Primary/secondary transition and related teacher attitudes to science

There is an increasing call for K-12 continuity in education. This is supported by curriculum policy statements that are designed to cut across the traditional lines of discontinuity, particularly the primary/secondary boundary. However, apart from the different curriculum traditions of the two areas (Primary & Secondary), other major differences still remain. One such difference is the generalist training of primary teachers and the subject-based specialist training of their secondary counterparts. Does this result in attitudinal differences in respect to curriculum development and implementation priorities? This paper goes some way to addressing this question and is based upon interview data obtained from both practising teachers and teacher education undergraduates. The data represent two separate stages of research, one completed and one on-going.