We describe the development, design, implementation, and preliminary classroom results of an innovative curriculum, Focus on Energy, that supports learning about energy in Grades 4–5. The curriculum ...is grounded in the concepts of science as practice, model‐based reasoning, and learning progressions, and builds on students' pre‐existing ideas and resources. We illustrate how students gradually develop the ability to track energy forms, transfers, and transformations in increasingly complex scenarios. We present evidence, using a quasi‐experimental design, that students who completed the curriculum were significantly more adept at these skills than students in comparable classrooms who experienced their districts' existing energy‐related physical science curricula. Important features of the curriculum include: the careful selection of a limited set of concepts chosen to provide a sound foundation for future learning; a consistent conceptual framework (the Energy Tracking Lens) within which the students have agency to build and refine a model of energy; engaging hands‐on activities that steadily build in complexity; accessible and versatile semi‐quantitative representations that support reasoning and communication; individual, small‐group and large‐group meaning‐making; and training and support for the teachers.
A theoretical model called ‘Curriculum Design Coherence’ (CDC) is described and justified. The model's purpose is to assist teachers in the compulsory and higher education sectors to design courses ...that can accommodate the complex and interdependent relationship between concepts and content and between knowledge and skills. Its intended usefulness as a curriculum design tool may also contribute to teachers’ pedagogical decision‐making. The model was initially developed in a New Zealand university Engineering study and is now being trialled in a study in the compulsory schooling sector with the ‘Knowledge‐Rich School Project’. The CDC model integrates concepts, content and competencies in a coherent way, thereby avoiding several tendencies which have affected curriculum studies in recent decades. These are: a ‘skills’ versus ‘concepts’ bifurcation; an over‐emphasis on fragmented content without conceptual integration; and a similar over‐emphasis on pedagogy (the ‘how’) at the expense of what is taught. The first sections of the article discuss the theories used to justify the model's connections between the elements of concepts, content and competencies. The theories concern (1) knowledge types (disciplinary and socio‐cultural) and (2) knowledge forms (propositional/conceptual and procedural/competencies). The justification is followed by a description of the CDC model itself.
Neoliberalism and neoconservatism are two political ideologies that currently shape state directives for education in many countries. In this article, I describe the confluence of neoliberal and ...neoconservative ideologies that led to the introduction, by the English state department for education, of a Model Music Curriculum for schools. I describe how neoliberalism has transformed the music education 'ecology' in England and created an environment that was receptive to the introduction of a curriculum on neoconservative principles. I consider the current position of progressive music education and why it seems unable to mount a sufficiently persuasive challenge. I make a case for the importance of analysis that explicitly focuses on political ideologies and their present-day rhetoric and discourses. Finally, I point to the general early years sector in England as an illustration for how to respond to state interventions in curriculum that might be emulated by the music education sector.
Digital health technologies hold promise to enhance patient-related outcomes, to support health care staff by reducing their workload, and to improve the coordination of care. As key users of digital ...health technologies, health care workers are crucial to enable a meaningful digital transformation of health care. Digital health literacy and digital skills should become prerequisite competencies for health professionals to facilitate the implementation and leverage the potential of digital technologies to improve health.
We aimed to assess European medical students' perceived knowledge and opinions toward digital health, the status of digital health implementation in medical education, and the students' most pressing needs.
The explanatory design of our mixed methods study was based on an online, anonymous, self-administered survey targeted toward European medical students. A linear regression analysis was used to identify the influence of the year of medical studies on the responses. Additional analysis was performed by grouping the responses by the self-evaluated frequency of eHealth technology use. Written responses to four qualitative questions in the survey were analyzed using an inductive approach.
The survey received a total of 451 responses from 39 European countries, and there were respondents for every year of medical studies. The majority of respondents saw advantages in the use of digital health. While 40.6% (183/451) felt prepared to work in a digitized health care system, more than half (240/451, 53.2%) evaluated their eHealth skills as poor or very poor. Medical students considered lack of education to be the reason for this, with 84.9% (383/451) agreeing or strongly agreeing that more digital health education should be implemented in the medical curriculum. Students demanded introductory and specific eHealth courses covering data management, ethical aspects, legal frameworks, research and entrepreneurial opportunities, role in public health and health systems, communication skills, and practical training. The emphasis lay on tailoring learning to future job requirements and interprofessional education.
This study shows a lack of digital health-related formats in medical education and a perceived lack of digital health literacy among European medical students. Our findings indicate a gap between the willingness of medical students to take an active role by becoming key players in the digital transformation of health care and the education that they receive through their faculties.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
This study employed an inductive qualitative approach to understanding the effects of local culture on early childhood curriculum development in two Hong Kong kindergartens. A triangulation of ...interviews, observations and documents was established, and cultural-historical activity theory was employed as the theoretical framework. The results indicated that local culture played an important role in early childhood curriculum development. First, the two cases learned from diverse models and approaches during the transformation of their curricula, resulting in contradictory demands and motives. Then, these contradictions were, in turn, resolved by the local culture to achieve curriculum hybridisation and innovation, as well as inherit the culture. Such findings provide valuable implications for early childhood professionals to integrate social and cultural diversity into curriculum development and to localise imported curricular practices so as to ensure a good fit between the curriculum and the local context.
In Mexico a reformed curriculum is being implemented at the national primary level focused on the competence model and incorporating EE as a key element. This article reports our analyses of what ...theories, policies and/or EE related-contents were included in the documents that integrated this curriculum: general study plan, study programs of Grades and official students' textbooks. Results indicate that in those official documents was incorporated a competence related to EE called 'competences for the coexistence', implying harmonic relationships with others and the nature. Additionally, EE for sustainability was included as a transversal topic expecting that contributes to reach the graduate profile of basic education that indicates that students should promote and assume the care of health and the environment. Nevertheless, it is not clear how it is expected that teachers implement EE in practice, lacking clarity of the environmental theory that support this curriculum.
Introduction: As rates of overdose and substance use disorders (SUDs) increase, medical schools are starting to incorporate more content on SUDs and harm reduction in undergraduate medical education ...(UME). Initial data suggest these additions may improve medical student knowledge and attitudes toward patients with SUDs; however, there is no standard curriculum. Methods: This project uses a six-step approach to UME curricular development to identify needs and goals regarding SUDs and opioid overdose at a large single-campus medical school in the United States. We first developed and delivered a pilot curriculum to a small group of medical students. Pilot results and a larger survey led to implementing a one-hour Opioid Overdose Prevention and Response (OOPR) Training for first-year students. Effects of training were tracked using baseline and post-training surveys examining knowledge and attitudes toward opioid overdose and patients with SUDs. Results: Needs assessment indicated desire and need for training. The pilot study (N = 66) resulted in significantly improved knowledge regarding opioid overdose; 100% of students enjoyed training and believed others should receive it. The larger replication study surveyed all incoming students (N = 266) to gauge initial knowledge and experiences with these topics. Results prompted enhancement of the OOPR Training curriculum, which was delivered to half of the first-year class. Post-training survey results replicated the pilot study findings. The majority (95.2%) of students enjoyed training and 98.4% believed all students should receive it. Conclusion: Delivering a thorough curriculum on SUDs and harm reduction in UME is critical. Although many schools are implementing training, there is no standard curriculum. We outline a low-resource training intervention for OOPR. Our findings identified key features to include in these UME curricula. This approach provides a replicable template for schools seeking to develop brief educational interventions and identify essential content for curricula in SUDs and harm reduction.
This study attempts to conceptualise English teachers' professional identity based on an understanding of identity in a socio-psychological framework, and thereby reveal the attributes and dynamics ...of professional identity by investigating Korean English teachers' cognitive, emotional and behavioural responses to their national English curriculum and related policies. Based on a narrative approach within the qualitative research framework, three modes of narrative were used for data gathering and analysis. Two in-depth interviews were conducted and responses to descriptive questionnaires and metaphor production of a teacher-self required of five academic high school English teachers. Examination of those data disclosed that seven different identities constitute their professional identity, and these identities and their meaning systems interplay within a self, as well as interact with an English language teaching environment. Conceptualisation of English teachers' professional identity and comprehension of its dynamics may help policy-makers or curriculum designers comprehend the mechanisms and rationales of policy success or failure in relation to teacher roles and values, and furthermore will provide several implications to consider for successful curriculum reform.
The revision of Te Whāriki, the New Zealand Early Childhood Curriculum Framework, in 2017 offered a unique opportunity to gain understanding of the ways teachers in Aotearoa New Zealand think about ...and enact curriculum in their daily practice. As researchers we were intrigued as to the ways teachers conceptualised the role of curriculum in practice and whether the revised curriculum would generate changes in curriculum implementation. We undertook a research project to capture data about teachers’ engagement with, and use of, the curriculum framework, as well as their beliefs about curriculum in the context of early childhood education (ECE). Data collection was designed to focus on two points in time: in 2017 prior to the launch of the revision, with plans to repeat collection after several years with the revised curriculum in effect. Findings reported here draw on interviews conducted with teachers working with Te Whāriki (Ministry of Education, 1996) before the revised framework was released. The findings revealed a range of understandings about the meaning of curriculum and the role of curriculum in guiding teachers’ enacted practice. Implications for supporting ongoing efforts of enactment and implementation of ECE curriculum are discussed.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND
Limited research has addressed the effects of health literacy interventions in elementary schools. However, school‐aged children's health literacy is critical because children ...make decisions about their health every day. The purpose of the pilot project was to explore the feasibility of integrated health literacy lesson plans for second graders.
METHODS
A pretest‐posttest evaluation was conducted with second grade students following implementation of health literacy lessons that were integrated into core curriculum (language arts, science, and social studies).
RESULTS
Health educators, a hospital/health care system, and a school district developed a partnership. A research team of teachers, administrators, health literacy experts and health care organizations designed and implemented health literacy lesson plans. A developmentally appropriate measure of health literacy was adapted from the Newest Vital Sign. Data showed that students' health literacy scores significantly increased after implementation of 4 lesson plans.
CONCLUSIONS
This was an exploratory, pilot project that provided a useful starting point for discussing how to integrate health literacy into elementary school curriculum. An interdisciplinary team developed integrated health literacy materials that acknowledged the needs of teachers, the resources available, and the developmental stages of children. This intervention serves as a model for future health literacy initiatives in schools.
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