In our country the tension to meet academic standards is high because the stakes are high. National standards set by NCTE are being developed to bring structure to the curriculum of what students should know and be able to do. This book "Knowledge and Curriculum" takes a step back and considers the conventional model of curriculum design in India related to the issue of standards. Does "raising standards" mean learning more content, which is delineated through "objectives"? Or Does it mean using critical content as a tool to understanding key concepts and principles of a discipline, and applying understanding in the context of a complex performance? From a review of national standards, it is clear that most disciplines favour the latter goal. Certainly, knowing is important for an educated person. But conventional models of curriculum design have focused so heavily on the information level that most teachers lack training for teaching beyond the facts. Yet the standards and newer assessments assume that students will demonstrate complex thinking, deeper understanding, and sophisticated performance. This book discusses the essential nature of the concept-based curriculum and instruction for the prospective teachers. As we go for deeper understanding we achieve following objectives: Taking thinking beyond the facts to facilitate deep understanding and the transfer of knowledge • Systematically developing a conceptual schema in the brain to handle new information • Meeting higher academic standards related to content knowledge, process abilities, and quality performance The goal of this book is to raise awareness of the differences between topical and concept-based models of curriculum and instruction, and to provide some concept- based examples from different areas around the country and world. This book presents components that are critical in a quality concept-process design model, but it leaves he formatting of documents up to the local requirements. This book deals with ssessment only as it pertains to the design of performance tasks and scoring guidelines r instructional units. We need a new model to bridge the curriculums of academic