Discusses assessment in the context of a national curriculum and issues that have arisen in England as a result of the introduction of a national curriculum about seven years ago. Outlines the public view, the official view, and teachers' views about assessment that were obtained using questionnaires. (JRH)

Despite some fears that small schools would have difficulty implementing the British National Curriculum, findings from 50 schools (9 with fewer than 100 students) show that small schools may provide greater opportunities for innovative curriculum and class organization and strong curricular leadership from headmasters who teach. (SK)

The York-Finnish Project compares how national-policy changes affect implementation in two countries where curriculum reforms are moving in opposite directions. English primary schools were implementing National Curriculum changes while Finnish schools developed decentralized curricula. Teachers in both countries experienced negative…

In two British schools 16 eighth graders were interviewed about their perceptions of design and technology curriculum. They enjoyed the subject, especially the act of creation. For many, conceptions of "real work" and enjoyment were antithetical. Design and technology appear to provide opportunities for engaging learning activities. (SK)

Conducted research projects carried out from 1996 to 1998 to study the role of "Teacher Assessment" (assessments made by teachers) in measuring student achievement under the British National Curriculum. Survey responses from 678 teachers and interviews with 117 teachers and administrators indicated how teachers made their assessments of…

The mingling of economic and institutional globalization forces with existing national education structures produces various paradoxical mixes of decentralized and centralized educational administration. This is demonstrated through brief case studies of education in France, the United States, Colombia, and Spain, and quantitative analysis of data…

Explores the expectations of the National Literacy Framework and highlights some problem areas in the context of the National Curriculum for English. Notes one such area relates to the assessment criteria which were selected from the framework to address children's understanding of organizational features of texts in reading and writing. Concludes…

The focus of this article is on examining Norwegian teachers' perception of what factors at the school's organisational level have facilitated their participation in a school-based health promotion project. The study is based on 12 semistructured interviews with teachers from two of the pilot schools participating in the European Network of Health…

In recent years, the mathematics achievement of Peruvian students has been evaluated in three national and two international studies. The results in all cases suggest very poor learning. A similar situation is found in many developing countries. In this study, we analyzed the opportunities to learn (OTL) mathematics of sixth grade students from…

The present study examined the extent to which motivation contributes to the prediction of school achievement among elementary school children beyond general mental ability ("g"). The sample consisted of "N" = 1678 nine-year-old UK elementary school children who took part in the Twins Early Development Study (TEDS). Teachers…

This article reports the results of a research study on the impact of environmental education (EE) upon English primary school teachers, and it then discusses the findings of the study in relation to education for sustainable development, as EE is considered one of the two precursors of education for sustainable development. The article begins by…

A study researched the development of consumer education in British schools 5 years after the introduction of the national curriculum. Information was gathered through the following methods: a literature review, questionnaires sent to all local education authorities (LEAs) in England and Wales and all primary and secondary schools in two LEAs in…

This information packet contains the 1997 results of the Assessment of Achievement Programme (AAP), established by the Scottish Office Education and Industry Department to monitor the performance of pupils in Scottish schools in particular areas of the curriculum. The packet contains two booklets on the results of the 1997 mathematics survey and…

This project examines the impact of standards-based and curriculum reforms on the role of materials in educational systems in the United Kingdom, the United States of America, and Australia. The project focused on identifying activities undertaken by publishing companies and in educational systems to develop, select and use materials in the…

Secondary-level technology programs in Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan (also known as the "Four Little Dragons") were compared by using a methodology incorporating four stages: description, interpretation, juxtaposition, and comparison. It was discovered that, in all four countries, technology education is required for all…