Citizenship education (CE) is a recent innovation within the National Curriculum in England, key aspects of which have a clear relevance to the "Every Child Matters" (ECM) agenda. Both CE and ECM strongly articulate a commitment to democratic principles and express a concern over children's perspectives being taken into account in order…

In this article, Simon Butler advances a strong case for "comments only" marking. Good assessment, he argues, is about encouraging students to reflect on their current performance and take responsibility for their own progress. Assigning Levels to pupils' work is often justified in terms of the generation of targets which help to…

This paper is intended to contribute to the debate about how to raise standards of literacy. It summarizes early evidence from HMI (Her Majesty's Inspectors) about the teaching of writing within the National Literacy Strategy and exemplifies good practice in the schools inspected by HMI. In some respects it breaks with tradition in quoting…

Describes a series of 1991-94 events observed in an English primary school that are typical examples of school response to an externally imposed innovation--assessment of pupils against the progressive learning scale in the national curriculum. Focused reflective practice, through reference to change events and types of teacher response, enhances…

This article, which is based on research funded by the Nuffield Foundation, examines the responses of higher education institutions (HEIs) to the recent reform of advanced level qualifications in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, known as "Curriculum 2000". The research, undertaken in late 2002 and early 2003 following the…

Taking the recently released Junior Secondary School Chemistry Curriculum (JSSCC) in the People's Republic of China as a case, this paper approaches the issue of how to realize the idea of scientific literacy within a secondary school science curriculum. Subject matter and its companion meanings were used as the framework to explore the embedding…

The primary purpose of this study was to describe the value orientations of a sample of English preservice physical education teachers and to evaluate their compatibility with the National Curriculum for Physical Education (NCPE). A second purpose was to determine whether there were differences between the value orientations of preservice teachers…

What can listening to children's ideas about poetry teach us? This article considers ways in which exploring primary-aged students' perceptions of poetry can inform teachers' work with children. Using strategies from earlier studies in secondary schools, a small-scale project with Year 6 students revealed their complex and sometimes contradictory…

The future of physical education (PE) depends on the quality of emerging committed professionals and their ability to teach across the different activity areas contained within the National Curriculum for Physical Education (NCPE). It is a role that requires extensive subject knowledge and perceived competence in the ability to use it effectively.…

This position paper has been produced in order to inform some of the current debates on National Curriculum Assessment in England. The Education and Skills Committee of the House of Commons has announced an inquiry into Testing and Assessment. In part this will examine testing and assessment in primary and secondary education as a key issue.…

The concept of national identity has evolved during the last half century within the Korean social studies curriculum. There have been seven curricular revisions since the first national curriculum was released in 1955. Each time the concept of national identity was changed with the biggest changes to this concept within the last two iterations of…

This study evaluated how 30 British primary school classes implemented inclusion of students with special educational needs (SEN) in the curriculum's literacy hour. It examined resources, teaching techniques, timetabling, personnel, classroom organization, location, and training. Findings indicated most SEN students were included in literacy…

At its annual conference, the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development pressed for educational change. The conference opened with Martin Davies's description of Britain's national curriculum as little short of an educational revolution. Kati Haycock, vice president of the Children's Defense Fund, called for a new financial commitment…

Lists and discusses the ways in which the author sees the "Initial Teacher Training National Curriculum for Primary English 1997" as unnecessary. Examines the document's language and finds many omissions as to what exactly is the "core curriculum." (PA)

Conducted a confirmatory factor analysis of score profiles of the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) in the United Kingdom to determine whether tests can replace teacher-assessed coursework in the GCSE. Results suggest that replacing school project work by tests could undo a wholesale replacement of school project work by tests.…