Secondary School Examinations: Facts and Commentary by George BruceReview by: John RoachBritish Journal of Educational Studies, Vol. 17, No. 3 (Oct., 1969), pp. 319-320Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of the Society for Educational StudiesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3119636 .

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REVIEWS

number of grammar schools, taking 30 per cent of the child population: in addition there were famous direct grant and independent schools which took many future sixth formers and the result was small sixth forms in the five maintained grammar schools. Prima facie there was a good case, but it was rejected. Mr. King has now provided in this book the case in general for the establishment of Sixth Form Colleges and he includes a chapter and an appendix referring to the particular problem at Croydon-these in the main illustrate his general thesis.

His book covers most aspects of the problem in present-day conditions, commencing with the abandonment of selection at I I-plus and ending with an interesting chapter on how independent schools might be integrated with the state system by becoming Sixth Form Colleges. Mr. King has con- siderable knowledge of his subject and on most aspects writes with authority. Just here and there, however, his assertions, ever-confident, might be questioned, as for example when he extols primary school French. A more serious weakness is his failure to show that ending selection for schools at I I does not entail ending selection, and if that selection is for differential curricula then it is just as final and irrevocable as any in the past. Whether this selection takes place within one school or between schools is relatively unimportant if the curricula followed by different pupils are markedly different. It is perhaps here that Mr. King is writing purely from the stand- point of the administrator. Finally, many will feel that though the con- siderable case for Sixth Form Colleges is portrayed with skill, insufficient consideration is given to the fate of the resulting junior secondary schools. The staffing and status of these schools is an important aspect of any scheme for Sixth Form Colleges and this is the point on which most people are anxious. I do not believe that these problems are insuperable but they are problems and will require a new approach to secondary education.

In general, however, Mr. King has produced a timely, valuable and well- written book on what may well be the pattern for future secondary school development in England.

W. H. BURSTON

Secondary School Examinations: Facts and Commentary. By George Bruce. Pp. viii, 152. Oxford and London: Pergamon Press, I969. 28s.

Mr. Bruce's book contains both information about the present structure of secondary school examinations and suggestions about possible plans for the future. As secretary to the University Entrance and Schools Examinations Council of the University of London, he writes with deep knowledge of the procedures of the G.C.E. Examining bodies. One of the most interesting parts of the book is the chapter which surveys the actual conduct of a G.C.E. examination from the first appointment of the examiners and setting of the papers to the final publication of the results. The eight G.C.E. examining bodies have, of course, come under considerable attack during recent years. Mr. Bruce writes as a supporter of their work, but by no means an un- critical admirer of everything they do. About the Certificate of Secondary Education he has clearly many doubts. The structure of fourteen regional boards is, he considers, extremely expensive, nor does he have much con- fidence in the means used to achieve comparability of standards between the boards.

In his view G.C.E. and C.S.E. are complementary to one another. The correct course for the future would be, he argues, to replace all the existing examining bodies for both G.C.E. and C.S.E. by a single Schools Examin- ations Service with the autonomous position of a university. In suggesting

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REVIEWS

such a service, which would have extensive research and testing departments, Mr. Bruce is obviously influenced by the example of the United States and by the work there of the College Entrance Examination Board and the Educational Testing Service. He believes that England has much to learn from the American model. American techniques of examining are more logical and scientific than ours, though our methods have their own skills worked out over more than a century of school examinations. 'In the United Kingdom,' he argues, 'examinations are an art and in the United States they are a science.'

In England Mr. Bruce dislikes the steady growth of central control, which has occurred in the field of examining as in every other part of public education. The C.S.E. boards are, he considers, simply the creation of the central education authority. The G.C.E. boards-originally autonomous university bodies-have been brought under closer and closer central direction, though he considers that this control has been exercised more liberally by the Schools Council than by its predecessor, the Secondary Schools Examination Council. The proposed School Examinations Service would, if it were to do its work effectively, need real independence and the right to go its own way in developing its own techniques. It may be doubted whether, under present-day conditions, the Service would have any chance of obtaining this. Indeed, a single body might be easier to dominate than eight G.C.E. and fourteen C.S.E. boards.

JOHN ROACH

Perspectives on Plowden. Edited by R. S. Peters. Pp. x, Io6. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1968. i6s., 8s. paperback.

These essays from the University of London Institute of Education are intended to warn students against using the Plowden Report as a textbook. Their authors do not doubt that the heart of the Central Advisory Council was in the right place, but some of the Report's assumptions leave them uneasy.

Professor Peters himself opens with characteristically penetrating com- ments, concentrating in particular on what he sees as a basic assumption in much of the Report, that it uncritically exalts child development and under- estimates teaching. Although he rather glosses over the cognitive limitations of young children, he does bring out the lack of necessary congruence between individual development and social needs and also the aimlessness of mere self-extension:

'It is not enough ... to say that children should learn to be themselves at school: we must give them the equipment to find out properly what sort of selves they want to be' (p. I2).

Next, R. F. Dearden gives philosophy a second innings, concentrating on aims. Acknowledging the need for a value-orientation, he stresses personal autonomy and gives short shrift to the Report's agreed communique on religious education (though surely it is slightly ambiguous to call the beliefs of Christian teachers 'questionable' (p. 27)). In a valuable though open- ended discussion on the curriculum he emphasizes that primary education, as much as any other, has to come to terms with logically distinct forms of understanding.

Professor Foss, on behalf of psychology, reminds us of the inadequate theoretical justification for some of the Report's suggestions, notably in respect of critical periods of readiness, discovery methods, and environmental factors in learning. He also emphasizes that Piaget has studied children's

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