Abstract
This study monitors the development of two innovatory courses in the theory of education, taught to successive year groups of students at Bishop Otter College of Education, Chichester between 1969 and 1977. The first course was a simulation exercise in educational decision making and the second one was a resource-based course in the broad area of the philosophy of education. Part One of the study attempts to provide an 'illuminative' perspective, firmly based in the literature, of the College and its students, which focusses on the changing academic, social, psychological and logistical factors which appear to have affected the development of the two courses between 1969 and 1977. The review of the literature, which forms Part Two, is divided into three main parts, which look at human learning, teaching methods, and finally at educational technology. The review concludes by drawing out the implications of the literature for the development of the innovatory courses. Part Three describes how the two courses were developed, using the systematic model of curriculum development. This model is found to be rather arbitrary as a representation of the curriculum development reality, tending to be somewhat introspective in failing to take sufficient note of the 'hidden curriculum' and the social and academic context in which the courses were taught. The main thesis, which is arrived at inductively, develops a dynamic systematic explanation, which attempts to include the systematic model in a broader based metaphor of the process of curriculum development, including the 'hidden curriculum', as well as other constraining factors. This thesis is successfully tested against the longitudinal development of these two very different teaching approaches. Finally, Part Four attempts to provide a synthesis of the study as a whole and to draw some general conclusions. It concludes by suggesting directions for future research.