Who Cares? Pro-social education within the programmes of the International Baccalaureate

This article is a study of one aspect of the character education offered by schools following the curriculum of the International Baccalaureate – students’ pro-social development. Set against a background in which the development of inter-personal qualities is being marginalised by conservative governments across many national systems of education (Keddie, 2015), the International Baccalaureate seems to defy these trends by continuing to centre attention on the holistic development of personal characteristics, including the cultivation of pro-social behaviour through the learner attribute ‘Caring’. Through a focused analysis of the pro-social curriculum practice enacted by nine case-study international schools following this curriculum across three continents, the article concludes that pro-social behaviour is effectively encouraged by the International Baccalaureate programmes, but that it is a somewhat patrician version of caring that is enacted in many contexts.

History from K-4: What Can We Really Do?

The short answer is “quite a bit.” In this article, the author makes the case for a K-4 history program that is ambitious in scope while varied and energetic in style. She argues that in the past educators have underestimated the interests and abilities of young children. She maintains that history is the riveting story of the human past, and that no one loves a good story more than a young child. The article is both theoretical and practical. Analyzing the Massachusetts History and Social Curriculum Framework as well as the Core Knowledge Sequence, as they apply to elementary instruction, the author delineates the scope of a good K–4 program and describes and evaluates principles and methods of teaching history to young children.

Planning for a Guided Primary Social Curriculum: Early Stages, Featuring TAXIS

Social education for young children, with a moral component, can be achieved by means of a Guided Primary Social Curriculum. The earliest years give most opportunity for work of this kind, before official curricula become more prescriptive. This social curriculum involves starting from children's own experience but proceeding by means of interactive guidance. In an approach of this kind, teachers extend children's perceptions by leading them towards subjects as perspectives, through a sequence of themes of increasing complexity of understanding. An example is suggested: TAXIS. Subsequent age-groups, and implications for teachers are considered.

Urban Secondary Teachers’ Value Orientations: Delineating Curricular Goals for Social Responsibility

This research examined content and task decisions of 11 urban secondary physical educators who placed a high priority on social curriculum goals. Transcript data from a stimulated-recall protocol were analyzed using constant comparison to determine the extent to which content and task decisions represented social justice and reform goals of social reconstruction or of citizenship and positive interaction more consistent with social responsibility. Results suggested that teachers’ content decisions were consistent with the goals of cooperation, teamwork, and involvement within the social responsibility value orientation. Task structures for middle school programs involved large group activities, while high school tasks focused on individual activities performed as a member of a small group.