1st Edition
The Cambridge Primary Review Research Surveys
The Cambridge Primary Review Research Surveys is the outcome of the Cambridge Primary Review – England’s biggest enquiry into primary education for over forty years. Fully independent of government, it was launched in 2006 to investigate the condition and future of primary education at a time of change and uncertainty and after two decades of almost uninterrupted reform. Ranging over ten broad themes and drawing on a vast array of evidence, the Review published thiry-one interim reports, including twenty-eight surveys of published research, provoking media headlines and public debate, before presenting its final report and recommendations.
This book brings together the twenty-eight research surveys, specially commissioned from sixty-five leading academics in the areas under scrutiny and now revised and updated, to create what is probably the most comprehensive overview and evaluation of research in primary education yet published. A particular feature is the prominence given to international and comparative perspectives. With an introduction from Robin Alexander, the Review’s director, the book is divided into eight sections, covering:
- children’s lives and voices: school, home and community
- children’s development, learning, diversity and needits
- aims, values and contexts for primary education
- the structure and content of primary education
- outcomes, standards and assessment in primary education
- teaching in primary schools: structures and processes
- teaching in primary schools: training, development and workforce reform
- policy frameworks: governance, funding, reform and quality assurance.
The Cambridge Primary Review Research Surveys is an essential reference tool for professionals, researchers, students and policy-makers working in the fields of early years, primary and secondary education.
1. Introduction: Research, the Primary Review and the quality of education Robin Alexander Part One: Children’s lives and voices: school, home and community 2. Children and their primary schools: pupils’ voices Carol Robinson and Michael Fielding 3. Children’s lives outside school and their educational impact Berry Mayall 4. Parenting, caring and educating Yolande Muschamp, Felicity Wikeley, Tess Ridge and Maria Balarin 5. Primary schools and other agencies Ian Barron, Rachel Holmes, Maggie MacLure and Katherine Runswick-Cole Part Two: Children’s development, learning, diversity and needs 6. Children’s cognitive development and learning Usha Goswami and Peter Bryant 7. Children’s social development, peer interaction and classroom learning Christine Howe and Neil Mercer 8. Children in primary education: demography, culture, diversity and inclusion Mel Ainscow, Jean Conteh, Alan Dyson and Frances Gallannaugh 9. Learning needs and difficulties among children of primary school age: definition, identification, provision and issues Harry Daniels and Jill Porter Part Three: Aims, values and contexts for primary education 10. Aims for primary education: the changing national context Stephen Machin and Sandra McNally 11. Aims for primary education: changing global contexts Rita Chawla-Duggan and John Lowe 12. Aims as policy in English primary education John White 13. Aims and values in primary education: England and other countries Maha Shuayb and Sharon O’Donnell Part Four: The structure and content of primary education 14. The structure of primary education: England and other countries Anna Riggall and Caroline Sharp 15. Primary curriculum and assessment: England and other countries Kathy Hall and Kamil Øzerk 16. Primary curriculum futures James Conroy, Moira Hulme and Ian Menter Part Five: Outcomes, standards and assessment in primary education 17. Standards and quality in English primary schools over time: the national evidence Peter Tymms and Christine Merrell 18. Standards in English primary education: the international evidence Chris Whetton, Graham Ruddock and Liz Twist 19. The quality of learning: assessment alternatives for primary education Wynne Harlen Part Six: Teaching in primary schools: structures and processes 20. Learning and teaching in primary schools: insights from TLRP Mary James and Andrew Pollard 21. Classes, groups and transitions: structures for teaching and learning Peter Blatchford, Susan Hallam, Judith Ireson and Peter Kutnick, with Andrea Creech 22. Primary schools: the built environment Karl Wall, Julie Dockrell and Nick Peacey Part Seven: Teaching in primary schools: training, development and workforce reform 23. Primary schools: the professional environment Ian Stronach, Andy Pickard and Liz Jones 24. Primary teachers: initial teacher education, continuing professional development and school leadership development Olwen McNamara, Rosemary Webb and Mark Brundrett 25. Primary workforce management and reform Hilary Burgess Part Eight: Policy frameworks: governance, funding, reform and quality assurance 26. The governance, administration and control of primary education Maria Balarin and Hugh Lauder 27. The funding of English primary education Philip Noden and Anne West 28. Quality assurance in English primary education Peter Cunningham and Philip Raymont 29. The trajectory and impact of national reform: curriculum and assessment in English primary schools Dominic Wyse, Elaine McCreery and Harry Torrance
Appendix 1. The Primary Review: remit and process Appendix 2. The Primary Review: perspectives, themes and questions Appendix 3. The Primary Review research surveys: thematic list
Biography
Robin Alexander is Lead Director of The Primary Review, Fellow of Wolfson College at the University of Cambridge, Professor of Education Emeritus at the University of Warwick and President of the British Association for Interntational and Comparative Education.
Christine Doddington is Senior Lecturer in Education at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge.
John Gray is Professor of Education at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge.
Linda Hargreaves is Reader in Education at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge.
Ruth Kershner is Lecturer in Psychology of Education and Primary Education at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge.