Experience-core curriculum work in secondary modern schools

Abstract

The provision of education for adolescents of average and less than average academic ability is a problem of long standing. However, in the last 50 years or so, authorities in the world of education have recognised this problem as one of urgency. In particular - the Hadow Report (1926) and, more recently, the Newsom Report (1963) in England have highlighted the need for a pattern of education which adequately caters for these pupils. The background of the thesis is thus an appreciation of thought about this problem in the first half of the 20th Century. The substance of the thesis is the development of experience-core curriculum, as appropriate to the educational needs of these pupils. The principles upon which experience-core curriculum can be based are discussed and the stages of development of curriculum are recognised. A description is given of experimental work with pupils, carried out over a period of years, in order to develop a curriculum based upon such principles. Finally, experience-core curriculum has been evaluated with special reference to the work in which the writer has been implicated.