e how balance and integration of different elements in the syllabus or of
different skills will be achieved.school-based curriculum development n
an educational movement which emerged in some countries in the 1960s
and which argued that the planning, designing, implementation and evalu-
ation of a programme of students’ learning should be carried out by the
educational institutions of which these students are members (i.e. schools)
rather than by an external institution, such as a state department of educa-
tion or a national curriculum centre. The movement towards school-based
curriculum development reflects a more general philosophy of learner-
centredness and was an attempt to develop learning programmes that
were more relevant to students’ interests and needs by involving schools,
learners, and teachers in the planning and decision making.
see also learner-centred approach
school-based management n
an approach to the management of schools advocated in some parts of
the world and that shifts responsibility for curriculum planning, budgets,
hiring, assessment and other aspects of schooling away from a central
administration such as a ministry or department of education, to a school’s
principal, teachers, parents and other members of the community. In the US
charter schools are an example of this approach. They operate with
some public funding but with considerable freedom from state and local
regulations. They are often managed by parents and teachers operating
under a charter that spells out what they plan to accomplish.
school culture n
the patterns of communication, decision-making, interactions, role rela-
tions, administrative practice and conduct that exist within a school or
educational institution. Schools, like other organizations, develop their
own ethos or environment and have their own distinctive ways of doing
things, which might be favourable or unfavourable to encouraging change
or innovation. The process of curriculum development or change often
includes changes to the school culture.
schwa n
also shwa
a short vowel usually produced with the tongue in a central position in
the mouth and with the lips unrounded. The phonetic symbol for a schwa
is [v].
schwa