ABSTRACT
The observation of pupils working on the same curriculum programme in schools revealed major differences in the learning experience of the pupils, both between the schools and between classrooms in the same school. The programme being followed emanated from the Schools Council, Geography for the Young School Leaver (GYSL) project. The Schools Council style of operation might superficially seem to have little in common with the present workings of the DFE or the National Curriculum Council, the Schools Council exemplifying a model ‘depending on reasoned persuasion, impartial analysis or reasoned argument and operating within a collegial framework-the former depending for its adoption on the force of statute —a power coercive model’ (Becher, 1989).
