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Recent worldwide trends in curriculum policy have re-emphasised the role of teachers in school-based curriculum development. Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence is typical of these trends, stressing that teachers are agents of change. This paper draws upon empirical data to explore school-based curriculum development in response to Curriculum for Excellence. We focus on two case studies – secondary schools within a single Scottish local education authority. In the paper we argue that the nature and extent of innovation in schools is dependent upon teachers being able to make sense of often complex and confusing curriculum policy, including the articulation of a clear vision about what such policy means for education within each school. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper describes an exploratory trial conducted with 14–15 year-old students in English state schools who were studying business start-ups as part of a course in “Business Studies”. The intervention uses a “Story Grammar” strategy to improve students’ reasoning by increasing the frequency and complexity of their use of “connectives” such as “when”, “if” and “because”. The analysis reports positive effects of the intervention on students’ understanding as judged by the use of a standard examination style mark scheme, and the number and complexity of connectives used by students in their extended writing. By reporting effects on immediate target variables we are able to examine the causation with precision. Effects are reported through standardt-tests and effect size. We also discuss the design of the experiment and comment on its practicability as a model for investigating effects of classroom interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]