ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights developing issues of general importance, even though necessarily these have to be illustrated by reference to particular curriculum areas such as history or science or particular sectors such as nursery- or teacher-education. It raises issues of its own but also picks up one or more of the general curriculum issues, issues of curriculum range, structure, appropriateness, consistency, continuity, evaluation and control. The chapter explains evidence about the ways that young children's intellectual functioning and development seem to be most facilitated. It attempts to challenge twin orthodoxies: that there is already a 'core' to the primary curriculum and that any extension or closer monitoring of its application would inevitably be deleterious to the education of young children and to the professionalism of teachers. The chapter focuses on the professional knowledge required of primary teachers, especially curriculum knowledge.
