William A. Reid

Institutions and Practices: Professional Education Reports and the Language of Reform

Proposals for the reform of professional education are frequently supported by reference to the unique and compelling nature of contemporary society; yet the specific reforms that are urged are often those put forward 50 years ago. Based on recent reports in the fields of medical, dental, nursing, and teacher education, this paper explains the inertial quality of reform language as an effect of an inevitable tension between professional practice and institutions that support it. I suggest that, in spite of its apparent lack of rationality, such language can be seen as functional in mediating this tension.

Curriculum theory and curriculum change: What can we learn from history?∗

∗ An earlier version of this paper was presented at the aera Annual Meeting, New Orleans, la, April 1984. I am grateful to Richard Szreter for helpful comments and criticisms.

Studying innovation in science teaching: the use of repertory grid techniques in developing a research strategy

Summaries English Conventional correlation studies are of limited value in research aimed at discovering why curricula are successful or unsuccessful. Their basic weakness is that they offer little scope for revealing how and why innovations become modified in practice as a result of their interaction with contextual constraints such as teachers’ views of their own roles and purposes. Observational studies and the collection, through interviews, of participants’ accounts can to some degree remedy this deficiency. However, such methods encounter problems of subjective data interpretation and of establishing their reliability. In a study of the implementation of an innovative science curriculum, the Schools Council Integrated Science Project (SCISP), in three English comprehensive schools, the authors experimented with the use of repertory grid techniques based on personal construct theory: This allowed interviews of teachers to be conducted in such a way that categories were revealed rather than imposed an...

Making the Problem fit the Method: a Review of the ‘Banbury Enquiry’†

† Ability Grouping: the Banbury Enquiry, by D. Newbold (N.F.E.R. Publishing Co., Windsor, 1977). Pp. 125. Soft cover £4.75.

Occupational Interests and Curricular Patterns: A Comparison of Upper Secondary Students in Norway, England, and the United States.

† Paper presented at Division B Critique Session ‘International Perspectives on Curricular Contexts’, AERA Annual Meeting, Montreal, April 1983. The authors are grateful to Ian Westbury for comments on an earlier draft of this paper, and to Andrew Storey and Pamela Badenoch for assistance with data analysis.

A Practical View of the Theoretical in Curriculum@@@Thinking about the Curriculum: The Nature and Treatment of Curriculum Problems

Preface 1. Introduction: Curriculum debates and Curriculum Studies 2. Thinking about the practical 3. The concept of curriculum research 4. Practical reasoning and curriculum decisions 5. The problem of curriculum change 6. Rationalism or humanism? The future of Curriculum Studies Notes Name Index Subject Index