Curriculum: From Theory to Practice - Hardcover

Null Baylor University, Wesley

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1475821816 ISBN 13: 9781475821819

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2016

Synopsis

This updated second edition of Curriculum: From Theory to Practice provides an introduction to curriculum theory and how it relates to classroom practice. Wesley Null builds upon recent developments while at the same time continuing to provide a unique organization of the curriculum field into five traditions: systematic, existential, radical, pragmatic, and deliberative. Null discusses the philosophical foundations of curriculum as well as historical and contemporary figures who have shaped each curriculum tradition. To ensure breadth and scope, Null has expanded this second edition to include figures not present in the first.

Additionally, after a chapter on each of the five perspectives, Null presents case studies that describe realistic and specific curriculum problems that commonly arise within educational institutions at all levels. Scholars and practitioners alike are given opportunities to practice resolving curriculum problems through deliberation. Each case study focuses on a critical issue such as the implementation of curriculum standards, the attempt to reform core curriculum within universities, and the complex practice of curriculum making. In the final chapter, Null offers a vision for the curriculum field that connects curriculum deliberation with recent developments in moral philosophy.

About this title

About the Author:

Wesley Null is vice provost for undergraduate education at Baylor University. He also serves as an associate professor of curriculum and foundations of education in the School of Education and acting director in the Honors College. He teaches curriculum theory and educational history in the School of Education and great texts in the Honors College.

Review:

Curriculum: From Theory to Practice gives its readers a powerful framework that embraces both classical and contemporary theorists for the mapping of traditions in education, curricula, and curriculum-making. At the same time, it makes a case for the importance of a deliberative tradition of educational thought that can embrace the theory and the practice of the book's title as well as the moral and the practical. I look forward to introducing students to the curriculum field by way of this book.--Ian Westbury, Professor Emeritus of Curriculum and Instruction, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Wesley Null combines in this work the deft hand of an educational historian with the knowledge and skill of a curriculum scholar. His analysis of the deliberative curriculum--and its attendant synthesis through the work of past and present curriculum thinkers--is both original and imaginative. Not only is the theory of curriculum examined, but the foundation is provided for students and practitioners to make meaning of the field in all its processes and outcomes. Null's commitment to balance in curricular theory and practice is exemplary. This well-crafted and thoughtful book is a noteworthy contribution to the arena of curriculum studies.--John A. Beineke, Distinguished Professor of Educational Leadership and Currriculum, Arkansas State University

About this edition

• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1475821816
• ISBN 13: 9781475821819
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 368