Downloads & Free Reading Options - Results

This paper begins by examining two approaches to defining and measuring adolescents' understanding of the public good: (1) theories concerning stages of moral and cognitive development and political socialization; and (2) attitudinal survey methods. Methodological deficiencies of the approaches are identified. The paper presents a new method of conceptualizing and assessing adolescents' understanding which involves the use of think aloud problem solving and related tools of cognitive psychology. This method produces graphic maps of adolescents' schemata of society, self, and others. Findings of a pilot study on schemata of the political system are reported. Further evidence for the use of think aloud problem solving and for the analysis of such problem solving by means of schema-maps in studies of adolescents' understanding of the common good is provided through a reconceptualization of Adelson and others' (1969, 1966) research on adolescents' solutions to hypothetical dilemmas. Discussion concludes that schema-mapping offers a concrete way of operationalizing either a diffuse conceptualization of society or a complex and well-organized conceptualization which includes institutions, principles, and linkages between action and the public good. (RH)

This paper is a proposal for a curriculum of the future in the changing society of Nigeria. A deliberate effort is made to prescribe and predict elements essential for a responsive and dynamic futuristic curriculum, without necessarily describing the specific details of such a curriculum. Although predicting the shape of education in the future is risky, it is contended that unless modern man adapts his thinking and his behavior to the realities of the present and plans for the future, he is most likely to repeat endlessly the mistakes of the past. Most of the ideas suggested for the future of the curriculum in Nigeria are accordingly offered as possible guides for Nigeria's new system of education. Topics covered include the concept of responsiveness to technological and social developments, the concept of balance in the curriculum of the future, teachers in the curriculum of the future, creativity, and decentralization. A five-item bibliography is included. (Author/TE)