Britain's Industrial Skills and the School-Teaching of Practical Subjects: Comparisons with Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland

Helvia Bierhoff and Sj Prais

National Institute Economic Review, 1993, vol. 144, 55-73

Abstract: Teaching practical subjects (e.g. woodwork, technical drawing, domestic science) in secondary schools can provide a valuable foundation and introduction to subsequent vocational training and qualification. This article compares the way such subjects are taught in secondary schools in Britain with three Continental countries—Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands. The emphasis on high quality of finish in the making of small articles to a given design, which is the normal approach in these Continental countries, is contrasted with the British emphasis on pupils' developing their own designs to solve larger problems—an approach which leaves less time for making the final article and achieving a high standard of finish. The implications for the current revision of the National Curriculum in Technology are considered.

Date: 1993
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/ ... type/journal_article link to article abstract page (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cup:nierev:v:144:y:1993:i::p:55-73_4

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in National Institute Economic Review from National Institute of Economic and Social Research Cambridge University Press, UPH, Shaftesbury Road, Cambridge CB2 8BS UK. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Kirk Stebbing ().