Educational Research and Curriculum Development: The Case for Synergy

Abstract

Educational research has been criticised for being inaccessible to practicing teachers and both removed from and irrelevant to their needs. Seldom does the research inform curriculum development, the production of learning materials, or their effective use in the classroom. This paper describes how materials developed by the Nuffield Curriculum projects for design and technology have made use of research findings from both large-scale and small-scale research studies. The paper continues with a description of how the results of this research informed by curriculum development can in turn inform subsequent research such that a synergy is established that is beneficial to both endeavours.

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