This book, by closely recording and reflecting upon the work and play of a group of 9 to 11 year-old children in a primary classroom, develops an approach to teaching and learning which is based upon the ways in which children are able to exercise a controlling influence over their own learning activity. It also suggests the sharing and analysis of classroom experience should be part of a teacher’s day-to-day life. The material for the book was gathered during a year of classroom enquiry in which the author combined the roles of teacher and researcher, working alongside the normal class teacher in a primary school. Samples of the children’s work are carefully described and analysed in an attempt to get behind the overt behaviour of the children and reveal the purposes, concerns and thinking that underlies their activity.

Stephen Rowland explores the relationship between the turor (or facilitator) and the professional worker on post-experience professional courses. His emphasis in on the processes of reflection and enquiry in professional learning and is not content specific. Drawing upon his experience as a course tutor and the perspectives of students, he suggests an approach to professional learing which is firmly rooted in the experience and interests of the student.

Focusing on pupils moving from primary to middle or secondary school, it describes and evaluates the schools’ programmes to ease transfer, and includes material provided by the pupils themselves. The main body of the book is a rich and detailed account of the first months of life in new secondary schools, where the pleasures and perils of new friends, new teachers and new subjects, and a new approach to teaching are encountered. The book conveys vividly how pupils experience a new environment, and meet its dangers, rules and regulations, timetable, complex groupings and ideology. Inside the Secondary Classroom was the first comparative ethnography of school life in Britain, carried out in six schools. It reveals surprising similarities and differences between them.The cases studied range from highly successful pupils with nine ‘O’ levels to others with severe social and personal problems.

In a sequence of observations of six children aged 5-11 in six different state schools this book offers a slice of classroom life, a microcosm of the educational scene. Since the book was first written there have been many changes in the curriculum, structure, governance and funding of British primary schools, as well as in the language used to describe these changes. But Observing Children in the Primary Classroom remains as valid now as earlier, as a lively and entertaining indicator of children’s daily school experience. We see the reception class of an infants’ school through the eyes of Mike, a lively five-year-old traveller boy. Six-year-old Rashda, a girl of Asian heritage, grapples with English as a Second Language at her multi-ethnic city school. Slow-learner David finds school life rather overpowering, despite receiving expert extra help. Lucy, eight, is a star in everything she does at her Roman Catholic school, while Lorraine, one year older, is cheerful but utterly bewildered. Finally, Peter, organises his work in an open-plan setting and makes some surprising choices.

The increasing impact of performance based judgments on schools and teachers in the classroom has its critics and supporters. Some oppose the trend and seek to deny the importance of quantitative measures. Others have sought to find ways of implementing educational measurement constructively and with understanding of the concerns. Classrooms are where the operational business of learning takes place and it is on the quality of life within the classroom that the broader process of learning, concerns for the wider community and others, is nurtured. The climate of the classroom has a large impact on the final outcome measure to which so much interest is directed. To help our understanding of the dynamics involved much work has been done in the development and refinement of quantitative studies to this area by studying essential information about how teachers and students perceive the environments in which the work. Research on classroom climates has reached a practical and theoretical maturity and this volume offers an account of the developments that have taken place and the potential for understanding the classroom as a vital component of the curriculum. This book will also be an essential resource tool for anyone engaged in classroom research.

Doing Science is unique in seeking to make explicit the links between science education and science studies. These fields of study and their respective academic communities, whilst appearing to have many potential points of contact, remain surprisingly separate, with little apparent recognition of the relevance to the interests of each of the work done within the other tradition. Presenting detailed accounts of current research, the book highlights the significance of modern science studies for classroom practice and, conversely, the importance of the classroom and teaching laboratory as a context for science studies. The thread which runs through the collection as a whole is children’s experience of doing science and the image of science which learners pick up along with the science knowledge, understanding and skills they require.

When originally published this book reported the first major application of ‘labelling theory’ to deviance in classrooms. The authors explore the nature of classroom rules, show how they constitute a pervasive feature of the classroom, and examine the ways in which teachers use these rules as grounds for imputing ‘deviance’ to pupils. A theory of social typing is developed to show how teachers come to define certain pupils as deviant persons such as ‘troublemakers’ and several case-studies are used to document this analysis. Finally, the teachers’ reactions to disruptive classroom conduct are examined as complex strategic attempts at social control in the classroom. The book has a double focus on deviance theory and the process of teaching.

This volume of topical working papers makes available to teachers and to others information intended to stimulate discussion so that all educators may bring their judgement and experience to bear on the concerns of the School Council and contribute to its work. The papers describe plans for curriculum development projects at their formative stages, when comment can be particularly helpful; report on conferences and summarize findings and opinions on debated questions about the curriculum and examination in schools.

There has always been considerable debate about the best solutions to deal with disruptive behaviour in schools. On the one hand is the strategy of segregating disruptive pupils while on the other is a commitment to keeping such pupils in the ordinary school. This book advocates the latter philosophy and examines the best ways of coping with the problem. These concern both teacher skills and school organisational flexibility. In addition, the authors propose the provision of a support team whereby local authorities can help schools, teachers and children with problems of disruption without setting up ‘sin-bins’. Change is thus shown to be possible at three levels – teachers, headteachers and local authorities. Detailed illustrative case material is presented throughout the book.