A comparison of science education curricula in Iran and few other countries

It is assumed that the developed countries have effective science education curricula and any country like Iran wanting to improve its curriculum in this area should take a comparative look at its curriculum and those of the developed countries. Based on the documents available, many similarities and differences were observed between the Iranian curriculum and those of other countries. Similarities were more in goals and content as stated in the intended curricula. The differences were observed to be mainly in methods of both teaching and evaluation. Yet in all areas there seem to be a big gap between Iran and the countries included in the study. The gap in achievement, as demonstrated by TIMMS results, may be due to the impact of the implemented curriculum on the achieved curriculum.