There is a strong body of evidence that science was not taught consistently to primary-aged children across England and that their memories of science prior to 1989 centre around the "nature table." While secondary initial teacher education (ITE) before the National Curriculum had a strong subject focus, this was rarely the case for…

What is the role of Citizenship? How can it be taught effectively? The fully updated second edition of "Learning to Teach Citizenship in the Secondary School" is an essential text for students training to teach Citizenship as a first or second subject, as well as experienced teachers who have opted to take responsibility for this vital…

Background: This paper develops an analysis of how "educability" and "physical ability" are socially configured through the practices of physical education (PE) in schools. We pursue this interest as part of a broader project, shared by many in the wider community of social science researchers in PE, to better understand how…

Compares recent educational assessment policies of the United States and England. Asserts that the two nations are moving closer in their approach to educational assessment and student evaluation. Contends that U.S. social studies educators should follow closely the ramifications of national assessment in England. (CFR)

Following the introduction of a National Curriculum for Science, all secondary science teachers in England need to be prepared to teach all aspects of a broad and balanced science curriculum. This is the second paper in which we explore science student teachers' subject knowledge development during a one-year postgraduate teacher preparation…

Discusses how teachers put together a science department portfolio of student work representing National Curriculum levels. (MKR)

How happy are you about teaching science? Building on similar work from the Leverhulme Primary Project and the Primary Horizons, the authors pursued this question with 303 head teachers, science coordinators, and class teachers across England in a recent questionnaire survey. The findings point to very real progress being made in many areas of…

About fifteen years ago, the author discovered an interesting activity in some materials that Malcolm Swan from the Shell Centre (University of Nottingham, UK) had developed for the English National Curriculum Council in 1991. The activity, one which has been used by several presenters in professional development workshops in Australia in recent…

The author's favourite film musical is "The King and I." Of the several catchy songs in the film her favourite is "Getting to know you," which is sung firstly by the governess to the children and then the children to her. The author hereby declares this to be "The Song of Science," with "you" being the "system" being studied (e.g. plant, elastic…

Defines economic awareness as a critical awareness of the use of scarce resources. Identifies the three major perspectives of economic awareness as knowledge, procedure and needs-based. States that it is possible to coalesce these perspectives into a fourth eclectic perspective, and to provide guidelines for teachers in line with the national…

The use of the Internet in the classroom has often been characterized as a practice that disconnects the teacher from traditional forms of externally imposed influence. This paper examines this assertion by mapping the emerging field of cybereducation and considering how endemic knowledge is contextualized by national curricular authorities. The…

The National Literacy Strategy (NLS) was introduced into schools in England in 1998 with the aim of raising the literacy attainments of primary-aged children. The Framework for Teaching the Literacy Hour, a key component of the NLS, proposes an interpretation of literacy that emphasises reading, writing and spelling skills. An investigation of the…

With the introduction of the latest national curriculum, using and applying mathematics retained its attainment target within the level descriptions, but the programme of study was integrated into the programmes of study for curriculum content (number, shape, space, and measures). This brought it in line with the national numeracy strategy, which…

Whilst formative assessment is now well established as a valuable practice in improving the involvement and attainment of pupils, its specific implementation in particular school subjects has received little attention. This paper sets out to discuss the development of formative assessment practices in the learning of languages. A general…

In this unit of work, Year 3 children will learn to use the contents and index pages and to extract information about "Teeth and eating" from different types of non-fiction texts, including ICT (Information and Communications Technology) texts. After analyzing a non-chronological report, they will write a report on the subject of…