ABSTRACT
This chapter is an illustrative extract from a highly influential study conducted by Robin Alexander in Leeds. The research sought to evaluate a local education authority initiative, the ‘Primary Needs Programme’, which was particularly intended to develop ‘good primary practice’. The findings reported here relate to the patterns of classroom practices which were observed and were part of the evidence which caused Alexander to review the concept of ‘good practice’ itself and to argue that it is ‘ideological’.
