Opening Minds Notes
Opening Minds
- Redefining the curriculum- competence led curriculum p1.
- March 1999- redefining the curriculum paper
- Current curriculum can’t meet demands of future
The need for change
- Accepted need mass high education for economic growth p2.
- Social change e.g. family breakdown p3.
- Old certainties disappearing
- Problems
o Remedial education for graduates
o Failure to educate in a democratic society
- People believe there should be a change
o No consensus on strategy
o Few competing visions to focus debate
- Often underlying assumptions prevent discussion p4.
The impatience of curriculum
- Need to meet demands of lives and work via education
- Considering future curriculum
o What kind would be right in the future
o What we have now
o How it works
o How to meet challenges of the future without radical change
- Gap between broad aims and process. No means to determine what people should be prepared for in adult life- or means to measure if this is met. P5.
- Curriculum focused on traditional subjects focused on content and info
o Work on developing for adult life in margins not covered in assessment (until recently (even then in limited way))
- Philosophy not transparent and its outdated p.6
o Does it meet future needs?
o Doesn’t provide a statement of purpose to correct to- institutions expected to account for what they do
§ Little explanation of why following targets, and how to achieve
o Too much information trying to be focused into curriculum
o Limited “customer” focus- challenges assumptions of education process and relationship between teachers and young people
§ Teachers provider of service
§ Service needs to change over time
- Industrial Society’s 1997 survey of 10,000 12-25 yr olds – 2020 Vision p7.
o Most young people feel schooling should prepare them for the future- failing to do so
§ If don’t see school as valuable- difficult to transmit common values or meeting young people needs.
A curriculum strategy for the future
- RSA- competence based curriculum more effective at showing what students need to learn
- Need to state what students should achieve and yardsticks p8.
- Notion of reviewing ‘well-educated person’ attractive to many
o Competence led curriculum faced scepticism to support
§ Questions of practicality and assessment
o Many argued they were already doing what the RSA proposed
- Challenge for educators- evaluating rationale of curriculum
- Competence curriculum seen as important to engage actively in learning and reduce disaffection and clear sense of purpose
- Many disagreed p9.
- Many agreed not to tinker with national curriculum
Achieving Transformation
- New elements
o Overall vision with stakeholders- teachers, parents, students
o Reorganisation of operations in schools- powerful! p10.
§ Teacher and learner
- Open and individual negotiation of targets
- End of age and stage
- New patterns of attendance
o Professional demands on teachers greater than current system
§ Qs of training
§ Level of support
- Long preparation times- 10 yrs
- Key principles and issues p12.
o Interests of students first
o Adequate time for preparation
§ New support material
o Investment
o Professional teachers get prominent role
- Barriers to change
o Attitudes of teachers and politicians
§ Innate conservatism
§ Abused readiness to respond to govt demands
o Politicians influence not likely to change
- Much modern reform done in short-term little long-term strategy
Next Steps
- Aim- develop every young g person to best of ability the competences needed to be a successful and active citizen
o Understood aspect of education
o Why being asked to prepare for adult life
o Useful for developing capacity to enjoy life and value learning
- Full integration of ICT- allow learning outside of conventional times and classrooms
- Notion of accountability in respect to purpose
- Need public debate on where things are going p14.
- Independent report by “National Foundation for Educational Research”
o 12 effects from arts education
o Can be linked with competence framework
o Developed through arts AND help cultural awareness and perspective- multicultural and multi-ethnic society
o Also seeking to give “hands-on” food education for primary and secondary
- Also seeking to give “hands-on” food education for primary and secondary
o Skills necessary to live lives
o Practical food work and cross-curricular links
§ Exchange of ideas in discussion
§ Social activities of sharing a meal
§ Team work, problem solving
§ ICT-access information and present
- Aware of other initiatives’
o Catherine Williamson- Art Workshops
o Feedback- self esteem, ability to articulate, sense of responsibility and self-confidence
From competence to curriculum p16.
- Create framework by consulting interested individuals
- 1st Round Consultations “Redefining the curriculum”
o Not arguments making team feel mistaken
o Strong support
- Latest consultations- Issues raised
o Earlier too focused on process and not outcomes
o Needs to be presented in understandable way to parents etc
o Derive visibly from RSA’s competencies
o Present project not tried to create a framework of programmes of study and assessment which differentiates age, stage of education and ability levels
- Felt importance of competences varied in importance
o Argued of order should be
o Competence for learning accepted as founding block
o Ranking not seen as feasible or appropriate. Each child entitled to develop competencies in each group- strong arguments each should be taken forward for all students
o Each should not be pursued simultaneously p17.
§ Management of progression and curriculum loading needed
§ Each student would not reach the same level of attainment-other factors
- Third
o Framework should reflect different ways students learn- not just what they are expected to learn
o Emphasis on what should be learnt (unlike National Curriculum), not teaching
o Nothing to prescribe any style of teaching or learning, leaving to professional judgement
- 4th
o Contentious-relationship between competence- led curriculum and subject content
§ Use subject content to develop competencies
§ Accumulation of competencies; not subject knowledge, assessed
o Many argue need to have traditional subject basis- RSA model impractical or unacceptable to them
§ Subject orientation of teachers
§ Difficulty in delivery
§ Public familiarity with subject organisation
o Argued not principles reasons- not strong
§ Developed over decades- could address issues
o Principled objection
§ Education a transmission of corpus of knowledge- not inculcation of particular attitudes or behaviours
- But schools practice the latter- seen in their statement of values
- Other options- London Enterprise Agency’s Pathways Project
o Set of student outcomes- what pupils should know and understand to be prepared effectively for working life- to show these could be organised in the current curriculum
o Structure for organising teaching and learning p18.
§ Curriculum management tool, not a curriculum
o Extended in TITLE- Towards Improved Learning for Employment
o Go as far as specifying competencies as possible within constraints of the current curriculum
§ Do so within philosophy
- Support for new curriculum
o Disillusion with ability of present curriculum to engage students
o Declining relevance and usefulness to the world beyond education
o Difficulty in convincing students value of education as employers voice disillusion in the quality and nature of educational attainments
o Domination of traditional subject content so strong- could not graft competence outcomes onto curriculum- need new curriculum philosophy
Making the Model Work
- Much work needed to be done before RSA could replace current curriculum
- Didn’t create full curriculum for all competences
o Developed and consulted on 2
§ Competences for Managing People- communications
§ Managing Situations-risk
o Work on IT- part of competences for learning
- Those consultations basis for conclusions of structuring and operation of curriculum
- This section reflects those points
- To set out RSA curriculum
o See categories with competencies
§ Statement of student entitlement underpinning the compulsory stages of schooling
o Statement of rationale for each competence-purpose explicit
§ Help informed debate about curriculum priorities and loading- “help those charged with responsibility for devising, and maintaining the framework with those tasks.”
§ Practical aid for teachers p21.
§ Motivational tool for teachers
§ Public documents
- Debate
- accountability
- Learning Outcomes
o Each student aims to complete at some point in compulsory schooling- expressed as elements of individual competence
o Basis of assessment system
o Progression and differentiation by ability, age, stage
o Literacy, numeracy, ICT would feature, at increasingly high levels, throughout school- more elements added in at different points
o Each competence has contexts- act as framework for teaching and learning
o National guidelines to link competences, contexts and content- to ensure coverage of subject material and competences across school as a whole
o E.g. Management of Risk
§ Contexts-
- Changing world
- Personal and social safety
- Safety and health at work
- Environmental safety
- Food safety
- Financial risk and uncertainty
o Each competence has a mandatory core of contexts
§ Could introduce others- need to consider overall weight of content
§ Schools could add contexts to mandatory core
- National guidelines to ensure proper breadth of coverage for all students
- Context specifics content to draw from e.g. communication
o Personal world context
§ English literature and language
§ Religious education
§ Science
- Use professional judgement of teachers to select subject material
o Not specified for them
o Required (by broad national guidelines) to draw on full range of subjects specified for each context
o E.g. communications- history and performing arts
§ Decide how to use- not whether to use them
o Illustrative material/ programmes of work
§ Not mandatory
§ Available in such quantities- teachers use professional judgement rather than covering all
§ Use for students at different stages of development
§ Model specifications- how selections could be made to cover all content of compulsory stages
§ Improve curriculum planning and management of transition
- Range of RSA material wider than current subject base
Assessing a competence-led curriculum p23.
- Assessment principles unlikely to differ from those already understood
o Professional judgement
o Transparency of standards
o Arrangements for moderation and consistency
- Qs asked
o New principles to be made explicit
o New techniques of assessment
o Place for ICT?
o Experience- use of records of achievement
o Implications of change for teachers
- Purpose of assessment
o Different ends- means of recognising individual achievement
§ Of school
§ Of teachers
§ Direct aid of teaching and learning
o 1st accepted all as very desirable. Last necessary- inevitable in properly managed systems
o Many saw assessment as a means to motivate students and teachers- genuine developmental progress
o Lay foundations for recognition of achievement of teachers and school as a whole
- Consensus of principles of above
- “the absolute need for trust in the system,”
- Maintenance of respect for intrinsic value of education
- Sense of ownership on part of all stakeholders
- Those consulted- focus on what students are able to do, not what they cannot
o Tests what students can do and what they can understand
o Move from sifting process which impedes progression
- Reform of qualifications structure
o Provides students with something of progress
o “currency”- recognition beyond the world of education
§ (int. dimension- too much divergence- currency reduced) other countries incorporating competence development into education systems- RSA Curriculum not unique
- “The system must assess what is valued, rather than what can be assessed.”
o Matrix approach to balance competence and subject content
- Formative assessment major principle
o Some said only- only means to assess competence
o Some summative assessment needed- for progress with subject content
- Written tests have place
o Emphasis on value of collecting, reviewing and reflecting on evidence
o Project- work important
o Assessing competence- needs observation and assessment of behaviour
§ Not new- been informed
§ Larger part
§ “no difficulty for good teacher in creating opportunities in school to do this”
- Rest on professional judgement
o No different from current system in this regard
o Arguments
§ Teachers at lvl of school and wider education system
- Create criteria
- Other interests of external stakeholders accepted
§ RSA and others
- Great external element- alongside specification and maintenance of competence framework
- Essential- national framework of standards
o Nationally based research necessary for a well-funded approach
- More to German system- based on professional judgement
- Avoid “bogus” objectivity – assessment by checklist
o Variety of techniques
o Collection of evidence
o Value of reflection- use by students and teachers- use systematically
o Collective approach of overall assessments
o This and internal and external moderation- provide objectivity
o Peer assessment (harder on selves and peers than their teachers are- not easily recognising progression)
o Parental involvement should also be considered
- Use of special action plans for students with special educational needs for all p25.
o Capture of evidence of progress in formats which could be used by teachers and students
o Better use of non-school activity (e.g. work experience- wasted before in assessment)
- For some
o Substitute for existing assessment and exams
§ Need sufficient investment
§ Introduce individual target setting- useful as a motivational tool, especially for boys
- Clarify what was to be learnt
- Greater individualisation of curriculum overcome issue where students demanded to progress at the same rates
- Some students make little progress until leave
o Issue of progression, not success/ failure