This thesis is a case study of curriculum innovation in the primary school at a time of major change during the introduction of the National Curriculum. It involved a small number of primary schools, teachers and children. In particular the processes and impacts of the innovation were investigated. Action research methodology (Carr and Kemmis, 1986 McNiff, 1988) was employed and teachers' plans, classroom activities and children's responses were analysed. The research informs us about the nature and effects of opportunities created and constraints imposed by the National Curriculum. The case study indicates that teachers responded to the innovation as if it were a topic and not a single subject, but they incorporated National Curriculum subjects and themes into it. Geography was the major subject developed, but the teachers tended to view this subject as a body of knowledge, with accompanying skills, rather than a process of learning to be taught and this was related, at least in part, to the nature of the National Curriculum. A number of activities concerned with values and attitudes were developed, despite the lack of obvious links to the National Curriculum. The study shows that these teachers were 'pragmatists' rather than 'progressives' or 'traditionalists' in their use of teaching methods. The research also indicated the problems of the relationships between these teachers and the Project co-ordinator. The case study demonstrated that this Project had local relevance, had significant effects on teachers and children directly involved and reached a wider educational community who gave a generally favourable response, indicating the educational value of introducing work on travel and tourism to the primary curriculum.

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No description available.

This thesis addresses certain a ects of the issue of what it is to develop children's thinking and understanding with particular reference to primary education, and against the backdrop of the National Curriculum. It begins by identifying some of the professional responsibilities of teachers in this area and some of the judgments that they have to make in the course of their practice. Some of the pr blematic assumptions which underlie commonly held responses to the issues these judments raise are set out. The relationship between the development of thinking and understanding and other aspects of human life such as action and emotion are also given some preliminary discussion. The middle sections of the thesis explore and refine in a more theoretically systematic way some of the central issues previously raised by considering insights which have arisen in the context of two broad and contrasting perspectives - loosely termed "rationalist" and "existentialist" respectively. The conceptions of thinking and understanding that each of these emphasise and their broad curriculum implications are developed. It is argued that as well as suggesting certain basic dimensions to thinking - the "calculative", the "authentic" and the "poetic" (distinctions taken originally from Martin Heidegger) - the considerations raised by these views need to some extent to be interwoven if an adequate account of what it is to develop children's th nking and understanding s to be achieved In the final part of the thesis m re specific issues relating to the structuring and assessment of children s learning, and central aspects of the relationship between teacher and pupil n primary education, are explored in the light of previous analyss. Certain aspects of the National Curriculum at the primary stage of education are considered and some critical evaluation f some of its main features is offered.

This is a study that was conducted in order to explore Mthatha teachers’ experiences in relation to the implementation of the New Curriculum Statement (NCS). The new curriculum, having been introduced in 1997, presented some challenges that were encountered by the Junior Secondary School teachers, who were required to implement it. The challenges experienced by teachers included too much paperwork, confusion and stress, widespread learner underperformance in international and local assessments, teacher workload and the administrative burden. Ten schools from the population of schools in the Mthatha District were purposely sampled and data were collected. Quantitative and qualitative research methodologies were used to collect data from the participants who were teachers of Mthatha junior secondary schools. Questionnaires were used to collect data from teachers and structured interviews were given to school managers. The data were analyzed manually and by using SPSS Windows version 19.0 (SPSS Inc, Chicago, IL, USA). It emerged from the study that the workload was excessive as to the paperwork and confusion and stress are there due to continuous changes in the curriculum. Regular workshops conducted by experts need to be arranged timeously. Administrative equipment in schools, such as computers, are sorely needed together with clerical staff that could help with administrative tasks.

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No description available.

No description available.

MEd Curriculum Studies) / Department of Curriculum Studies / See the attached abstract below

This qualitative practitioner research is set in a mixed, rural 11-16 Church of England Comprehensive School. It embraces reflective action enquiry into leadership and management of innovation in a turbulent period of national educational change. It is founded on the belief that if change processes are to be understood widely, practitioners must share experience emanating from reflective and analytical practice. This study is about "managing to learn" It embraces concepts of managing personal learning; managing colleagues' and students' learning; and managing processes leading to the emergence of the school as a "learning organisation" It is also about "learning to change" and espouses learning to promote personal change; learning to facilitate change in others; and learning to establish institutional change as a natural on-going characteristic of organisational life. This study is founded on a process of "reflection", as characterised by Schön (1983). Consequently, it employs a process of personal reflection on leadership roles in managing change and learning processes. It employs processes of reflection on cultural and political aspects of organisational life and resultant manifestations and implications of introducing, implementing, and institutionalising organisational and cultural change. This research utilises "refraction"- that is, convergence and divergence. Firstly, it promotes divergent and creative ways of organising which encourage and facilitate innovative processes. Secondly, it employs processes of converging, focusing, and concentrating on taken-for-granted "critical incidents" in the life of a developing school, to elicit meanings of events as understood by participants. Thirdly, it applies cultural and political prisms to school organisation, together with autocratic, bureaucratic, adhocratic, and reticular-democratic lenses in order to elucidate important cultural, political and organisational data. Finally this research is about "action" It is about doing, intervening, intending, committing, motivating, accomplishing, fulfilling and achieving. The essential concept and understanding of "action" is that it should be informed action.