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Approximately threefold increases in older age population groups (+65 years) are projected in the next 15 years. Demographic changes in society will mean greater numbers of older adults in proportion to the younger generation. In the current policy on older age groups, emphasis is placed on healthy aging warranting a multidisciplinary workforce to work with older people. Despite this need and increased demand in the aged care sector, a fewer social work students are willing to undertake aged care placements or to choose it as a career option. An innovative teaching and learning pedagogy was used in designing the course curriculum titled 'Social Work with Older People', including the input of invited specialist guest speakers, an on-campus interactive workshop with older guests, and an assessment designed to evaluate the learning related to the workshop content. The paper reports changes in the attitudes of students studying gerontological social work after the course delivery, evaluated through an online survey with the purpose of improving the learning outcomes in the course and to gauge students' interest, experiences, attitudes and motivation to work in the aged care sector. The paper contributes to building knowledge in addressing the needs of the changing social demographic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the increased interest in character education across the world, educators are seeking guidance for their practice. This paper seeks to add to the evidence base about if and how character can be taught by discussing the results of a pilot evaluation (n=527) of a curriculum intervention designed to enhance two components of character: virtue perception and virtue reasoning. After the intervention, the participants had improved virtue perception and reasoning scores compared to the control group. Further, female students scored higher in the pilot than their male counterparts. The results demonstrate how educating these components of character might be possible, providing evidence for a debate that goes back to Aristotle and today is keenly debated in academic, policy and practice circles. The findings are significant as they provide evidence as to how character might be taught through and within the programmes of study of existing curriculum subjects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the extent to which there has been a shift towards disciplinary knowledge in recently developed curriculum documents in New Zealand and evaluates whether a new 'Understand, Know, Do' structure for the curriculum has the potential to facilitate coherent design of teaching programmes and 'deep learning'. Using a social realist lens, Bernsteinian theories on knowledge structures and recontextualization, and the principles of a Curriculum Design Coherence Model, the analysis identifies instances of both conceptual coherence and epistemic confusion which raises questions about the underlying principles upon which the curriculum documents are being developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a case study on the presence (or absence) of environmental education in history textbooks, this paper examines how Singapore's nationally mandated secondary school history curriculum portrays the relationship between humans and the nonhuman environment. It analyzes all seven government-authored lower-secondary-level history textbooks, published between 1984 and 2015. The results show that history textbooks largely and consistently portray humans in Singapore as isolated from, rather than depending on and entangled with, the environment. We describe and analyze two trends. First, narratives about the nonhuman environment are largely relegated to Singapore's past and disappear almost entirely as textbook narratives approach the present. Second, history narratives represent narrowly utilitarian, negativistic, and dominionistic perspectives of thinking about and relating to the nonhuman environment. We contextualize these results and discuss the implications of teaching such narrow and misleading conceptions of human–environment interactions in official history education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the commercialisation of Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) in Australian schools. Specifically, it focuses on understanding why teachers value commercial resources, and how they enact these in their classrooms. Theorising around teacher agency suggests teachers are now choosing to use a range of commercial resources and view these as important additions to their pedagogical toolbox. Teachers want high quality resources, and they prefer resources that are easy to import, scaffold and modify according to their specific needs. Teachers did not readily see the benefit of a prescriptive SEL program. Instead, they wanted multiple resources that they could pick and choose the best bits from. Our data suggests that teachers are not being seduced by commercialisation and the ‘easy fix’ it promises, but are in fact presenting as agentic professionals who care deeply about students’ social and emotional wellbeing and are working to tailor bespoke learning experiences to meet the needs of their students within their specific school contexts. We argue that it is worth nuancing the critique about commercialisation offered in the literature to date, and suggest that commercialisation is not inherently bad, rather it is the ‘intensity’ of commercialisation that needs to be regulated and further investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Sustainable development, as an area of knowledge, appears in several different places in the curriculum and does not fit neatly within the scope of traditional subject areas. In many countries, including Sweden, it has long been upheld as an important tool for increasing understanding of, and dealing with, environmental problems. It is not clear, however, what role education can actually have in the making of a more sustainable future. Even though there are several potential ways for sustainable development to be involved in education, the concept raises many questions when transferred to the school context. Purpose: This paper investigates how teachers deal with the difficulty of defining and approaching sustainable development as an area of knowledge in Swedish schools. Sample: This article is based on semi-structured interviews with 40 teachers, 13 of whom were lower secondary school teachers (pupil age 12-15) and 27 were upper secondary school teachers (pupil age 15-18). The study involves teachers in all subjects where sustainable development is a goal in the syllabus. The study is also based on participant observation in one upper secondary class. A total of 17 different schools were involved, from a wide range of locations in Sweden. Design and methods: The paper builds on qualitative data and the analysis of transcribed interviews and group interviews with teachers in Swedish lower and upper secondary schools. Group interviews, involving three or more people, were conducted on eight occasions. The pupils at an upper secondary school were also observed while they were working on a course called 'policy and sustainable development'. Data were transcribed and analysed thematically. Findings: The analysis suggests that, according to the teachers' experiences, the demands of equivalence and measurability in school have increased and that this affects how sustainable development is approached in teaching and learning. Three main categories of knowledge were identified. The study also presents two representations that model how teachers may approach knowledge about sustainable development - metaphorically termed 'the Accountant' and 'the Adventurer' - and their different effects on knowledge. Conclusions: There is a tendency for complex knowledge areas such as sustainable development, which do not fit seamlessly into traditional curriculum subjects, to become oversimplified when translated into teaching situations. According to the representations that we described metaphorically, the teacher, as an accountant, is characterised by 'knowledge instrumentalism', which means that teachers administer knowledge and the pupils consume it. In this transactional model, the accountant is also very dependent on external governance and control. Alternatively, the teacher, as an adventurer, is characterised by authority, knowledge and self-control. In this model, knowledge sometimes grows in an unpredictable way in the meeting between people who share common experiences. For adventurers, sustainable development is a matter of commitment and awareness, and it involves an explicit stance. The metaphors can be placed on a continuum which describes how teachers manage the demands of the school system in relation to the knowledge area of sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Faculty are key to bringing about 'bottom-up' change for sustainability education. Yet, research is still needed on the backgrounds and experiences of change agents in universities and the challenges they face. This study focuses on the marketing discipline, a field fraught with epistemological tensions in seeking to integrate sustainability, mainly revolving around profit maximisation and continuous consumption while living on a planet with finite resources. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with sustainability marketing academics in Australasia, Europe and North America. The contribution of this paper lies in the development of a sustainability educator typology linking why and how integration occurs. The sustainability 'transformer' wishes to engage in transformational learning, changing student mindsets, the 'thinker' wants to encourage critical thinking to bring about the discussion of worldviews, while the 'actioner' hopes 'learning by doing' (community projects) will provide an appreciation for sustainability. We discuss implications for those disciplines which struggle with philosophical tensions and colleague resistance to the integration of sustainability in the form of suggestions for professional development (i.e. creation of positive nature experiences) and pedagogical approaches (critical, transformative and community-service learning). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite widespread support for integrated approaches to teaching, classroom practice reveals a lack of implementation. This paper explores challenges and opportunities in teaching an integrated curriculum, and connects this with the contemporary notion of a twenty-first century curriculum and pedagogy. A case study of Global Education (GE) is used to delineate the complexity of issues when teachers attempt to move beyond disciplinary-based teaching approaches. We examine curriculum documents, advice for teachers on curriculum implementation, preservice teachers’ experiences in schools during Professional Experiences and national guidelines for Professional Experience. Through these data, a broad picture emerges of influences on  integrating curricula in classrooms. Opportunities to integrate curriculum incorporating twenty-first century pedagogies were limited by pressures on teachers with preservice teachers rarely exposed to authentic integration. Teachers’ professional standing requires clear guidelines, which allow them to pursue important twenty-first century content and skills , for young citizens and this must begin in preservice education. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Rwandan genocide was perhaps the most paradigmatic human rights catastrophe in the post-Holocaust era, which challenged the mantra of ‘never again’. Yet as we approach the twentieth anniversary, it remains a relatively marginalised entity within mainstream English education. This paper argues that a study of the Rwandan genocide introduces a number of important issues, which are not emphasised within Holocaust education. It also draws upon a small-scale empirical study of 41 teachers’ attitudes in England, perceptions and experiences of teaching the genocide in a range of disciplines and demonstrates emerging patterns on how it is integrated into curricula and individual lessons. It concludes by advocating the study of the Rwandan genocide in its own right and the importance of students appreciating its contemporary relevance. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper explores Australian secondary physical education (PE) teachers’ understanding of PE in the context of new curriculum familiarisation. Data was initially collected through online surveys (phase 1), and based on this data, participants were sourced from, and volunteered to be interviewed as part of phase 2 (interviews). The analysis of the phase 2 data highlighted a diverse array of teachers’ views relating to PE that ranged from PE being synonymous with sport and a strong desire to develop habits and patterns of behaviour for long-term physical activity participation in recreational pursuits. Although the multi-activity program model is highly problematised in academic literature, it was found that the multi-activity model is prominent and uncontested in most secondary school PE programs. A conflict between the rhetoric and reality of the educative importance of PE was evident. Therefore, it is argued that there is a gap between the proposition for a curriculum to demonstrate the value of learning ‘about’, ‘through’ and ‘in’ movement, and the ‘everyday practice’ of PE found in schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses on background of social work and social work education as it began in India. It provides details on the curriculum of the discipline and discussions regarding its diversity and specialisations. It, further, highlights the process of indigenization, indigenous knowledge, Indianisation and the various debates related to it. The article also traces, in brief, the developmental history of the social work curricula in India, the University Grants Commission (UGC) review committees and the Model Curriculum. There is a brief description of the Self Learning Material (SLM) developed by the School of Social Work, Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), New Delhi. Towards the end, we have discussed the major findings related to the gaps in social work education in India. This article will be very useful for social work teachers, researchers and practitioners as it will help in building a theoretical understanding of social work education, in general and in context of India, in particular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do performance studies scholars communicate the field to and for students, scholars, and stakeholders? Through an analysis of online data gathered from institutions of higher education in the United States, we investigated how educators narrate performance studies in curricular descriptions. We detail the stated characteristics of performance studies and its object of study; the theories and sources referenced by scholars; and the methodologies, approaches, and techniques educators use and teach (to which ends). These findings and the collective picture they paint provide a guide for current and future scholars and students interested in performance studies praxis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates how learning outcomes, a concept inspired by an Anglo-Saxon curriculum approach, are expressed in policy documents, with an emphasis on expectations articulated to teachers. Developments in education policy for the last two decades reflect a widespread expansion of learning outcome orientation in curricula and assessment in most of the modern world. These developments have led to changes in how education is governed and practised, and this makes it necessary to form critical concepts to understand how curricula are formed and functioned today. The research questions of the study are: How is learning outcome-oriented policy defined in key policy documents and what are the implications of these policies for the teaching profession? The topic is investigated through a document content analysis of key policy documents. A complex picture of teachers emerges in which they are to be both controlled and autonomous. The study also identifies a strong belief in 'alignment between teachers' competences and practices and students' life opportunities. The findings indicate that the policies move back and forth between different parameters for describing teachers and teaching, and as such, teachers must be able to adapt as chameleons in the context of each policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Problem-based learning (PBL) is an educational method that fosters self-directed study in small groups. The purpose of this study was to describe the Tel Aviv University’s occupational therapy (OT) program and the challenges implementing such program. In addition, the study compared the PBL grades obtained by students who are native Hebrew speakers with those students who are native Arabic speakers; and, assessed the correlation between the grades in the PBL course and the grades in the clinical fieldwork studies. Method: 166-second year OT undergraduate students participated. All completed three PBL courses and seven weeks of clinical fieldwork studies. Data collection included students’ grades in PBL course (based on PBL evaluation forms) and in clinical fieldwork studies (based on preceptor’s evaluation and a written assignment). Results: Pearson correlations revealed significant correlations between PBL grades and clinical fieldwork studies grades. T-test analysis between students who are native Hebrew speakers and those who are native Arabic speakers revealed significant differences in PBL grades. Conclusions: Findings imply partial congruence between students’ grades in the PBL course and their achievements in the fieldwork studies. Findings might suggest that adjustments should be made in order to assist students from minorities (challenged by language requirements) in gaining higher grades in the PBL program. Implications for Rehabilitation: Problem-Based Learning (PBL) is an educational method, which fosters independent, self-directed study in small groups. PBL studies have the potential to prepare students for their clinical experience during studies. The PBL program should be adjusted for students from minorities (challenged by language requirements and different cultural backgrounds) in order to assist them in gaining more benefits from the program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines physical education (PE) curriculum development in an elementary school. Our goal was to understand the daily construction of a curriculum. We sought to analyse the theoretical and methodological framework and documents that a PE teacher uses each day while putting a curriculum into practice (lived curriculum). The data collection instruments included participant observation, interviews and document analysis. The analytical process revealed the influence of internal and external factors that affect both the authorship and the autonomy of a teacher working on the daily construction of a lived PE curriculum and that create tensions, struggles and conflicts. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article offers a personal view about teaching the module ‘Social Work and Drug Use’ at a university in the North West of England, UK. It describes the establishment of the module and the development of the module content over the years. It discusses the nature of teaching the subject within a research focused establishment and the problems this presents. This is all contextualized within the campaign to have social work and drug use as a compulsory part of the national social work curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]