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Curriculum and Assessment is the first volume of a new series International Perspectives on Curriculum. This edited book examines the relationship between curriculum, pedagogy and assessment, and, as with subsequent volumes, adopts a cross-sector and comparative approach. Contributors make reference to a number of important debates in the fields of curriculum and assessment: summative versus formative assessment; differentiation versus inclusion; psychometric versus holistic theorising; decontextualised versus contextualised assessment; symbol-processing versus situated learning approaches; integrated versus connected assessment; and high stakes versus low stakes assessment. The rationale for this volume is not to reach an agreement about assessment and curriculum frameworks, but to air the various debates referred to above and develop new frameworks for understanding these important issues.

This volume and the series is timely as administrators and policy-makers in different parts of the world have taken an increased interest in education, and as moves to centralise curriculum provision have gathered pace. This has in some cases driven a wedge between curriculum theory and curriculum practice, as policy-makers have developed and implemented proposals without referring to academic debates about these issues. It therefore is an important task to reassert the need to discuss and debate the curriculum in a critical manner before implementation occurs. This volume sets about that task, addressing policy-makers, administrators, teachers and the research community.