JOURNAL OF THEORY AND PRACTICE IN CURRICULUM
Year:2017 | Volume:4 | Issue:8 |Papers Count:7

The emergence of re-conceptualism in the field of curriculum studies caused a large rotation of identity in this field.The book titled "understanding of curriculum" by William Pinar may be considered the most outstanding work in the field. In this book, movement which affected pre re-conceptualist, are introduced as the traditional type and it is believed the new curriculum discourses should be considered instead.That caused Joseph Schwab's theory is charged in the group of traditional pre re-conceptualist theories. This paper, by analyzing and identifying differences of Tyler's theory, Schwab's theory and reconceptualism, plans to criticize this way of thinking and tries to introduce a new explanation of curriculum studies field as a practical one based on the role of Schwab's theory in the evolution of history of curriculum studies field.

This study aimed to examine the effects of integrating humor into math curriculum on mathematical creativity of sixth grade students in primary school. The current paper reports the results of the quantitative section of a larger study conducted through a mixed methods design. Mathematical creativity of students based on their performance was measured after the implementation of the researcher-developed package that included humor-integrated math content generated based on the concepts of sixth grade math textbook.Pre-test and post-test results showed that integration of some elements of instructional humor with math concepts can have positive effects on math creativity of the students. Suggestions are the development of humorintegrated curricula packages based on needs and requirements of the learners as well as the subject matters.

The aim of this study was to increase understanding of how to change theoretical and practical knowledge of primary school teachers. The research approach was qualitative. The data were collected through focus group interviews.The sample size was obtained after the saturation phase including 25 teachers. The data were analyzed using content /thematic analysis. Two techniques were used for increasing the trustworthiness of data including member check, and peer review or debriefing. The findings were labeled in three categories comprising the quality of theoretical and practical knowledge change, the change channels of theoretical and practical knowledge of teachers and the factors influencing the change of teachers' theoretical and practical knowledge. These categories embraced the sub-categories. As sum, the results revealed that the low quality of teachers' in-service curriculum bring the unimportant change in theoretical and practical knowledge of teachers.Design and development of teachers' inservice curriculum, needs change in instrumental perspective of designers and executives of curriculum-making toward change phenomenon in teachers.

This qualitative study aimed to compare the qualification of Higher Education system and Education system in field of teacher education. Using qualitative content analysis, with open coding data by interviews and open-ended questionnaire, data been coded and categorized and then analyzed. Participants of research were selected by purposive sampling (22 samples).Through participants opinions four category of views were identified; 1- agree with higher education, 2- agree with education, 3-conditional agree with both, 4- agree with with the new structure. Inattention to practical practices, lack of affiliated schools for training, and inappropriate evaluation of students’ performances in training, are the most important weaknesses of higher education system. Also, low academic ability of the faculties of Farhangian University, low flexibility and very limited freedom to thinking for change, low skills in research, and intense centralism are the most weaknesses of Education system specially Farhangian University. Adherents of new structure for teacher training, critisize both organizations (Education system and Higher education system) and named weaknesses such as: weakness in educational and pedagogical research and analysis, weakness in theorizing and acting and presenting techniques for improvement teacher education, and weakness in making appropriate contents for the curricula of teacher training. Ultimately, according to a teacher education curriculum, 4 aspects of knowledge have been proposed; content knowledge, educational knowlwge, practice knowledge, and introductory knowledge into teacher profession.

The conceptions, practices and efforts of some education systems in ten countries and four continents of the world, in area of national curriculum, have been reviewed and analyzed in this inquiry to represent a brief look of their experiences and obtain some guidelines for delineating and developing national curriculum. The methodology in this inquiry has been descriptive and analytical research with emphasis on the qualitative dimension of inquiry.The selection of educational systems as inquiry sample has been purposeful.Data gathering from the countries has been done through the six components of the inquiry which are the main criteria in reviewing, assessing and delineating national curriculum practices and conceptions in these education systems. They are as below: 1- goals and other curriculum main elements; 2- conceptions and theorization; 3- necessities, preconditions and foregrounds; 4-structural and implementation characteristics; 5- attention to school based curriculum development; and 6-interest to the field of curriculum orientations.

The aim of study was to explore teachers’lived experiences about implementing work and technology curriculum. Phenomenology research was used. Fifteen participants were selected through purposeful sampling. They were teachers of the seventh and eighth grades of lower secondary schools in Karaj. Data colledted through semi structured interviews and tape recordings. The results showOfficials’ignorance of the teacher’s practical knowledge, lack of the appropriate strategy for evaluation, a limited time frame and inadequate equipment that make teachers less motivated and for some of them a withdrawal from training programs.Improving teachers' attitudes towards new curriculum will be possible, considering professional and continual training service, providing an appropriate teaching context, exchange of experiences among teachers and ongoing teachers relationship with officials.Research findings indicate that administrators and parent’s knowledge in the new curriculum need for revision and culture promotion through increased knowledge and using the curriculum in student’s life activities.

The purpose of this study was to investigate viewpoints of experts and teachers about individual characteristics and specialized capabilities of the preschool teachers. This research is descriptiveanalytic that two qualitative and quantitative methods are used to conduct it.The population of qualitative phase includes faculty members of universities, PhD students, masters teachers in fields of Psychology, Curriculum and Instruction.The population of quantitative phase includes educators in Fars and Isfahan provinces in academic year 2016.Sampling method in the qualitative section was purposive and snowball and in quantitative section, 566 teachers have been selected randomly. Information was collected by the semi-structured interview and researcher-made questionnaire.Qualitative findings were categorized based on content analysis and quantitative findings are analyzed by the inferential and descriptive statistics. After performing preliminary study and analyzing the questionnaires, it was determined that reliability of individual characteristics was 86% and that of the specialized capabilities was 87% as well. Results of the Friedman’s test showed that according to viewpoint of teachers about the individual specifications, mental and personal health is very important, among specialized capabilities of the teachers, ability to manage the class is at top of related items in terms of importance.