Concepts for curriculum design

1. Concepts for curriculum design National Association for Primary Education Association for the Study of Primary Education Conference on ‘The Primary Curriculum’, February 27th 2013 Andrew Pollard reflectiveteaching.co.uk Institute of Education, University of London Graduate School of Education, University of Bristol Analysing a ‘new approach’ to the National Curriculum

2. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: a ‘new approach’ • ‘The National Curriculum should set out only the essential knowledge and understanding that all children should acquire and leave teachers to decide how to teach this most effectively.’ • The legitimacy of over-aching aims and judgements of ‘essential knowledge and understanding’ has not been established • Core subjects are over-specified and embed pedagogic prescription • Other foundation subjects as a whole are incoherent in form and content • Breadth is sustained, but balance in knowledge, concepts, skills and attitudes is lacking • Continuity from EY to KS1 is weak; progression and expectation are very bold • ‘We want the National Curriculum to be a benchmark not a straitjacket, a body of knowledge against which achievement can be measured.’ • Inclusion (and differentiation) across the curriculum is required but will be difficult • Language, literacy and numeracy across the curriculum are required. Learning is absent. • Personalisation, connection and relevance rely on the School Curriculum • Pupil agency , including engagement, authenticity and feedback rely on the SC • Curricular coherence is weak, and must be built through the School Curriculum • Assessment requirements are unclear, but are likely to be very powerful • Systemic congruence of control factors is real. Can schools rise above the straitjacket?

3. HOW TO TACKLE THIS SUBJECT? • Comparisons of: • Early Ministerial statements • Cambridge Primary Review recommendations • Rose Review curriculum • Expert Panel recommendations • Curricula within UK and internationally • Political party positions • Pressure group perspectives • Historical precedents • Disciplines of education • International research • International agency recommendations • All good for critique …. but how also to seed improvement in DfE and constructive responses through the School Curriculum?

4. STRUCTURE OF TALK • A ‘new approach’ to the National Curriculum’? • Concepts for curricular design • Breadth (aims, subjects and areas of learning) • Balance (between knowledge, concepts, skills and attitudes) • Continuity, progression and expectation • Personalisation (incl. connection, relevance, differentiation) • Agency (incl. engagement, dialogue, authenticity and feedback) • Coherence and congruence • Taking stock • What next?

5. Pollard, A. (2010) Professionalism and Pedagogy: a contemporary opportunity. London: TLRP GTCE.

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8. WHY NATIONAL CURRICULA? • Aims and objectives for each stage of education can represent national aspirations, affirm pupil entitlements and clarify expectations. • Curriculum breadth and balance can be considered as a whole. • Curriculum progression and continuity can be planned and monitored. • Training and professional development programmes for teachers can be tailored. • Assessment and inspection systems can be used to reinforce intentions. • Parents, employers and other stakeholders know what is being taught. • Coherence, alignment and improvement of the system as a whole can be developed though evaluation processes, research and refinement.

9. How should educational decisions be made? • Education Reform Act, Section 4, Principal Provisions • (1) It shall be the duty of the Secretary of State ..... • (a) to establish a complete National Curriculum (taking first the core subjects and then the other foundation subjects); and (b) to revise that Curriculum whenever he considers it necessary ... • (2) The Secretary of State may by order specify ... (a) such attainment targets; (b) such programmes of study; and (c) such assessment arrangements; as he considers appropriate ... • (3) An order made under subsection (2) above may not require— • that any particular period or periods of time should be allocated during any key stage to the teaching of any programme of study or any matter, skill or process forming part of it; or • that provision of any particular kind should be made in school timetables for the periods to be allocated to such teaching during any such stage.

10. A ‘new approach’ to the curriculum The Importance of Teaching 1.8 We are clear that our school system is performing below its potential: our pupils, teachers and head teachers are capable of achieving more than the current structures allow them to. 1.9 It does not have to be like this. The best performing and fastest improving education systems in the world show us what is possible. These systems consistently combine a rigorous focus on high standards with a determination to narrow attainment gaps between pupils from different parts of society. They combine high levels of autonomy for teachers and schools with high levels of accountability: so that professionals both feel highly trusted to do what they believe is right and highly responsible for the progress of every child. They ensure that every child and young person learns through a coherent and stretching approach to the curriculum.

11. A ‘new approach’ to the curriculum 4.1 It is our ambition to reduce unnecessary prescription, bureaucracy and central control throughout our education system. That means taking a new approach towards the curriculum. At over 200 pages, the guidance on the National Curriculum is weighing teachers down and squeezing out room for innovation, creativity, deep learning and intellectual exploration. 4.2 The National Curriculum was never meant to be the whole school curriculum – the totality of what goes on in any school. It was explicitly meant to be limited in scope yet in practice has come to dominate. The National Curriculum should set out only the essential knowledge and understanding that all children should acquire and leave teachers to decide how to teach this most effectively. We want the National Curriculum to be a benchmark not a straitjacket, a body of knowledge against which achievement can be measured. .

12. A ‘new approach’ to the curriculum The National Curriculum will act as a new benchmark for all schools. It will be slim, clear and authoritative enough for all parents to see what their child might be expected to know at every stage in their school career. Academies and Free Schools will retain the freedom they have at the moment to depart from aspects of the National Curriculum where they consider it appropriate. But they will be required by law, like all schools, to teach a broad and balanced curriculum. And all state schools will be held accountable for their performance in tests and exams which reflect the National Curriculum.

13. Contrastive starting points • English, mathematics and science are the building blocks of education; improving our performance in these subjects will be essential if our country is to compete in the global economy. That is why they are central to the new National Curriculum. • (DfE consultation document, April 2013, para 1.8) • At the heart of the educational process lies the child. • (Plowden Report, 1967, p7)

14. Enduring design dilemmas • In TLRP terms, a balance must be struck between two principles: • Effective teaching and learning engages with valued forms of knowledge. Teaching and learning should engage with the big ideas, facts, processes, language and narratives of subjects so that learners understand what constitutes quality and standards in particular disciplines. (TLRP Principle 2) • Effective teaching and learning recognises the importance of prior experience and learning. Teaching and learning should take account of what the learner knows already in order to plan their next steps. This includes building on prior learning but also taking account of the personal and cultural experiences of different groups of learners. (TLRP Principle 3)

15. Plowden understood the importance of combining knowledge and development • The child is the agent in his own learning. This was the message of the often quoted comment from the 1931 Hadow Report: • `The curriculum is to be thought of in terms of activity and experience rather than of knowledge to be acquired and facts to be stored'. • Read in isolation, the passage has sometimes been taken to imply ... that activity and experience did not lead to the acquisition of knowledge. ... The actual implication is almost the opposite of this. It is that activity and experience, both physical and mental, are often the best means of gaining knowledge and acquiring facts. .... • We certainly would not wish to undervalue knowledge and facts, but facts are best retained when they are used and understood, when right attitudes to learning are created, when children learn to learn. Instruction in many primary schools continues to bewilder children because it outruns their experience. • (Plowden Report, 1967, pp 193-7)

16. Design dilemmas •  How should the value of coherence and progression in subject knowledge be compared with ….. the benefits of making connections to other dimension of children’s lives? • How can a national curriculum framework guarantee curricular entitlements and guide the work of teachers ….. whilst also enabling them to exercise professional judgement when responding to particular learning needs?

17. STRUCTURE OF TALK • A ‘new approach’ to the National Curriculum’? • Conceptual tools for curricular design • Breadth (aims, subjects and areas of learning) • Balance (between knowledge, concepts, skills and attitudes) • Continuity, progression and expectation • Personalisation (incl. connection, relevance, differentiation) • Agency (incl. engagement, dialogue, authenticity and feedback) • Coherence and congruence • Taking stock • What next?

18. AIMS: WHY BREADTH? DOES THE CURRICULUM REPRESENT SOCIETY’S EDUCATIONAL ASPIRATIONS FOR ITS CITIZENS? • In England, Section 78 of the Education Act 2002 states that school curriculum should be ‘balanced and broadly based’ and should ‘promote the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils at the school and of society, and prepare pupils at the school for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life.’ • 2. The school curriculum in England • 2.1 Every state-funded school must offer a curriculum which is balanced and broadly based and which: • promotes the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils at the school and of society, and • prepares pupils at the school for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life. (NC Consultation Framework, 2013)

19. AIMS: WHY BREADTH? • Breadth is associated with high achievement. • INCA comparative international study documented curricular breadth among ‘high performing jurisdictions’ to age 16 (DfE, 2011) • ‘Inspection reports in all parts of the UK have, for decades, testified that children are likely to achieve most progress in the core skills or literacy and numeracy if they learn in a rich, broad and balanced curriculum which provides them with stimulating content to talk, read and write about and to explore mathematically, scientifically, socially or creatively.’ (Expert Panel, 2011)

20. AIMS: WHY BREADTH? • The Cambridge Primary Review is unequivocal about the need to protect curriculum breadth. • This case is argued on the grounds of : • educational entitlement - pupils in primary schools need a proper foundation for their learning both now and in the future and for later educational choice, • educational standards – HMI and Ofsted inspection evidence consistently show that standards in the so-called ‘basics’ of literacy and numeracy are interdependent, and that narrowing the curriculum down in the hope of raising such standards is not only educationally unsound but also counterproductive. • It follows that reduction in the specified content of the national curriculum should be across the board rather than by cutting back what the CPR regards as essential domains of knowledge and understanding or downgrading their status. • While England’s best primary schools will always provide both breadth and excellence, an unacceptably large number will reduce the curriculum to what is required and/or tested. This is a key lesson of recent educational history. • (Alexander, 2011, submission to DfE for consultation)

21. AIMS: WHY BREADTH? Two versions of ‘minimal entitlement’ appear to be on offer. Minimalism 1 reduces entitlement to a handful of subjects deemed uniquely essential on the grounds of utility and international competitiveness. Minimalism 2 foregrounds the educational imperative of breadth by making a wider range of subjects statutory. It strives to balance the different ways of knowing, understanding, investigating and making sense that are central to the needs of young children and to our culture, and achieves the required parsimony by stripping back the specified content of each subject to its essential core. Robin Alexander, Guardian article (15.3.11)

22. AIMS: WHY BREADTH? • Historical study, international comparison and sectoral reviews suggest broad areas of intention such as: • Social • Economic • Personal • Cultural • Environmental • Public debate needed • Without clarity on goals, it is not possible for a fully coherent and holistic curriculum to be offered or for appropriately aligned and congruent assessment practices to be developed. • (Expert Panel report, 2011)

23. AIMS? • Aims in the National Curriculum proposals • No public debate on overall purposes. Why not? • 3. Aims • 3.1 The National Curriculum provides pupils with an introduction to the core knowledge that they need to be educated citizens. It introduces pupils to the best that has been thought and said; and helps engender an appreciation of human creativity and achievement. • 3.2 The National Curriculum provides an outline of core knowledge around which teachers can develop exciting and stimulating lessons. (NC Consultation Framework, 2013)

24. STRUCTURE OF TALK • A ‘new approach’ to the National Curriculum’? • Conceptual tools for curricular design • Breadth (aims, subjects and areas of learning) • Balance (between knowledge, concepts, skills and attitudes) • Continuity, progression and expectation • Personalisation (incl. connection, relevance, differentiation) • Agency (incl. engagement, dialogue, authenticity and feedback) • Coherence and congruence • Taking stock • What next?

25. WHY BALANCE? DOES THE CURRICULUM AS EXPERIENCED OFFER EVERYTHING WHICH A LEARNER HAS A RIGHT TO EXPECT? • Elements of learning (HMI, 1985) • Knowledge: Selections of that which is worth knowing and of interest. ‘That which is taught should be worth knowing, comprehensible, capable of sustaining pupils’ interest and useful to them at their particular stage of development and in the future’. • Concepts: The ‘big ideas’ which inform a subject, or generalisations which enable pupils to classify, organise and predict ‑ to understand patterns, relationships and meanings, e.g. flow, change, consequence, temperature, refraction, power, energy. • Skills: The capacity or competence to perform a task, e.g. personal/social (listening, collaborating, reflecting), physical/practical (running, writing, cutting), intellectual (observing, reasoning, imagining), communication (oracy, literacy, numeracy) etc. • Attitudes: The overt expression of values and personal qualities, e.g. reliability, initiative, self-discipline, tolerance, resilience, resourcefulness, etc.

26. WHY BALANCE? • Why Knowledge as an element of learning? • Teachers with good subject knowledge are able to make more secure judgements about the appropriate teaching of knowledge, concepts, skills and attitudes. • Content knowledge - knowledge of the subject held by the teacher. • Pedagogic content knowledge - knowledge of how to use content knowledge for teaching purposes. • Curricular knowledge - knowledge of curriculum structures and materials

27. WHY BALANCE? • Knowledge in the National Curriculum proposals: • NC proposals: Framework 3.1 The National Curriculum provides pupils with an introduction to the core knowledge that they need to be educated citizens. It introduces pupils to the best that has been thought and said; and helps engender an appreciation of human creativity and achievement. • E. D. Hirsch: ‘core knowledge curriculum’ • A specified sequence of topics in each subject which will enhance both educational standards and opportunities for all

28. WHY BALANCE? • Knowledge in the National Curriculum proposals: • Core subjects: • Very high knowledge content specifications, long and detailed • Progression based on perceived logics, experience of typical learning sequences, and comparison with the ordering of knowledge in successful jurisdictions internationally • Obscure authorship and uneasy relationships with subject specialists • Other foundation subjects: • High knowledge content specification, but very short and variable quality • Progression by key stage forsakes upper/lower KS2 opportunity • Variable in form and lacking common elements • Imbalanced emphases suggest significant stakeholder influence

29. WHY BALANCE? • Why Concepts as an element of learning? • Concepts enable the most important ideas and deep structure of knowledge and understanding in each subject to be presented in concise ways. This avoids long lists of curriculum content. • Concepts as organisers – because they ‘provide a map of knowledge’ which establish connections between cases, facts and experiences and thus enable us to understand them. • Concepts as anchorage points – in providing stability for exploration of the subject and enabling cumulative understanding by learners. • Concepts for flexible futures – because the information explosion generates new facts at such a rate that it is futile to try to keep up.

30. WHY BALANCE? • Why Concepts as an element of learning? • The Geographical Association proposed a curriculum for primary schools based on ‘thinking geographically’. As they put it: • A few large, organising concepts underlie a geographical way of investigating and understanding the world. These are high level ideas that can be applied across the subject to identify a question, guide an investigation, organise information, suggest an explanation or assist decision making. They are the key ideas involved in framing the unique contribution of geography as a subject discipline. • The three main organising concepts for geography are place, space and environment. There are further basic ideas in geography that run across this overarching framework, such as connection, interrelation, scale and change. • Using these ideas carefully and accurately is a key component of what we mean by thinking geographically. (Geographical Association, 2012)

31. WHY BALANCE? • Concepts in the National Curriculum proposals: • Core subjects: • Implicit in programmes of study, but not explicitly drawn out • Other foundation subjects: • Mentioned in history, but missing from most subjects and certainly not explicit

32. WHY BALANCE? • Why Skills as an element of learning? • A skill is ‘the capacity or competence to perform a task’ - but uses of the term include reference to: basic, physical, personal, study, subject and vocational skills. • Classic distinction from Gilbert Ryle: • declarative knowledge – knowing that • procedural knowledge – knowing how • The point is that there are sets of capabilities which complement and extend a subject-based curriculum. Skills may be specified for study across all curriculum subjects.

33. WHY BALANCE? • Skills are recognised internationally: • It is probably no accident that Finland, Japan, Shanghai and Singapore are without physical resources. All of these places have known for a very long time that their standard of living depends entirely on the knowledge and skills of their people. • All now realize that high wages in the current global economy require not just superior knowledge of the subjects studied in school, but also a set of social skills, personal habits and dispositions and values that are essential to success. The Asian countries in particular are concerned that their students may not have as much capacity for independent thought, creativity and innovation as their countries will need. • Mark S Tucker (2011) Standing on the Shoulders of Giants: • an American agenda for education reform

34. WHY BALANCE? • Skills in the National Curriculum proposals • 5. Language, literacy and numeracy • 5.1 Teachers should develop pupils’ spoken language, reading and writing as integral aspects of the teaching of every subject. Fluency in the English language is an essential foundation for success in all subjects. • 5.2 Teachers should also use every relevant subject to develop pupils’ mathematical fluency. Confidence in numeracy and other mathematical skills is a precondition of success across the National Curriculum. (NC Consultation Framework, 2013)

35. WHY BALANCE? • Skills in the National Curriculum proposals: • Core subjects: • Embedded in programmes of study, but not made explicit or extracted on a cross-curricular basis except for language, literacy and numeracy • Other foundation subjects: • Mentioned variably in relation to subject domains, but not systematically or cross-curricular

36. WHY BALANCE? • Why Attitudes as an element of learning? • Attitudes were regarded by HMI as ‘the overt expression, in a variety of situations, of values and personal qualities’ • Honesty, reliability, initiative, self-discipline and tolerance • Other specific values and priorities reflect particular social, cultural and economic priorities: • citizenship , health, exercise and diet, sustainability

37. WHY BALANCE? • Why Attitudes as an element of learning? • HMI also emphasised promotion of ‘positive attitudes (to learning) – now termed ‘dispositions to learn’: • Resilience covers aspects of the learner’s emotional and experiential engagement with the subject matter of learning. • Resourcefulness embraces the main cognitive skills and dispositions of learning. • Reciprocity covers the social and interpersonal side of learning. • Reflectiveness covers the strategic and self-managing sides of learning. (Claxton et al, 2011, p40)

38. WHY BALANCE? • Why Attitudes as an element of learning? • ‘Learning how to learn’ (James et al, 2007) for the 21st century. • 2020 Vision(Gilbert, 2007) aspired to ‘a new school experience’. • personalisation • assessment for learning • learning how to learn • pupil voice • engaging parents and carers • pupil engagement in a meaningful curriculum

39. WHY BALANCE? • Attitudes in the National Curriculum proposals: • Core subjects: • No mention • Other foundation subjects: • No mention

40. WHY BALANCE? • A balanced curriculum? • Knowledge, concepts, skills and attitudes • versus • ‘Fewer things in greater depth’ • results in • Effective narrowing, because of the combination of over-specification and high stakes reinforcement of core subjects, combined with under-specification and incoherence of other foundation subjects.

41. STRUCTURE OF TALK • A ‘new approach’ to the National Curriculum’? • Conceptual tools for curricular design • Breadth (aims, subjects and areas of learning) • Balance (between knowledge, concepts, skills and attitudes) • Continuity, progression and expectation • Personalisation (incl. connection, relevance, differentiation) • Agency (incl. engagement, dialogue, authenticity and feedback) • Coherence and congruence • Taking stock • What next?

42. WHY CONTINUITY?DOES THE CURRICULUM FACILITATE AND SUPPORT CUMULATIVE LEARNING? • Why continuity through the curriculum? • Children's development is a continuous process and schools have to provide conditions and experiences which sustain and encourage that process while recognising that it does not proceed uniformly or at an even pace. • There is a need to build systematically on the children's existing knowledge, concepts, skills and attitudes, so as to ensure an orderly advance in their capabilities over a period of time. • (HMI, 1985)

43. WHY CONTINUITY? • Why continuity through the curriculum? • The main points at which progression is endangered by discontinuity are those at which pupils change schools. Curricular planning within and between schools should aim to ensure continuity by making the maximum use of earlier learning. • Continuity within and between schools may best be achieved when there are clear curricular policies. If the goals are clear, progress towards them is more likely to be maintained. • (HMI, 1985)

44. WHY CONTINUITY? EYFS

45. WHY CONTINUITY? EYFS Learning characteristics. Children learn: By playing and exploring ● finding out and exploring ● using what they know in their play ● being willing to have a go Through active learning ● being involved and concentrating ● keeping on trying ● enjoying achieving what they set out to do By creating and thinking critically ● having their own ideas ● using what they already know to learn new things ● choosing ways to do things and finding new ways

46. WHYCONTINUITY? Continuity in the National Curriculum proposals English: Key Stage 1 During Year 1 teachers should build on work from the Foundation Stage, making sure that pupils can sound and blend unfamiliar printed words quickly and accurately using the phonic knowledge and skills that they have already learnt. Teachers should also ensure that pupils continue to learn new grapheme-phoneme correspondences (GPCs) and revise and consolidate those learnt earlier.

47. WHY PROGRESSION?DOES THE CURRICULUM PROVIDE AN APPROPRIATE SEQUENCE AND DEPTH OF LEARNING EXPERIENCES? • 1. Progression is linked to providing continuities in children’s development as learners. • Children’s development is a continuous process and schools have to provide conditions and experiences which sustain and encourage that process while recognising that it does not proceed uniformly or at an even pace. If this progression is to be maintained, there is a need to build systematically on the children’s existing knowledge, concepts, skills and attitudes, so as to ensure an orderly advance in their capabilities over a period of time. (Her Majesty’s Inspectors, 1985, p 48) • This understanding of progression recognises variation, diversity and uncertainty in learning and urges teachers to personalize the curriculum in relation to pupils’ existing knowledge.

48. WHY PROGRESSION? • Progression emphasises the sequencing of programmes of study to maintain the integrity and logic of subject knowledge. • For example, Hirsch’s Core Knowledge Curriculum, orders information to be learned in great detail - but leaves pedagogic implications for teachers to determine.

49. WHY PROGRESSION? • 3. Progression in forms of learner thinking • Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (1956) : • recall • comprehension • application • analysis • synthesis • evaluation

50. WHY PROGRESSION? • Progression in the National Curriculum proposals • Core subjects • The DfE harvested national curricula from around the world and built up its programmes of study from a process of comparison, drafting and consultation about such knowledge – but opting for high outcomes • So the outcome offers progression and very high expectations, but is primarily justified in subject terms rather than in terms of the development of capacity to learn • Other foundation subjects • No use of upper/lower key stage 2. • Content descriptions with limited delineation of substantive progression