Subject-based and cross-curricular approaches within the revised primary curriculum in Northern Ireland: teachers' concerns and preferred approaches

Abstract

A revision of the Northern Ireland Primary Curriculum took place in 2007. It promotes strongly a cross-curricular or thematic approach to planning and teaching and has an ‘Area of Learning’ structure which includes geography alongside history and science and technology in an area called ‘The World Around Us’. Responses from teacher questionnaires and interviews with teachers and ‘stakeholders’ reveal wide-ranging opinions, mostly positive, about the effectiveness of this approach in improving pupil learning. A significant number of teachers have adopted a pragmatic, balanced and reflective approach to their planning, something which requires a high skill level in ‘curriculum-making’ which, in turn, can be enhanced by effective in-service training.