Classroom Practice and the National Curriculum in Small Rural Primary Schools

Abstract

AbstractWith the introduction of the National Curriculum primary teachers have come under increasing pressure from the Office for Standards in Education and other government agencies to change the ways they teach. However, the research evidence is equivocal as to the changes which have taken place at Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 over the last 5 years. This article argues that part of the problem stems from the way that characteristics of classroom organisation, such as whole‐class teaching, have been defined in various studies. From case studies of nine rural schools in which systematic observation and pupils’ diary records were collected, an attempt is made to chart the changes in classroom practice over a decade and to compare these findings with other recent studies.