Chapter VII: Research and Evaluation in Curriculum Planning

Abstract

THE past few years saw a marked interest in research. A variety of materials appeared which represent attempts on the part of educators to make existing research available and to stimulate increased research activity.Activities in the curriculum field were varied, and perhaps exceedingly slow. It is significant that the period reviewed has not produced a major national or regional curriculum research project. Coladarci, Brooks, and Odel (17), in a study of research priorities, found that administrators over the country reported marked concern over curriculum problems and indicated that they deserve priority for research. Research in Curriculum PlanningAs one analyzes recent research in curriculum planning, one sees that its most striking emphasis relates it to basic sciences which deal with human behavior. Hovet (38) indicated that curriculum research is distinctive in that it is the work of studying systematically the conditions under which changes in human behavior occur. Chase (15) suggested that research findings must be assimilated into the central nervous system of the person before they can become effective. DeLong (20) described several trends in the literature on learning that gave evidence of the acceptance of a new frame of reference in this field. The focus seemed to shift to the learner and to related patterns.Another emerging emphasis in curriculum research related to the study of special groups of children. Passow (57) described a series of studies. The U. S. Office of Education (71) initiated as major projects studies which dealt with the mentally handicapped and with retention and continuation of students in school. Such studies are of marked interest and relate directly to problems of grouping which urgently need systematic inquiry.A growing development in curriculum research related to the participation of teachers in the research process. There appeared to be emerging in the literature "case studies" of efforts to improve. Beach (9), Parkin (56), Helfant (35), and others reported that teachers tried out scores of practices and made efforts to use such activities for modifying their work. Hand (33) and Johnson, Sanford, and Hand (40) dealt with ways of organizing for curriculum improvement. They sought answers to 295 at FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIV on May 30, 2015 http://rer.aera.net Downloaded from REVIEW OF EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH Vol. XXVII, No. 3