There is a sizeable gap between primary and secondary teachers’ perceptions of the curriculum, which we have found in three areas, using our Teacher Tapp research:
Amount of content
Comprehension of the content
Enjoyment of the content
We have chosen here to highlight the transition between primary and secondary schools, from KS2 to KS3, as a point where discrepancies in perceptions of these three aspects of the curriculum are particularly acute.
Amount of content
There are significantly different views on the quantity of content included in the primary curriculum, as shown below.
As you can see, 29 percentage points more primary teachers agree that there is too much content in the primary maths curriculum than secondary teachers. Comprehension of the content Corroborating this result, is our finding that fewer primary teachers feel that, by the end of KS2, more than 80% of their students are able to meet the 10 key competencies that the national curriculum states that they should, at least partly as a result of their feeling that there is just too much content to get through.
In 6 of the 10 key competencies, more secondary teachers believe that 80% of their pupils can achieve these targets than primary school teachers. Enjoyment of the content Conversely, when it comes to enjoyment of maths, primary teachers are more positive than secondary. Despite the vast majority believing that primary children are receiving too much content, primary teachers’ mostly common answer was that 61-80% of their pupils find maths enjoyable. This contrasts with secondary school teachers, whose most common answer was that 41-60% of their pupils enjoy the subject.
The secondary teacher’s point of view then appears to be one of more comprehension, but less enjoyment.
What do you think of this finding? Do you have a theory as to why this might be the case? Please contribute to our second investigation here.
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