This primary text provides the backbone for a basic curriculum course at either the senior or graduate level. The book shows how the parts of a curriculum fit together and helps students identify assumptions underlying curricula. In doing so, students develop the ability to determine why a curriculum proves better for some students than for others; what approaches to teaching are compatible with a particular curriculum; what difficulties a curriculum is likely to encounter during implementation; and what kinds of changes parents, students, and administrators are likely to demand.
One the one hand, it's a fairly engaging read and a very good way to explore the different perspectives and dichotomies in curriculum analysis, evaluation, and implementation. But, it is inconsistent with its examples, is sometimes maddeningly vague, and has a surprising number of typos for a 3rd edition. Also, quite slanted against behaviorism (not that I have a large problem with that).
This book was terrible. The class I had to read it for did not utilize the text in any way. Furthermore, the research is outdated and at this point (2013), almost irrelevant. I also take a lot of issue with Posner's lack of definition of certain term.