Improving Teaching and Learning In the Core Curriculum

Kate Ashcroft is Dean of Education in the Faculty of Education, University of the West of England. She has written on quality issues in higher education and published on the national curriculum in primary schools. John Lee is Principal Lecturer in Education in the Faculty of Education, University of the West of England. His recent research has been on school inspection in England, Wales and the Netherlands. He is currently researching in the impact of the National Literacy Hour on pupils with special educational needs in the primary school.

• Introduction Series editors’ preface and introduction, Kate Ashcroft, David James; Chapter 1 Common sense and scientific sense, John Lee; Chapter 2 Developing a core curriculum, John Lee; Chapter 3 The National Literacy Strategy: context and consequences, Helen Butcher; Chapter 4 Grammar, spoken and written, in the National Curriculum, Bernadette Fitzgerald; Chapter 5 Working with genres, John Lee; Chapter 6 Mathematics: aims and practices, Ruth Sharpe; Chapter 7 New approaches: the National Numeracy Project, the ‘Numeracy Hour’ and the teaching of mathematics, Ruth Sharpe; Chapter 8 Development of the science curriculum, Gordon Guest, Keith Postlethwaite; Chapter 9 The nature and purpose of primary science, Postlethwaite Keith, Kate Ashcroft, Guest Gordon;

'... particularly helpful to new teachers ... the book is spiced with case studies that bring one back to the practicalities of the classroom.' - The Times Educational Supplement