ABSTRACT
The figure is a content analysis of the syllabuses of 32 secondary schools. The syllabuses were of varying lengths, formats and styles. In brief, the procedure of analysis adopted involved several operations. The syllabuses were read through to get an impression of their scope and treatment. This resulted in a provisional set of general topic categories. These were applied to a sample of the syllabuses and adjusted until all of the content could be located comfortably within them. The category system was then used on the complete set of syllabuses. This in turn required minor adjustment to the number and designation of the categories. Each category was defined in terms of a brief explanatory paragraph. Each syllabus was then examined in turn, and up to four categories were identified, representing the major discrete emphases within each year group, that is, those which did not arise incidentally out of the teaching of aspects covered by other topics.
