The new curriculum is designed as part of a larger scale curriculum reform initiative in Turkey that includes five subject matter areas: mathematics, science, social science, life science and Turkish. The curriculum is designed for each of the courses under the guidance of a common set of fundamentals with four components, (a) Social, (b) Individual, (c) Economical and (d) Historical and Cultural fundamentals. The Turkish Ministry of National Education (MNE) proposed that the fundamentals would serve as an umbrella guiding the overall initiative (MNE, 2004a). In this paper, our focus is to discuss the common fundamental ideas and classroom practices in all the five subject matter areas. Thus, when we use the term curriculum or program, we refer to these common points. It is not within the goals of this study to examine each content area curriculum separately.
A quick overview of the four components indicates that the MNE targeted a large area of interest. Although each component characterises a unique fundamental aspect of the curriculum, there are considerable overlaps among them. In particular, the social, and the historical and cultural components are drawn from the same roots of the Turkish society. It is also implied that the MNE does not only value the cultural and social roots, but also the individuality of students. The curriculum reform is initiated as an attempt to improve students’ personality development as well as their social development. It may even be perceived as a paradigm shift in the Turkish educational system to put a considerable amount of emphasis on individuality considering the fact that the dynamics of the Turkish socio-cultural system do not encourage individual development as much as social development.
The Turkish curriculum development process is no more different than what has been accomplished in other parts of the world. An overview of the recent literature indicates that different nations have implemented curriculum reforms according to their social, cultural and economic needs, but it seems that their main purpose is to increase the quality of schooling (Flouris and Pasias, 2003; Huang, 2004). Huang (2004) explains the importance of seven goals to be addressed within China’s curriculum reform. These are establishing the new curriculum philosophy, developing educational objectives, renewing educational content, reconstructing a model of curriculum organisation, innovating in curriculum materials, establishing an active mode of teaching and instruction, and establishing a new system of curriculum evaluation. Huang also emphasised six strategies to accomplish these goals. These strategies are improving the system of curriculum management, redeveloping the mechanism of curriculum reform, promoting