Since the 1988 Education Reform Act, our education system has undergone dramatic changes and this in turn has raised a number of controversial issues and questions. This reader brings together key articles, both recently published and specially commissioned, which address these issues and place them in context. Issues covered include:
*the curriculum * teaching and learning
*assessment
*school effectiveness and improvement.
Various themes run throughout the book include, the quest for quality within a social context, the application of theory and research to practice, and the positive roles played by both teachers and students in adapting to recent change.
1. Introduction 2. Communities of learning and thinking, or a content by any other name A.L. Browne and J.C. Campoine 3. Physics in the primary school: peer interaction and the understanding of floating and sinking C. Howe and A. Tolmie 4. Learning from Jason M.J. Drummond 5. Integrating assessment with learning - a constructivist approach P. Murphy 6. Educational assessment: the myth of measurement P. Broadfoot 7. Responding to pressures: a study of four secondary schools S. Brown, S. Riddell and J. Duffield 8. The challenge of turning round ineffective schools J. Gray and B. Wilcox 9. The problem of good primary practice R. Alexander 10. A new professional discourse? Adjusting to managerialism P. Woods and R. Jeffrey 11. Schooling and the cultural production of masculinities M. Mac an Ghaill 12. Redefining black womanhood H. Mirza 13. Liberal education and the nature of knowledge P.H.Hirst
