ABSTRACT
A major characteristic of the transition from the requirements of Circular 24/89 to those of Circular 14/93 and subsequently to the ‘Standards for the Award of Qualified Teacher Status’ in Circular 10/97 is a shift from a description of the constituent parts of a primary initial teacher education course to a statement of its intended outcomes. This change of emphasis, exemplifying as it does the ‘proof of the pudding’ maxim, intends the employers of a newly qualified teacher to be assured that their recruit can, among many other things:
plan opportunities to contribute to pupils’ personal, spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. (DfEE, 1997, B.2.d)
use teaching methods which sustain the momentum of pupils’ work and keep all pupils engaged through...exploiting opportunities to contribute to the quality of pupils’ wider educational development, including their personal, spiritual, moral, social and cultural development, (ibid, B.2.k. xii)
