Nos trilhos da flexibilidade curricular. O que vimos, ouvimos e refletimos

After nearly two school years of implementing a curriculum flexibility model in Portuguese primary and secondary schools, and with the clear and final goals of increasing school success and decreasing school dropout, we have followed schools with flexibility projects included in the program autonomy. We tried to understand, in a non-participant observation framework, if the curriculum design initially established by the school leadership initiative, allowed to achieve the stated objectives. The research framework consisted mainly of classroom observation, participation in disciplinary team meetings and meetings with the local team to follow the curriculum flexibilization process. We found that learning strategies became more student-centered and what was effectively found was that learning outcomes improved substantially, not only witnessed by teachers’ opinions, but also materialized in school grades.