Northern Ireland Curriculum Cohort Study: The Overview

Abstract

This summary presents key findings and implications from the Northern Ireland (NI) Curriculum Cohort Study. This study was carried out over a period of seven years and has tracked young people from the age of 11 through to age 18. The study began in 1996 when 60 pupils from ten primary schools were interviewed and observed in Year 7. Following this, our 60 pupils were interviewed and 3,000 young people from 50 schools were surveyed for each of the five years of post-primary education. Each year, these young people gave their views and perspectives on their experiences of the school curriculum. At the end of Key Stage 2, and at Key Stages 3 and 4, the views of teachers and school senior managers were also garnered. the results from the full seven years of the Cohort Study are drawn together in this report, which highlights implications for the new educational contexts that have emerged over recent years, including: the new proposals for the Key Stage 3 curriculum set out in Pathways (CCEA, 2003); changes to the transfer procedures from primary to post-primary school (as proposed by the Costello Report, 2004); and the wider debate surrounding the future of 14–19 education (such as the work of the DfES Working Group on 14–19 Reform, chaired by Mike Tomlinson, and England’s recent 14–19 Education and Skills White Paper (GB. Parliament. HoC, 2005).