The Relationship between Comprehensive School, the Principle of Educational Continuity and the Research on Vertical Curriculum

The inception of new possibilities of integration between educational systems and the spread of structural and functional flexibility in teaching organization and methods were the consequences of the establishment of comprehensive schools. Particular care has been put in the construction of a vertical curriculum based on the principle of continuity, mainly considered in a pedagogical sense. Continuity results, therefore, from the need to ensure the pupil's right to an organic and complete training process, aimed at promoting an articulated and multidimensional development of the subject who is building its identity. The construction of the vertical curriculum shall take account of the skills that the child should acquire from his training and of its evaluation process based on the principles of authentic assessment.