Third, technology can provide tools that are analytically useful in various domains of practice,

for example. simulation, modeling and visualization tools in science and text analysis tools in
literature. Technologies that permit scientific visualization and dynamic modeling, for example,
make it possible for people in schools to use tools that are the same or very similar to the tools
that people who engage in professional practice use in their own work (Edelson, Gordin and
Pea,1997). These tools also make abstract concepts like feedback, tangible and dynamic for
learners (Jackson, Krajcik and Soloway, 2000).

Finally, technology provides tools that aid in reflection and improvement, including video tools
that allow teachers and others to consider and analyze their personal practice and the practice of
others. Computing applications that are readily available to learners, like multimedia authoring
tools, allow learners to display what they know in a variety of ways that extend well beyond text
or stand-and-deliver presentations (Mott and Klomes, 2001). These tools are also a way for
public and concrete reflection on what learnes know and what teachers do. These tools can allow
teachers to show students models of good performances and support formative assessment of
learning in the classroom. Video tools can also help teachers evaluate and improve their
curriculum, by assembling and aggregating student work so that teachers can look at it
collectively and can explore curriculum may be needed to improve student perfomances.

MAKING CURRICULUM DECISIONS

Research indicates that curriculum choices at both the classroom level and the school level can
matter a great deal to student learning. Not only do the cources students take influence their
overall achievement (Jones; 1984; Pelavin and Kane, 1990). so does the nature of the content
they experience within cources, in terms of the topics that are taught and the depth with which
key concepts are studied (Gamoran and Berends, 1987; Gamoran and Weinstein , 1995;
McKnight et al., 1987; Lee and others, 1995). Curricular approaches that take advantage of what
has been learned from research on learning and cognition have been found to promote greater
conceptual understanding. For example, students better acquire complex skills when their
teachers help them their teachers help them recognize patterns and develop self-monitoring
strategies, model thinking, scaffold the learning process and provide coaching while students use
their knowledge in a variety of applications. In addition, students are better able to generalize
and transfer knowledge when their teachers help them develop the ability to evaluate and
regulate their own learning, see patterns for transferring their knowledge, and gradually take on
more independence in their learning (Anderson, 1989; Good and Brophy, 1995). Curricular
approaches built on these principles have been found to develop higher-order skills and greater
conceptual understanding in the areas of reading (Duffy and Others, 1987b; Palincsar and
Brown, 1984, 1989) Writing (Englert and Raphael, 1989; Englert, Raphael and Anderson, 1992),
mathematics problem solving (Carpenter, Fennema, Paterson, 1989; Wood and Sellers, 1996)
and science (Otto and Shuck, 1983; Rubin and Norman, 1992). Teachers need to understand the
principles that underlie such successful approaches and be able to gauge how their curricular
decisions are likely to influence their students’ achievement.
Research on many decades of curriculum reforms also demonstrates that curriculum materials do
not teach themselves . Even very well-developed curricula that are successful when taught by
teachers who understand the way they approach content and the methods key require have been
much less successful when used by teachers who do not understand them (Good and Brophy,
1995). Thus teachers need to be able both to make good choices among curriculum options and
to study and deeply understand the teaching implications of the choices they or others in their
schools or districts have made.

Knowledge of the types of curriculum materials and resources available at particular grade levels
and for particular subject areas-and the ability to evaluate the utility of these for various
purposes-is particularly useful to beginning teachers. Prospective teachers should be aware of
major resources in their field and those that are in use locally, and know how to find additional
resources and critically assess what is available. For example, if the success for all reading
program, the writing process approach, and the Integrated Mathematics program are common in
the schools local graduates are likely to teach in, initial preparation might focus on the programs,
plus some other major programs in the field, allowing students to examine their methods,
stregths and weaknesses for various purposes and the ways they might be adapted and
augmented.

Teachers should be able to examine these kinds of materials in light of a state’s or district’s
standards, curriculum frameworks and assessments to evaluate to what extent and in what ways
they can be aligned, or to determine if there is a substantial mismatch between the content and
skills included in the curriculum materials and those students are expected to learn. Teachers also
need to understand the professional and contextual constrains on their curriculum decisions-
constraints that are inherent in the role of the teacher (Buchmann, 1986). These include such
things as the expectations of the school board and professional colleagues, as well as parents and
students, available resources; class size and composition; state or local curricular mandates; tests
that students will be held accountable for; diversity of leaners and the professional obligation to
support the success of all learners.

It is helpful for teachers to understand that there are a number of endemiccurricular issues
(Kliebard, 1988; Walker and Soltis, 1997) that derive from the unavoidable ethical and political
dimensions of curricular decision making.