Students in Scotland (United Kingdom) engage in learning through Curriculum for Excellence (CfE), which aims to provide them with a holistic, coherent, and future-oriented approach to learning between the ages of 3 and 18. CfE offers an inspiring and widely supported philosophy of education. Schools design their own curriculum based on a common…

The problem of educational achievement by boys and young men is a long-standing and big one that has been largely ignored by policymakers. This new HEPI report considers the consequences for individuals and society and proposes: (1) adopting a 'boy positive' environment in schools; (2) expanding proven grassroots initiatives that help boys; (3)…

The EU Working Group on Learning for Sustainability (LfS) is currently exploring how policy action can assist in the development and introduction of school curricula and appropriate pedagogies to improve opportunities for learning for sustainability in Europe's schools. This paper brings forward input on how learning for environmental…

The UK higher education system has become increasingly competitive and stratified prompting calls for a reclaiming of the civic role of universities. This paper argues that, if HE is to reclaim its civic function then civic engagement needs to move beyond being a separate strand of activity for universities, instead becoming a guiding principle.…

The development, since 2000, of new national curricula across the Anglophone world signals a number of policy trends, including: a move from the explicit specification of content towards a more generic, skill-based approach; a greater emphasis on the centrality of the learner; and [ostensibly] greater autonomy for teachers in developing the…

The Curriculum for Excellence and new National Qualifications offer innovative reform, based on widely supported ideas and aims, for Scottish preschool, primary and secondary education levels. "Objectives and syllabuses" for science are replaced by "experiences and outcomes". Most strikingly, central prescription makes way for…

The new quality framework, "How good is our college?" is a tool to support and enable colleges to evaluate the quality of provision and services alongside reporting on progress in relation to outcome agreements. It is designed to be used by all college staff. Colleges will evaluate the quality of their provision and services using the 12…

The positioning of physical education in the school curriculum continues to reflect external discourses circulating in political and social milieu. As increasing austerity measures influence and restrict educational priorities, we consider that there is an urgent need for physical educationalists to articulate a rationale for an educational…

This paper was designed to look at technical education curriculum and mode of implementation in Scotland in order to adopt the advantageous attributes of the Scottish technical education in Nigeria. The paper x-rayed the staff perceptions of technical education and its roles in Scotland; history of technical education before the advent of British…

This paper presents a pilot comparative research project on pre-vocational education in lower secondary schools (ISCED level 2) within regions in three European countries. The primary aim of the study was to better understand how the pre-vocational education curriculum is constructed and taught within schools. A case study methodology was selected…

This article reports on an evaluation to interrogate the efficacy of a Scottish Government sponsored initiative to introduce an arts-infused education model to primary (elementary) and secondary (high) schools called Arts Across the Curriculum. Between April 2005 and December 2007 the evaluation team gathered data about this three-year pilot…

Scotland's new "Curriculum for Excellence" (CfE) has been widely acknowledged as the most significant educational development in a generation, with the potential to transform learning and teaching in Scottish schools. In common with recent developments elsewhere, CfE seeks to re-engage teachers with processes of curriculum development,…

This report evaluates the extent to which Scotland's colleges have developed and embedded a culture of promoting equality and diversity effectively for all learners and staff. It considers how effectively colleges have mainstreamed equality and diversity in all aspects of their operations. The fieldwork for this report has been informed by…

Scottish official curricular texts, including guidelines and examination papers, are analysed for representations of "self and the environment". The environment is represented as fragmented when it is the curricular focus and is only "whole" when it is background context; "human-environment relations" are dualized;…

Three undergraduate degrees (in Accounting, Business Studies and Commerce), developed at different times by different departments at Napier Polytechnic in Scotland, introduced a common first year curriculum in 1987-88. For some time the Polytechnic had recognized the need to increase flexibility between courses and to provide students with the…