Designing Guiding Principles for Twenty-First Century Curricula: Navigating Knowledge, Thinking Skills, and Pedagogical Autonomy in the Israeli Curriculum

This article discusses challenges posed to the design and enactment of twenty-first century school curricula by examining three core issues: pedagogical autonomy, the balance and integration of knowledge and thinking skills, and curricular flexibility. It focuses on how a committee of experts commissioned by the Israeli ministry of education to advise it on reforming the state curriculum responded to these challenges. The discussion highlights two fundamental questions in curriculum design: how to integrate global research finding with local conditions? and how to respond to a changing and unpredictable reality? To deal with the challenges, the article offers a model that aims to enhance the flexibility of the curriculum, and a list of criteria to assist educators on all levels in making informed curricular decisions. Although the analysis is situated within a particular cultural and national context the issues addressed have general and global implications.