ABSTRACT

The problems for the observer are magnified by the tendency of supporters of educational change to create and sustain myths about the extent and the nature of the change taking place. Prior to the advent of systematic studies in the classroom, the impact of 'progressive' ideas on the classroom teacher is difficult to assess but the educational climate can be judged from a consideration of the most popular of the new experiments proposed in education - the Dalton Plan. The explanation seemed to lie in the different perspectives held by the workers on the Project, the schools and the local education authorities. In terms of staff educational attitudes the primary school was the type of educational institution where the staff were least likely to agree with the elimination of the grammar schools. The complex realities of informal education are captured in this description of the work of a teacher in a Leicester primary school.