habitual practices.^4 A related issue, highlighted in the literature and encountered in
previous work, lies in the ability of participants to take their innovations back into
school in the face of scepticism from colleagues, and more particularly competing
management imperatives. The programme sought to address this through the
selection of participants; it was emphasised from the outset that schools should send
between four and six participants, reflecting a range of levels of experience and
seniority, and as a minimum including at least one member of the senior man-
agement team. In some cases, head teachers participated.
Finally, and in recognition of the difficulties faced by some teachers in identi-
fying and handling data, one session focused on developing research literacy,
including addressing questions of what constitutes evidence. This session also
focused on the notion of impact, suggesting how teachers might recognise and
develop opportunities for their innovation to impact upon students, and also how
they might identify ways of evidencing such impact.
52.3.3 Stage One: Conceptual Development
The aim of thefirst stage is to engage practitioners critically with the principles and
purposes of current curricular policy in Scotland, addressing the issue, highlighted
by research, that many teachers have a poor understanding of these. The emphasis
at this stage is not on change per se, but on engagement, with the aim of developing
‘good’educational practices from the conceptual framing provided by the new
curriculum. Underpinning this activity is an assumption that existing practices
might befit-for-purpose, but that participants do not necessarily know whether this
is the case unless they are critically evaluated against the benchmarks provided by
the CfE attributes and capabilities; conversely, such an evaluation might lead to
significant change in practices.
The initial sessions of the programme thus focus on a number of conceptual
issues that form the foundation for the second, more practically focused CCPE
stage. The participantsfirst engage with some models or starting points for cur-
riculum development, exploring the implications of treating CfE as either a
content-led, outcomes-led or process-led curriculum (see Priestley and Humes
2010 ). Second, they examine how school-based curriculum development might
proceed from the assumption that CfE is a process curriculum. This involves a
number of steps. Thefirst is a process of constructing meaning in relation to the big
ideas of CfE and consideration of other purposes, principles and values of educa-
tion. Within our programme cohorts, this has led to discussion of the difference
between purposes and methods, often leading to an epiphany as participants realise
(^4) This job was made considerably easier in 2013–14, when the General Teaching Council for
Scotland subscribed to an EBSCO database, enabling teachers to access a range of research articles
in peer-reviewed journals.
776 M. Priestley and V. Drew