Utilization IDENTIFIERS *Research Trends

This paper identifies the general shifts in curriculum research from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s. Information is drawn from periodic reviews or summaries of the research literature. A comparatively larger number and variety of individual studies have been reported, but places to publish state-of-the-art curriculum reviews have become more scarce. Because of these factors, specialized and fragmented reviews have replaced systematic, comprehensive'ones. Curriculum scholars have turned from positivistic inquiry to a range of newer forms of inquiry in a climate of uncertainty and defensiveness. Less attention has been paid to what needs to be studied in the curriculum field. Researchers ' conception of curriculum has changed. Curriculum is no longer thought of as a deductive science but as a practical art. Recent curriculum research has become more aligned with this new conception. Two earlier papers by the author on this topic are appended. "Curriculum Knowledge: Kinds and Processes " (1974) discusses four types of knowledge generated by properly conducted curriculum research: disciplinary; conjunctive; technological; and practical. "Another Look at Curriculum Knowledge " (1984) contains the author's positive and negative reactions to his 1974 paper. (JAZ) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made fram the original document