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- Herausgeber: Crown House Publishing
- Kategorie: Bildung
- Sprache: Englisch
- Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018
Bill Laar and Jackie Holderness' Reclaiming the Curriculum examines the nature of a broad-ranging, content-rich primary school curriculum and presents case studies that exemplify how it can be effectively delivered. Many schools believe that the value of their work is undermined by a test-driven agenda that limits the breadth of the education they provide and who can blame them? In Reclaiming the Curriculum Bill and Jackie inspire teachers to escape such narrow confines by unearthing a rich seam of case study examples from schools who are broadening their provision with specialist content that transcends the core curriculum: taking pupils into the realms of exploration and enquiry while also providing for higher attainment in the core subjects. Featuring a variety of exciting initiatives, ranging from the development of an IT-enabled collaborative learning space to the artful application of storytelling across the curriculum, this book will embolden primary schools to identify and enhance their own creative practice and more effectively prepare pupils for the tests of life, not a life of tests. The 18 case studies written by a diverse line-up of contributors including school leaders, teachers and special-ist coaches are sourced from a mixture of different settings and offer detailed descriptions of the initiatives' unique backgrounds: their genesis and inspiration, their underpinning aims and objectives, and the ways in which they were resourced, realised and, eventually, evaluated. At the beginning of each chapter, Bill and Jackie briefly summarise the educa-tional value of each example of curriculum development, the significance of specific aspects and the ways in which they are likely to help maintain full and relevant learning. Each case study then presents the contributors' first-hand perspectives as they: describe in detail the structure that underpins the provision including the number of staff involved and the time and resources allocated; share interesting insights into the level of pupil involvement and, where relevant, the extent of parental and community participation; paint a vivid picture of how the initiatives have been made compatible with their school's wider educational programme; and provide practical guidance, useful links and relevant resources to aid readers' own pursuit of curriculum development. Suitable for primary school teachers and leaders.
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Bill Laar and Jackie Holderness
Reclaimingthe Curriculum
Specialist and Creative Teaching in Primary Schools
For Alex Laar
Contents
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank all the schools and teachers who have contributed so generously to the book. We would also like to thank the editorial team at Crown House Publishing, and other professional colleagues, for their advice and encouragement.
Preface
This book sets out to document educational practice of notable quality in a range of primary schools across the country, exemplifying effective, imaginative and innovative treatment of major aspects of the curriculum. The work described succeeds in cultivating pupils’ cognitive and creative development in many ways and enhancing their learning and understanding in the broadest sense.
This comes at a time when the approach of many schools to pupils’ curriculum entitlement is shaped, and significantly constrained, by their perception of a governmental emphasis on the core curriculum at the expense of the rest. This bias is reflected in the major importance attached to national testing, assessment and league tables as indicators of school effectiveness. Schools have come to believe that their success, as measured by Ofsted, largely relates to ongoing attainment in English and mathematics, with little more than limited reference to other subjects and aspects of the curriculum.
Many head teachers and teachers increasingly fear that their effectiveness, their standing, their reputation with parents and the community, and, indeed, the professional evaluation and fate of leaders and staff, are dependent on brief, data-driven inspections that take scant account of the totality of the education they provide. Some schools have responded with a disproportionate concentration on the teaching of English and mathematics in terms of time allocation, staff deployment, coaching and prolonged practice, and the extensive use of commercial materials, especially in the teaching of writing.
However, official recognition and acknowledgement of the potentially restrictive and adverse consequences for children’s education and learning of this development has finally come.
In 2017, Ofsted’s chief inspector, Amanda Spielman, commissioned a review into how the national curriculum is implemented in schools (Ofsted and Spielman, 2017). The review found that a significant consequence of a reduced understanding of the curriculum has been the narrowing of the primary curriculum in the final two years because of too great a focus on preparing for Key Stage 2 tests in English and mathematics. As a result, pupils were being deprived of lessons in subjects such as history, geography, languages, music, drama, computing, PE and art and design. She added that, as far back as 2001, there had been evidence of a restricted curriculum in primary schools, with the national literacy and numeracy strategies, along with increasingly demanding performance targets, adversely affecting the breadth of education provided.
Amanda Spielman went on to say that she had met many people who agreed that expertise in curriculum development and leadership had waned, with school leaders choosing to push curriculum development down their list of priorities. These leaders indicated that preparing staff to teach to the tougher assessment criteria for new SATs was more pressing.
She warned: ‘Where school leaders and teachers have an overt focus on performance tables, this can lead to mistaking “badges and stickers” for learning and substance … In addition, where there is little shared curriculum thinking among staff, it becomes increasingly difficult to moderate the influence of the test syllabus on primary curriculum design.’ The chief inspector did, however, draw encouragement from the fact that ‘many school leaders … are already working to revitalise curriculum thinking to ensure that the content of young people’s learning takes precedence over performance tables’.
In conclusion, she reiterated her determination that Ofsted would ensure that the curriculum received ‘the proper attention it deserves’ and, by implication, that the inspection process would be modified to achieve a proper review and acknowledgement of the nature and quality of primary curriculum, balanced against test outcomes and SATs attainment.
Not all are convinced or optimistic, however – including those whose scepticism derives from the failure by Ofsted to take practical account of their own concerns about the narrowing of the primary curriculum, raised more than 15 years ago.
The following comments are fairly representative of staffroom reactions:
Why do Ofsted think we teach only to the test?
Why is it, in Year 6, the children do almost exclusively maths and English? Is it because the teachers love maths and English and hate all the other subjects? Or is it because, during Ofsted inspections, the primary focus is the maths and English data, and progress in maths and English? No one ever went into a ‘category’ based on lack of progress in art!
So, Ofsted expect a broad and balanced curriculum, but still punish you if your results aren’t up to scratch within a tightly defined list of subjects.
Schools cite as evidence of continued circumscribed inspection an article in the TES by Tim Brighouse (2016), which describes his survey of Ofsted reports from over 200 primary schools. He found that reference to curriculum content was confined to English/literacy and mathematics, with no comment – in any report – to any other subject in the national curriculum.
Anxiety has arisen that the narrowing of the curriculum may begin as early as the reception stage. A letter to The Guardian in January 2018 from more than 1,700 signatories – among them educationalists, parents and the IVF pioneer Lord Winston – expressed concern in response to an Ofsted report, Bold Beginnings, which called for a sharper focus on the teaching of literacy and numeracy at the reception stage.1 The signatories of the letter took particular issue with the fact that the report effectively inferred that reception classes should be taught like those in Year 1, which, in turn, would mean a narrowing of the curriculum, a more formal teaching approach and less opportunity for play-based activity. The signatories also contested the assertion that schools deemed to be ‘successful’ already teach in this way – pointing out that the report was based on visits to less than 0.25% of schools, and suggesting therefore that Ofsted only visited schools where the teaching was congruent with the recommendations the report would ultimately make.
Last, but by no means of least concern to teachers and parents are reports from schools that pupils entering Year 6 are preoccupied with, and fearful of, their eventual achievement in the SATs, to the exclusion of any expectation of an inspirational or memorable final year in primary education.
Reclaiming the curriculum
Yet, for all of that, in recent years we have witnessed many schools resisting what they believe to be a mistaken belief in the security of a narrow curriculum and what, inevitably, would be a diminished learning experience for pupils. They have succeeded in providing a broad curriculum offer that enhances learning and maintains continuity and progression in pupils’ attainment. These schools aim to nurture children’s capacity to reflect on and evaluate their work and identify personal strategies for study and further learning. Interestingly, they can point to evidence that their retention of a deep and generous curriculum results in outcomes that do not merely satisfy requirements in relation to national standardised tests, but consistently exceed them. Many of the schools included in this book have been rated as ‘outstanding’ in all areas.
We are convinced about the value of the work in these schools and by the substance of their claims. We have been enthralled by much of what we have seen, and believe that the following chapters and case studies describe education of a transforming nature, which takes pupils into the realms of exploration, enquiry, learning and, very often, scholarship, and which enriches them beyond measure. These schools’ pupils grow and thrive in developmental and human terms, and are often inspired to pursue a curiosity-driven quest for further investigation, research and knowledge. We would argue that it is the right of all children, whatever their circumstances in life, to have such an education.
In this book we share aspects of inspirational education and practice that we hope will enthuse colleagues in other schools. We hope that these accounts of initiatives – written by over 20 colleagues, each working within state-funded education – will encourage readers to reflect on, identify and esteem their own creative practice, and have faith in the worth of a full, relevant and content-rich primary curriculum.
The chapters describe – mostly in the words of head teachers, teachers and specialist coaches – exciting and creative learning. In the process, our colleagues refer to the beliefs, values, principles and philosophies that underpin and motivate their practice. They articulate their views of learning and how it is most effectively accomplished, the purpose and intentions that inspired the initiatives and projects they describe, and the ways in which these were resourced, realised, carried through and eventually evaluated.
At the beginning of each chapter, we briefly summarise our perceptions of the educational value of each initiative or long-standing example of curriculum development, the significance of specific aspects and the ways in which, it seems to us, they are likely to help maintain faith in, and commitment to, full and relevant learning. We believe the vision of each contributor, and what flows from that vision, represents a reclaiming of the curriculum and an enriched education for children.
1 See https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/jan/16/ofsteds-bold-beginnings-report-on-reception-class-curriculum-is-flawed.
Introduction
The primary debate
We believe it is necessary to review, however briefly, the decisive developments in primary education which, over time, have left no school untouched. We also consider the impact of the political intervention that has brought us to the current situation and the conflicting beliefs (still unresolved in important respects) about favoured and strongly advocated approaches to education.
Over the years, the primary sector has seen much discussion and disagreement, some of it damagingly divisive and conspicuously unhelpful, about appropriate philosophies, practice and approaches to the education of children, from birth to the pre-secondary phase. The debate continues around certain issues, not least the teaching of English.
One example of ill-informed and ultimately misleading argument, waged by those who cite the comprehensive and universal access to information through the extraordinary advances in digital technology, is that technology makes redundant the need for a knowledge-centred pedagogy and instead favours skills-based teaching and learning. We shall return to this issue later, since it has relevance, not only for our account of the work of the schools in this book, but more importantly for the meaning and purpose of education.
It is generally accepted that learning is central to our existence, to human development and to our capacity for thinking, decision-making and problem-solving. This helps us to manage; to ensure good, fulfilling and rewarding lives, often in the face of formidable difficulties and challenging situations; to maintain positive and life-enhancing relationships; to develop the intellectual capability and moral and spiritual sensibility that equips us to be part of, and contribute to, civilised communities; and to cherish what is best and most worthwhile in life.
There is also general agreement that, in the primary years, children typically learn in the following ways:
They learn through being told things, having information and knowledge passed to them, having phenomena and skills demonstrated to them – hence the importance of the ‘traditional’ element of teaching.
They learn through language, their main instrument of enquiry. The more competently they can use speech, the more capable they will be as readers and writers, and the more effective and autonomous they will be as learners.
They learn through play and varied experience, often mediated by informed adults and peers.
They learn from negative knowledge – that is from trial and error; from determining why certain answers and solutions may be incorrect or flawed; why ideas, models and inventions might be improved upon, modified, refined or rejected altogether in favour of alternatives; and why it may be necessary to go back to the drawing board. Almost all human learning grows from, and harks back, to some extent, to ideas, hypotheses, notions, theories and beliefs that initially may have been wide of the mark. Such a process reflects the fate of all scientists, inventors, designers and artists.
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollst?ndigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollst?ndigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollst?ndigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollst?ndigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollst?ndigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollst?ndigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollst?ndigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollst?ndigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollst?ndigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollst?ndigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollst?ndigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollst?ndigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollst?ndigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollst?ndigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollst?ndigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollst?ndigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollst?ndigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollst?ndigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollst?ndigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollst?ndigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollst?ndigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollst?ndigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollst?ndigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollst?ndigen Ausgabe!
