ABSTRACT
Worries about the National Curriculum narrowing learning opportunities, especially for children with difficulties in learning, have prompted teachers to look imaginatively at ways of countering such narrowing. Two aspects of curricular breadth will be considered: broad frameworks for the planning of teaching/learning, and strategies to promote later, as well as initial, stages of learning. Several psychologists have identified various stages in learning and have emphasized that the acquisition of skills or knowledge is only the first step in learning, not the whole process. This can be illustrated by the example of learning to drive a car. Initially, the learner driver probably learns how to drive a particular vehicle, and is hesitant and cautious, moving jerkily at first. Teaching tends to focus on children's initial acquisition of knowledge and skills while relatively little attention is given to helping children to become fluent in these and in applying them to new contexts.
