Evolution not Revolution: an Examination of the Contribution of a Curriculum Development Project to the Implementation of New Agreed Syllabuses

Abstract

A recent study indicates that secondary school teachers are resisting the changes imposed by new agreed syllabuses and are experiencing difficulty in achieving the balance of aims that these require. It is argued that if teachers are to be persuaded to cooperate in the implementation of the new syllabuses, they must be enabled to interpret syllabus requirements using methods which reflect their own vision for the subject and which meet the needs of their own teaching situations. At the same time, these methods must be developed to ensure that agreed syllabus requirements are met. There is a need to support and guide teachers through the process of change, and curriculum development projects have an important contribution to make to this. An examination of the work of the Warwick RE Project is used to illustrate these points.