical perspectives revealed that teacher has been considered as an element of education among others rather than an essential factor in education. To, develop a teaching philosophy is the outcome of this paper and it is believed that if teachers follow it their philosophical views on teaching and education would be developed. For instance, Hegel's teaching philosophy was developed through his educational views. Finally, through implications of curriculum various forms " of considering teaching philosophy and philosophical views of teachers and its impact on curriculum were examined and three approaches were discussed to be considered in various contexts.

Needs assessment is an essential-requirement for curriculum development in vocational education. Due to complexity of analysis of all influential factors and the degree of their contribution, needs assessment for vocational education has been quite demanding and perplexing. Direction of technology, employment, future trends, population, further education as well as current needs of industry, business, and agriculture are among influential factors in this regard. The challenge is which direction is to be taken in vocational education and to what extent each influential factor is supposed to affect vocational education curriculum. Since curriculum developers could not overcome this paradox, policy makers developed various structures to offer vocational courses. Therefore, vocational education is mainly offered in two forms: school-based and industry-based courses, either of which has its own shortcomings. Now the question is whether or not a third alternative would be possibly available which could meet the demands of society at present and in future and at the same time, it would contribute to development of devout citizens with competence to pursue their studies at higher levels. Through examination of performance of two current approaches in different countries, this paper aimed to propose a third alternative to deliver vocational courses in an integrated fashion to satisfy both the demanding society and the individual learner.

Critical thinking is one of crucial factors in developing the intended and experienced curriculum. Further, secondary education plays a key role in social life of all people. Therefore, the question is how much attention was given to critical thinking in secondary education. Data were collected using a questionnaire administered to a sample of 246 high school teachers responsible for the implementation of experienced curriculum. Findings indicated that critical thinking was not received adequate attention in the experienced curriculum. Nevertheless, each factor has not received the same attention. The order of factors in terms of attention to critical thinking was as follows: objective, teaching style, content, and assessment. Further, private schools paid more attention to critical thinking than public schools.

This paper examined the concept of identity in sociology textbooks taught, at the first two years at high schools. The examination of textbooks revealed that the authors focused on individual identity in Sociology (1) and stressed national identity in Sociology (2)while ignoring ethnic identity among other identities. The present study was aimed at exploring dominant approach in dealing with identity in sociology textbooks in the Iranian multi-ethnic society. Documentary study and content analysis was used for examination. National identity followed by religious identity received much more attention than ethnic identity. Further, analysis of illustrations revealed that men are presented in more than 50% of pictures whereas the share of women ranged from 7% to 24%.

This study is mainly a content analysis of primary education textbooks in tenus of peace education as well as environmental and health education pursued by Unesco and Unicef as prerequisites of global citizenship education in the third millennium. In fact, ignoring world development has resulted in isolating the school from real life. Therefore, in this study primary education textbooks were examined as the most important learning resources in order to explore how well they are in line with world education elements. The methods used were the Shannon entropy and qualitative analysis. The unit of analyses were text, questions, exercises, and pictures of a total of 3349 pages of primary school textbooks. Results indicated that all world education elements were rather equally, yet insufficiently, treated in the textbooks. However, unbalanced attention paid to each element across different subjects.