Education 16-19 - In Transition (Hardcover)

The 16-19 sector of education is a transition stage for students and a system in transition for educators. "Education 16-19" considers the needs of older teenage students, the provision made for them and the significance of current trends and recent legislation. Eric Macfarlane argues that the 16-19 sector provides a microcosm and intensification of the tensions, divisions and conflicting aims and objectives present throughout the education system as a whole. He explores the differences that exist between the academic and vocational routes to qualification, between the comprehensive, selective and independent systems and between "traditional" and "progressive" approaches to the learning process. The ideologies and policies that have produced the present system are traced and the case or reform examined. Different management tasks in 16-19 education are considered, with emphasis on current changes in strategies and structures. The author highlights the distinctive features of the various types of institution that provide for students aged 16-19 and the ways in which these distinctions are becoming blurred.