It was during the 1960s and 70s that things began to change. One influence on this was the Plowden report in 1967 with its famous quote 'at the heart of the educational process lies the child'. The report also favoured an integrated curriculum, on the grounds that children's learning does not fit into subject categories. Changes about this time included assigning work to individuals or groups rather than to the whole class, as well as sometimes allowing children to pursue studies related to their own interests. This in turn led to different ways of organising the school day where children were often working in groups on different subjects at the same time or working on 'topics' which crossed subject boundaries. There was still wide variation between schools and in practice most teachers probably used a mixture of teaching methods as appropriate. Although in some quarters this period is looked back on as a time dominated by progressive methods and liberalism, the reality is probably much more mixed, just as terms like 'progressive' and 'traditional' can be unhelpful.

In the last twenty years or so, several things have happened to change both opinions and practice as far as the organisation of primary schools is concerned. One important factor was the introduction of the National Curriculum in 1988, which laid down what children at various ages should be taught. The fact that the National Curriculum content was prescribed by subject meant that one clear option was to teach it in subject-based lessons. A few years after the introduction of the National Curriculum, there was an influential report about the organisation of primary classrooms, which is commonly referred to as the Three Wise Men's Report, a reference to its trio of authors Robin Alexander, Chris Woodhead and Jim Rose. The opening page of this report talks about 'highly questionable dogmas which have led to excessively complex classroom practices and devalued the place of subjects in the curriculum'. The Three Wise Men's Report led to considerable debate and probably had some influence on moves back towards recognisable subject teaching in primary schools.

Given the different views about how to organise a primary school day, a very reasonable question seems to be 'which system works best?' This question is harder to answer than it may seem, for several reasons, and research findings vary. There certainly have been studies which suggest that there are advantages in having more direct whole-class teaching, as opposed to group and individual work. Such studies tend to point out that this form of organisation gives the teacher more opportunities to interact directly with the children and ask challenging questions. Studies have also found that some teachers are able to do this using more complex systems. There has also been some research suggesting that style of organisation is not a major factor in determining pupil progress. In addition, studies of pupil progress (or lack thereof) in other countries has had an impact on the processes adopted or discarded in British schools.

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Content last updated: 05/05/2004

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