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Classroom music teachers in England design their own music curricula for Key Stage 3 (11 − 14 year olds, 6th – 8th Grades). These curricula are designed in a context where policymakers define, regulate and legitimate curriculum formulations. This study traced curriculum development in England, where government has validated a policy driven approach. It explored programs of study, which music teachers in England design as summaries of musical learning for Key Stage 3. The research consisted of documentary analysis in a two-phase study of 13 secondary (high) schools in the English midlands, exploring musical knowledge for musical learning, which is analyzed utilizing qualitative and quantitative methodologies. The paper concludes with a discussion which explores the impacts of music education policy on classroom practices, and presents a proposed model which captures this interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper reports on the findings of work to develop a Clinical Leadership Competency Framework (CLCF) that will be used by all the regulated clinical professions across the UK. The CLCF was created, with the agreement of the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement and the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, from the Medical Leadership Competency Framework (MLCF), which was created and developed and is owned jointly by the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement and the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges. Although the context and scenarios described in the MLCF are particular to doctors, the generic leadership competences were considered potentially applicable to all clinicians in their practitioner roles. The aim of this project was to work with the clinical professions to build leadership awareness and capability across the health service, by assessing the readiness of the clinical professions to embed leadership competences in undergraduate education, postgraduate training and continuing professional development. The work that has been undertaken to date shows that there is widespread recognition that leadership is important, and that the development of clinical leadership is viewed as absolutely critical. It represents a fundamental change in the way we train and educate clinicians. The next step for the CLCF project team is to work with professional bodies, regulators and education establishments to help them to embed the CLCF effectively, and this work is already under way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bringing about significant change in a mature and successful work-integrated learning (WIL) scheme is quite a difficult thing to accomplish. The University of Surrey, which has a long established WIL scheme based on year-long professional training work placements, has embarked on a programme of research and development aimed at adapting and enhancing its WIL model for learning by adopting a life-wide concept of learning and curriculum. The intention is to develop a new University Award through which an individual's life-wide learning enterprise can be encouraged, supported, valued and publicly recognized. This paper describes the concepts that are intended to inspire change and the initial steps to try to turn a good educational idea into new organizational practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we adopt Bernstein's notion of the pedagogic device to serve as a framework for explaining conflict and change in the field of literacy education across the past few decades, particularly in England, the USA and Australia. Following an overview of the pedagogic device and related constructs, we examine the relationship between the field of knowledge production and how this has been recontextualised into curriculum policy, firstly in the period when 'progressivist' pedagogy was in the ascendant, exemplified by the whole language movement, and then when a more 'skills' orientation took sway, with phonics as its touchstone. We argue that the pedagogic device provides a useful context for exploring how ideology operates both within fields and at the interfaces between fields. In particular, the sets of binary oppositions proposed by Bernstein can be used in crude form to describe the entrenched polarisations experienced in the field of literacy education - or they can be used in a more nuanced way to open up new possibilities for change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the policy and practice of choice, flexibility and differentiation within the 14-19 curriculum in England. After first locating these issues within contemporary curriculum policy it adopts a historical analysis tracing perspectives and practice since 1945. This narrative exposes complex oscillation in policy and practice in relation to curricular choice and differentiation, especially for 14-16 year olds. The paper ends by raising parallels between current and past policy and practice and suggests the need to engage in a more fundamental and informed curriculum dialogue in relation to choice, flexibility and differentiation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates developments in the teaching of food technology introduced as an element of design & technology in the 1990 National Curriculum for Technology in the English primary curriculum for children aged five to eleven years. It reviews briefly the situation for food teaching before 1990 and identifies a number of relevant issues. This is followed by an overview of developments in food technology in primary schools between 1992 and 2001, highlighting the need for primary teachers and trainee teachers on initial teacher education courses to develop an understanding of how to teach food technology in their schools. The development of teaching materials through the Nuffield Approach to food technology in primary schools is outlined together with a case study of the use of the materials in initial teacher education at the University of Surrey Roehampton. The paper describes the uptake of Nuffield Primary food technology materials as measured by down loads from the Nuffield Primary Design & Technology web site. Alongside this, there are reflections of primary trainee teachers on the impact of using the Nuffield food technology materials on their classroom practice during school experience. It concludes with a discussion of the key issues arising from the paper and suggestions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the ways in which teachers exploited a set of curriculum materials published as a vehicle for curriculum innovation, and the relationship between chosen modes of exploitation and teachers' own perceptions of how the materials had 'added value' to their teaching. The materials in question were developed by the Nuffield Design and Technology Project ('the Project') to offer a pedagogy appropriate to the statutory curriculum for secondary school design and technology education in England and Wales (DFE/WO 1995). The Project had sought both to inform the statutory curriculum, and respond to its requirements. An earlier case study (Givens 1997) laid the foundations for the survey that is reported here. This paper focuses on the teaching of pupils aged 11–14. It finds that while most teachers made at least some use of all the various components of the publications, they were selective. While the Study Guide, which carries out a meta-cognitive dialogue with pupils, was generally underused, those teachers who did use it perceived greater value added by the materials as a whole to the quality of pupils' work, their effectiveness in design and technology and their autonomy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much work on school effectiveness has been based on cross-sectional comparisons between schools. Longitudinal studies of schools over time may complement this approach. Changes in both school practice and pupil outcomes were monitored in a five year study of change in six London secondary schools. This paper reports on changes in outcomes, illustrating marked improvements in some areas. A companion paper (Ouston, Maughan & Rutter, in press) explores associated changes in school practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the development of the design and technology component of the National Curriculum of England and Wales from its inception in 1988 to its current form in 1995 and the influence of the Nuffield Design and Technology Project in this process. The paper discusses the Nuffield approach to four important issues — breadth and balance, continuity and progression, differentiation and clarity of content. The paper discusses the role of the teacher and identifies four important features required for successful teaching. The paper describes the work of the Project in providing continual professional development for design and technology teachers including the work of area field officers to support teachers who are using the Project publications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the expressed models that children aged 7, 11, and 14 years have about micro-organisms and microbial activity. These were elicited using a variety of data collection techniques that complemented each other, resulting in a rich dataset, and provided information about the level of knowledge and progression of ideas across the age range studied. Subsequent analysis of the data enabled generalised mental models of micro-organisms to be derived that indicate a hierarchy in the sophistication and accuracy of the concepts explored. The resulting mental models were categorised as extended, transitional, and emergent and characterise the ideas held by some children in each of the age groups studied. The implications for curriculum development and consequences for learning and teaching microbiology are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the potential impact of a national pilot initiative in England aimed at increasing and widening participation in advanced mathematical study through the creation of a new qualification for 16- to 18-year-olds. This proposed qualification pathway- Use of Mathematics-sits in parallel with long-established, traditional advanced level qualifications, what we call 'traditional Mathematics' herein. Traditional Mathematics is typically required for entry to mathematically demanding undergraduate programmes. The structure, pedagogy and assessment of Use of Mathematics is designed to better prepare students in the application of mathematics, and its development has surfaced some of the tensions between academic/pure and vocational/applied mathematics. Here, we explore what Use of Mathematics offers, but we also consider some of the objections to its introduction in order to explore aspects of the knowledge politics of mathematics education. Our evaluation of this curriculum innovation raises important issues for the mathematics education community as countries seek to increase the numbers of people that are well prepared to apply mathematics in science and technology-based higher education courses and work places. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a discussion of the complexities that arise from addressing issues of cultural diversity in the early years context. It explores the challenges of developing an effective early years provision and pedagogy that values cultural difference within the framework of a mandated curriculum, The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) in England. The discussion presents a critical debate based on the argument that the task of constructing an inclusive early years curriculum remains contentious. This is especially the case as children's cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds challenge the assumptions of normality and universality that are typically produced within policy rhetoric and curricular guidelines for group provision. The discussion draws on the poststructuralist theoretical framework of Foucault and Derrida to critique notions of diversity and difference. It then provides an analysis of the EYFS as an example of the challenges that arise from attempts to address cultural diversity through the curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper draws on research with 4-7-year-olds in a South London primary school to provide a longitudinal case study of one child's relationship to mother tongue literacy within the classroom. The findings demonstrate how this child, from the age of 4, actively combined Gujarati and English to enhance her literacy learning, and to construct texts which synthesised home and school experience, It is argued that the current emphasis on a monolingual curriculum in English primary schools denies such opportunities to most bilingual children. Even for the child in this study, her biliteracy development was restricted by institutional constraints due to the lack of status afforded to literacies other than English in the educational system. The relevance of these issues for bilingual education in other English-dominant countries is considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article arises out of work undertaken within the After Religious Education project. It synthesizes the curriculum expertise of established researchers, with the expertise of current teachers of RE in England. A question drives our shared interests: how should we approach curriculum development in RE and how do we justify the approach taken? The article proceeds in three steps. First, we elaborate, contextualize, and justify this question by introducing varied approaches to the curriculum production in RE. We argue that these approaches lack a foundational influence from general didactics: an understanding of subject matter that is informed by distinctively educational theory. Addressing this omission, the second step presents an alternative approach to RE established on the 'Bildung/didactic' tradition, and the specific general didactic analysis of Klafki. Third, we explore this approach in relation to two teaching contexts, modelling these applications, and the principles they exemplify. We demonstrate the value of synthesizing theoretical and practical expertise for RE theory and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the costs and benefits of the increased use of modular or unitized qualification designs through a case study of the GCE A-level science curriculum in England. Following a brief review of the development of modular A-levels, the various proposed advantages of modularity - short-term goals and regular feedback, flexibility in curriculum design, and improved progression possibilities - are counterpoised by arguments about the disadvantages - such as fragmentation of knowledge and more instrumental approaches to assessment and learning. The article argues that on balance the costs of the move to modularization in terms of the impact on teachers' capacities to help young people understand science outweigh the perceived benefits of improved examination success rates. Given this balance we account for the growing popularity of modular approaches using a path dependency model and increasing returns process which combine features of the English educational landscape, in particular narrow accountability systems, to the increasing desirability of modular approaches to curriculum design for learners, teachers and educational organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an overview of a pull-out enrichment project in Cheltenham targeted at academically able 9- to 10- year old (Year Five) children. The structure and curriculum of the project are detailed and the ways in which children have benefited from participation are discussed in the light of an evaluation of the programme, as are the drawbacks. The benefits of key aspects of the project are highlighted for schools that might be interested in setting up similar programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sex and Relationship Education (SRE) in England has been the focus of critical scrutiny on several occasions, but there has been little attention paid to how teachers formulate their provision, especially given their crucial role in determining what is taught in the classroom. While current policy suggests that provision should be inclusive of sexual diversity, it simultaneously gives educators the scope to determine the form this takes. This is an important issue given the substantial impact that teachers’ views and discourses have on what is taught. Using a discourse analytical framework, this study sought to examine how teachers of SRE formulate and account for their provision, with a particular focus on how their assumptions about young people’s sexual health needs underpin their actions. Initially, teachers sought to formulate their activities in terms of an overall ethos, providing legitimacy for the key elements of their programme being aligned with official government health promotion strategy, as opposed to other areas such as pleasure and diversity. This was supported by their constructions of young people, particularly young women and individuals from ‘at risk’ communities, as being particularly vulnerable. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Little is known about the knowledge and opinions of UK medical undergraduates on NHS structure medical management and leadership. Recent reports have emphasised the importance of developing these attributes in future doctors whilst highlighting currently an uncertainty and possible knowledge gap amongst undergraduates. This study investigates these areas by surveying 240 students from one UK medical school. Forty-eight percent can correctly identify all the hospitals making up their trust, 39% can identify the medical director of the NHS and 60% the nature of the Quality and Outcomes Framework. Seventy-six percent think that doctors should understand the economic factors affecting the NHS, 84% think that NHS structure, medical management and leadership are important and 64% feel more is required from their curriculum in these areas. Knowledge levels and perception of its relative importance both increase as medical students become more senior. Medical management and leadership knowledge and skills are currently lacking in undergraduates but there is a desire amongst many to learn and develop these areas, and a responsibility upon teaching faculty to ensure this is embedded in clinical placements. This study supports teaching of medical management and leadership as an integrated subject into all aspects of the medical curriculum currently being implemented at Imperial College London and other UK medical schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food technology is an essential part of the school curriculum, providing students with the knowledge and skills to become informed consumers in the future. This article reflects the current changes that are influencing what is happening in food technology classrooms in secondary schools in England from the perspective of a recent head of Food and Advanced Skills Teacher. Accordingly, this article commences with a review of the changeable position of food technology within the school curriculum, followed by a discussion of each of the Key Stages (3, 4 and 5) in light of recent developments that have been adopted to support the delivery of good food education in England. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides an interim report on a two-phase study of curriculum innovation in primary schools in England during one of the most significant periods of change for the last two decades. More specifically, the study addresses the challenges to school leaders created by the Rose Review of the primary curriculum. This article presents and analyses the data from Phase 1 of the project and is based on 12 interviews conducted in three successful primary schools. The main finding of Phase 1 of the study was that in order to be successful in curriculum innovation school leaders need to create a clear ethos for change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The year 2007 was a significant one for the International Baccalaureate (IB) in England and Wales. Several milestones were reached, and the number of schools offering the curriculum reached one hundred. This article charts the growth and development in England and Wales of this continuum of international education and shows how the Diploma Programme, in particular, has reached a fundamental crossroads. On the one hand, the IB looks set for further growth and has the ability to be an influential and respected catalyst for the movement towards international education in curriculum development. On the other hand, the IB is emerging as an elite programme of study alongside other 'baccalaureate' curricula and in competition to A level, and other 'Diploma' developments. The ability of the IB to be a divisive force is explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores a community-based project documenting the histories of 15 refugee communities in London with a major exhibition at the Museum of London. While the focus of the article is concerned with the educational aspects of the project, an important argument suggests the inseparability of educational and pedagogic issues from a wider set of political influences. The article begins with an overview of the Refugee Community Histories Project, followed by a more detailed discussion of the postgraduate courses that made up its educational component and concludes with a reflection on the tensions arising from the differing priorities and interests of the project's participants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the school-linking project between Richard Bonington School in Nottingham, England and St. Anthony's High School in Goa, India. The link is part of a small-scale research and curriculum development project within the context of Nottingham Trent University's Initial Teacher Training Partnership Programme. Local schools were addressing global citizenship by establishing school-linking programs. The link has provided a variety of curriculum development and research opportunities including teacher exchanges and a student study visit.

This article is a shortened version of an inaugural professorial lecture given at the University of Greenwich on 19 January 2005 as an intervention in the debate at that time within that university and other English further and higher education institutions over the appropriate level of fees to charge in 2006. It anticipates the likely effects upon FE and HE and the relations between them of the rise in fees in both sectors and is set in the context of contemporary historical changes to distinguish new divisions of knowledge and skill, information and competence in the labour market and the wider society. Instead of the partial curricular reform that was proposed by the Tomlinson Report on 14–19 qualifications and its extension to HE as a way of overcoming these divisions, free public universities and colleges are advocated as the best means of maintaining the best traditions of further and higher learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On 1 August 1989, the introduction of a National Curriculum of subjects to all maintained schools throughout England and Wales brought compulsory science education into the primary sector for the first time. As a direct result of its elevated profile and an immense amount of hard work and effort by teachers and other professionals responding to requirements, science education provision benefited enormously. Despite this, however, successive overhauls and radical revisions of primary science have brought about many questionable changes, some not necessarily for the better or resulting in improvement. This article presents a critical, analytical and personal review of the history and development of science in the primary school and draws attention to the need for care at times when classroom practices and expectations are driven by national science curricula that remain to be fully informed. Astronomy is used to contextualize some of the changes at their most extreme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brunel University currently has four distance learning MSc courses, with over 500 students registered, and one undergraduate distance learning course. Some have been running for over five years, and well-established practices have been developed and provide a basis of support for the university. Quality assurance in the university has always been considered in three, equally important, ways: the curriculum and its assessment; the handling of coursework and assignments; and the liaison with students. The lesson we have learned is that a distance learning programme must be based on an existing full-time MSc programme, which is the gold standard for curriculum and its assessment, and where possible, common examinations and assessment be used. This can be further assured by scrutinisation by the associated research council. This is going to become ever more important with the increasing scrutiny by overseas governments on the academic quality of distance learning courses, which seek assurance on the comparability and quality of degrees. Quality assurance for the handling of coursework and assignments must be secure and demands a high overhead of paperwork. Detailed feedback to students on their assignments is essential, but this can, at the same time, form a quality assurance check for later progression decisions. We also copy and retain approximately 10% of the assignments for the same purpose. Rapid turnaround is essential if feedback is to be timely and therefore useful, and quality checks on processing time should be standard. Quality assurance for the procedures for liaison with distance learning students are somewhat harder to measure quantitatively. The mark of good distance learning must be its tutorial support. This demands good communications. Our own course, entitled Data Communications Systems, benefits from the high proportion of use of electronic communications, namely email, which allows fast turnaround of questions, yet is not intrusive. However, it is deemed essential that hard copy of all such correspondence is kept. Migration to other Internet support services, such as the World Wide Web, videoconferencing and groupware, is inevitable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the problems with combining different disciplines in the production of a course about the theory of curriculum design at the Open University in Milton Keynes, England. Arousal of barriers-between-disciplines in the teaching strategies; Relationship between autonomy and needs-analysis; Importance of considering factors to promote cooperation between interdisciplinary teams.

The article highlights the educational principles in assessing the performance of Sutton Comprehensive School in Sutton, England. The first is the role of establishing tutor group where a teacher undertakes at least one session with parents, young and older children and adults in general. The next principle is the curriculum planning in which the school aims to provide an introduction to the principles involved in teaching and learning and the third is the keeping of student records where "O" level is seen as a concrete and irreversible achievement because parents' backgrounds are known to influence what they want the school to do.

The article examines the individual factors involved in the academic success of the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne in England. According to a study, ratings of the total achievement, professional suitability, and other characteristics worthy to success in Town and Country Planning were given by year masters. On the other hand, psychometric evaluations of intellect, study habits, and twenty personality factors were also created. Results show that Good Town and Country Planning students have certain personality characteristics.

The article presents information on the new determinants of Keele University in Staffordshire, England curriculum which paved the way for new University curriculum. From the first, demands for a University in North Staffordshire were made with an eye to the local industries. This early activity bore fruit not in a University College, but in a North Staffordshire Technical College. Yet subsequent demands for a University continued to have a peculiarly local flavour although from 1914 the Technical College was providing educational facilities related to the industries of North Staffordshire. There was a renewed and again unsuccessful demand for a local university in 1919 when the idea was canvassed in the local press by Tutorial Class Students, who emphasized that ones needs are peculiar to oneself and cannot adequately be met by facilities provided by other centers. It is hardly surprising therefore that when the idea of a North Staffordshire University was again broached in 1945 it represented a direct continuation of earlier demands for a North Staffordshire University. The 1943 Report of the Association of University Teachers emphasized on technology and social studies as two fields in which regional attachment' would provide a valuable stimulus. The Report also called for more active extension work by the Universities.

The article reports on the new course offered at the University of Sheffield in Sheffield, England. The course is entitled "Girls and Women in Computing," which deals with issues raised by the under-representation of women in all areas of information technology. "Girls and Women in Computing" will officially start on June 20, 1990 where its free cost about £45. For questions and inquiries on the course "Girls and Women in Computing" one may contact and coordinate with K. Wainright of the University of Sheffield.