Middle Grades Curriculum

High stakes testing, standards, and accountability politics is taking us away from the importance of the affectivedomain in curriculum development. This critical learning domain is often an unrecognized and infrequentlyconsidered topic in the literature. Through this book we extend the current knowledge base byaddressing a curriculum model developed in the 1980s. We add a 2012 knowledge base as we delineate therole of self-perceptions in school-related learning, how middle level curriculum affects self-perceptions, andthe type of curriculum planning which enhances self-perceptions and improves learning in the cognitive,affective, and psychomotor domains.The combination of sound psychological principles and practical teaching and curriculum suggestions with an empirical basis makes the book attractiveto both higher education and local school professional libraries. In the former it will serve as the primary text in graduate and advanced undergraduatemiddle level education programs and practices courses. It might also be a primary text in courses or workshops in affective education or otherexperiences which emphasize affective, values, and self-concept. It also has potential as a supplementary text in undergraduate educational psychologycourses. At the in-service level this book could be used as a workshop resource or as a professional reference for middle level teachers, administrators,curriculum workers, and supervisors.Our interest in young adolescents and their school setting coincides with the fourth edition of This We Believe (NMSA, 2010). The self-enhancingschool is characterized by from-to statements; for example, from avoiding parents to working with parents. Using theory and research we discussthe costs of staying in the from position and the benefits derived from moving to the to position. By combining educational psychology andcurriculum development we make a unique contribution to middle grades curriculum developers.