Understanding Primary Education

Developing Professional Attributes, Knowledge and Skills

Penelope Harnett

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2007
• Print ISBN: 9781138411135
• eBook ISBN: 9781134149551
• Topic: Didattica
• Subtopic: Didattica generale

Understanding Primary Education will help trainees and newly qualified teachers reflect on the professional decisions they need to make within their planning and classroom practice. The authors analyse key issues and policies within contemporary education through reference to research and pedagogical practice. They encourage readers to reflect on policy and practice and support them in articulating their own beliefs and values.

A broad perspective of the curriculum is outlined with a focus on what curriculum breadth and balance looks like in practice. Readers are encouraged to consider questions such as: What are the purposes of education? What values are important in a pluralist society and what values might we share? In what ways can children be encouraged to be active participants within their communities?

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Notes on contributors
• Preface
• 1 The social distribution of school knowledge in primary classrooms
• 2 Support or straitjacket? A tale of three Strategies
• 3 Social care, childcare and education: Exploring issues in the Early Years
• 4 What makes a pedagogy fit for Key Stage 2?
• 5 Current assessment practice: Driving or supporting practice?
• 6 Developing inclusive school communities
• 7 Space for learning?
• 8 What has happened to curriculum breadth and balance in primary schools?
• 9 Children’s futures, our futures: Educating citizens for the twenty-first century
• 10 Facing the future: The primary teacher in the twenty-first century
• Further reading
• General references