Pupils' experiences and perspectives of the national curriculum

Updating the research review

QCA works with others to maintain and develop the school curriculum and associated assessments. We meet our responsibility to keep the curriculum under review through an extensive programme of monitoring and evaluation, which includes the pupils’ voice. We are keen that pupils’ experiences inform our work.

In 1999 QCA commissioned the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) to carry out a review of the research literature on pupils’ experiences and perspectives of the national curriculum. The review included current work in this field and a retrospective review of research that has been carried out over the last 10 years.

The first report was completed in February 2000 by Pippa Lord and John Harland, NFER. QCA has since commissioned NFER to update the research review. You can download the reports for these research updates from this page.

NFER's final report on the whole research review is published in the download section of this page. This presents the most recent findings and pulls together all of the previous reports. A summary of the research is also available.

NFER has produced an outline of research in progress which is available from their website.

When you download the reports you will see that the research has been categorised by methodology so as to give an overview of:

• project size
• duration
• data collection method
• subject focus.

In addition, the key findings of the research have been categorised by substantive themes such as pupils’ views on:

• breadth and balance of the curriculum
• assessment
• manageability
• enjoyment
• relevance.

Current work

The scope of the review was expanded to include two new areas: assessment and careers education and work-related learning.

The research review addressed each of the following questions:

• What research on pupils' perspectives of the curriculum is currently in progress?
• What research on pupils' perspectives of assessment and feedback has been carried out over the last 10 years, or is currently in progress?
• What research on pupils' perspectives of careers education and work-related learning has been carried out since 1998, or is currently in progress?
• In what ways can the research be categorised?
• Has any work explored gender, ethnicity, special educational needs, age, social and economic status in relation to student perspectives on the curriculum?
• What are the key findings from the research?