In their highly successful practical guide, Developing a Curriculum, Howard and Audrey Nicholls provided a basic guide to curriculum planning for both practising and prospective teachers. In this second volume, originally published in 1975, some of the ideas outlined there at an elementary level are developed, with the aim of encouraging and guiding the development of ‘custom built’ curricula.

Grasping the fundamental ideas and concepts of curriculum development is one problem for teachers, translating them into practice is another, and this book will go a long way to solving both problems. The development of justifiable and purposeful curricula for the particular pupils he is teaching is a primary task for any teacher, as is the modification of these curricula as circumstances and ideas change and the teacher forms his assessment of pupils’ needs and progress. The theoretical background to be taken into account when arriving at general curricular decisions is considered throughout, and groups, aids, organisation, records and assessment are all treated as essential items for the curriculum planner. Nor is the final problem, which the theorists often neglect, forgotten, namely that of implementing modifications or innovations once the curriculum has been created.