ABSTRACT
The introduction of a national curriculum as part of the 1988 Education Reform Act has been the most significant influence on the secondary school curriculum. The national curriculum, and related legislation, will be the major focus of this paper. First, however, it is important to outline the structure of educational research in England and Wales. It is also important to see the reforms against the background of curriculum development in the last two or three decades. Secondary schools in England and Wales have been relatively free to determine their own curriculum. The last period of major reform came in the 60s and 70s when the post-Sputnik crisis of knowledge led, through the curriculum development movement, to the creation of alternative subject-based ‘projects’ which gave schools considerable choice of content and approach. The new national curriculum should give both coherence and continuity of learning. Its main aim however ‘is to raise standards of achievement and the quality of teaching’.
