Critical Review of the Book Theoretical and Practical Approaches to Curriculum Development in Higher Education

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

PhD in Curriculum Studies, member of the Research Institute of Education (RIE), and secretary of the Educational Sciences Group in The Iranian Council for Reviewing Books and Texts on Human Sciences, Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies

Abstract

This article aimed to review critically the book Theoretical and Practical Approaches to Curriculum Development in Higher Education. The research was carried out through  critical philosophical exploration method. The book, that is the case of this study, was written by Nasr, Etemadizadeh (Darikvandi), and Nili, and was published in 2011 by the cooperation of SAMT organization and University of Isfahan. The tool for reviewing this book was a checklist for university textbooks provided by The Iranian Council for Reviewing Books and Texts on Human Sciences. The data analysis was taken place by qualitative content analysis. According to the findings, the strong points of the book are its fluent and expressive writing, the congruence of its content with religious and Islamic   principles, and using scientific tools. The weak points of the work were its inappropriate cover design, several editing mistakes, lack of total coherence and logical order, lack of coherence and logical order in chapters, using outdated sources, inappropriate citation, uncertain and ambiguous references, carelessness in the scientific analysis of problems, lacking innovation, using obsolete content, carelessness to the theoretical bases of curriculum studies, inappropriate conformity and comprehensiveness, and inappropriate equivalents for translated words. Overall, regarding the strong and weak points of the book, it is not well organized and requires a major revision.

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