Primary teachers and the national curriculum

Abstract A questionnaire survey of 901 primary teachers was undertaken by the Leverhulme Primary Project team. The sample was a national one which closely matched the national distribution of primary schools according to size and region. Teachers were asked to state how competent they felt to teach the national curriculum introduced by the 1988 Education Act with their existing subject knowledge. Whether results were analysed by the size of school, age of teacher, sex or age group taught, the rank order was similar. Teachers saw themselves as most competent in English with maths in second place. In last three places, with lowest perceived competence, were science, music and maths. The other subjects, art, geography, history, RE and PE were grouped in the middle. A similar response was found when teachers were asked to describe their competence on individual attainment targets in English, mathematics, music, science and design and technology. Greatest confidence in existing subject knowledge was expressed ...