ABSTRACT
Chapters 2 and 3 comprised case studies of the typical presentation of the National Curriculum at Key Stages 3 and 4. As a direct contrast, in the first section of this chapter I present a case study of an early (1988) and ill-defined independent learning project, Breaking Down The Barriers, as seen through the eyes of one collaborative group - The Outfit - and told in their own words. The principal findings concern the independent learning that went on in an unstructured and unsupervised five-week course but was not given recognition, the gender divide within the group, the feelings of failure rather than success of the group and teachers' feelings that the project was of limited value. In short, in a book that promulgates cooperative and collaborative groupwork as the key to educational development, I present an example of the kind of groupwork that gives groupwork a bad name, and for which I was responsible.
