An Exploratory Study of Teachers' Perceptions of the Process of Planning Courses

S ummary . Some 261 secondary school teachers were asked to rate twelve paired elements for their importance as constituent aspects of the process of planning a course of study. The aim was to estimate the level of importance they accorded each element, their degree of agreement and to analyse the way in which they perceived the relationship between the elements in the process of planning. Their perceptions of a curriculum plan as a ‘guide’ or as a ‘mandatory statement’ were also studied. From the data arising a tentative description of how teachers perceive the process of planning is developed. It suggests that teachers perceive the process as calling for a consideration of those factors which constitute the context of teaching and requiring reference to a range of evaluative criteria, an important one of which may be the interests and attitudes which pupils show in their course of study

Context (archaeology) · Curriculum · Element (criminal law) · Exploratory research · Mathematics education · Pedagogy · Perception · Plan (archaeology) · Political science · Process (computing) · Social science · Sociology · Computer Science · Diverse Educational Innovations Studies · Education and Technology Integration · Educational Environments and Student Outcomes · Psychology · Social Psychology