A National Perspective on Pedagogy and Curriculum

1. A National Perspective on Pedagogy and Curriculum

2. One nation under a groove……….. Is it an impossible dream?

3. Lessons from a small island or……………

4. Why you don’t have to - • feck off to Finland • sod off to Singapore • tootle to Taiwan • cruise to Canada

5. What’s wrong with the comparison culture? • Context is vital - change needs traction and momentum • Adapt rather than adopt - ipsative assessment - better than now, not better than them • The tyranny of data and empty exhortation • A total lack of clarity(often) about the basis for comparison

6. Pablo Casals: ‘Joys and Sorrows’ Sometimes I look around me with a feeling of complete dismay. In the confusion that afflicts the world today, I see disrespect for the very values of life. Beauty is all around us, but how many seem to see nothing. Each second we live is a new and unique moment of the universe; a moment that will never be again. And what do we teach our children? We teach them that 2+2 makes 4, and that Paris is the capital of France. When will we also teach them what they are? We should say to each of them: do you know what you are? You are a marvel. You are unique. In the entire world there is no other child exactly like you. In the millions of years that have passed, there has never been another child like you. And look at your body – what a wonder it is. Your legs, your arms, your cunning fingers, and the way you move. You may become a Shakespeare, a Michelangelo, a Beethoven. And when you grow up, can you then harm another who is, like you, a marvel? You must cherish one another. You must work – we must all work – to make the world worthy of its children.

7. Hence the good school is to be assessed not by any tale of examination success, however impressive, but by the extent to which it has filled the years of youth with security, graciousness and ordered freedom And has been the seed bed for the flowering in due season of all that is of good report Advisory report on Secondary Education in Scotland 1947

8. Meet Jamie Mental Health Peer Pressure Legal Problems Behavioural Issues Drug Exposure Family Life

9. The Present

10. Getting it Right for Every Child

14. What is Curriculum for Excellence • Built on “Experiences and Outcomes” • Simpler -less prescriptive • More flexible/more opportunities to make decisions about what and how to teach

16. Single assessment system • More appropriate assessment • Wider achievement • Breadth, application and challenge

17. an improvement programme with many strands • improved pedagogy to make learning active, challenging, enjoyable • assessment which supports learning • intellectual ambition • personalisation and learner involvement • deep learning • extended knowledge • deeper understanding • skills • making connections across knowledge • creativity

18. Thoughts • The year when we celebrated a decade of CfE with a flirtation with meltdown……. Young people crying, teachers stressed, parents anxious • When we finally decluttered the curriculum, but maybe left the assessment landscape a bit crowded • Indeed so successful in our efforts at decluttering we had to bring out a report on “tackling Bureaucracy

19. …. And more recently Education reform in Scotland has been ambitious and radical in concept, but compromised and limited in implementation A struggle between courage and caution Inhibited by hubris and genuine fear of risk

21. … and the good news from Wales • Pulling all the strings - dancing not jerking • Differential frameworks • Commitment to space for context • Ongoing commitment to co-creation • Use it or lose it

22. Recognition of the power of assessment • And of accountability • “A learning model for inspection” • Support from the OECD

23. Thinking about the new Ofsted Framework……. …….. in a good way

24. What are we aiming for? • To support achievement and success • To add value • To confound destinies • To strengthen social cohesion • To empower communities • To strengthen the economy

25. The underpinning philosophy • The focus should be on the experience of the learner • Features of quality can be recognised, described and categorised • Quality needs to be built, not assured, in • Self-evaluation serves as the basis for directing improvement • Evaluative judgements should be based on evidence of outcomes, qualitative as well as quantitative • A rational process-based model, not intuition • Improvement is most effective when it is part of a shared enterprise, with agreement about the outcomes

26. The Cycle of Evaluation Evidence Considerationof School Circumstances Staff Development Commitment to Professionalism and Development and outcomes for learners National/Collective Priorities Clearly stated Policies Assisted? School Review School Improvement Plan

27. So what now? • Strengthen self-evaluation systems, processes and outcomes • Engage learners in the improvement process • Concentrate on improvement activities that are outcome-directed, manageable and achievable • Share Standards and Quality reports • Don’t wait to be asked

28. Don’t obsess, but, • Have a rationale • Be clear about guiding principles • Be pragmatic

29. Learning pathways • Knowledge • Understanding • Analysis • Synthesis • Application • Evaluation • Systems thinking • Creation

30. Metacognition……

31. What do learners need? • Basic skills – literacy, numeracy • The specific skills required by disciplines or vocational choices • The skills to access knowledge including the skill of questioning

32. The capacity to think, learn and adapt • The ability to innovate and create • The commitment to sustained enquiry or task • The ability to choose, and use, the tools for learning, life and work

33. Demands in the Workplace More workers with more education Skills that allow movement between jobs Broader competencies – numerical skills, problem-solving, communication skills, team working Facility with ICT Ability to learn The potential to add to the business, not just fulfil a role

34. ‘ASSESSMENT IS FOR LEARNING’ LEARNERS LEARN BEST WHEN: they understand clearly what they are trying to learn, and what is expected of them they are given feedback about the quality of their work, and what they can do to make it better they are given advice about how to go about making improvements they are fully involved in deciding what needs to be done next, and who can give them help if they need it

35. What does this mean for curriculum planning? • State the purposes • Identify the elements – skills, concepts, knowledge, activities • Analyse what we offer now • Identify the gaps/shortcomings • What we do or how we do it?

36. Build forwards as well as backwards • Discuss and agree standards and assessment milestones • Look for links • Plan across courses and options • Look at your assessment • Build “smartness”, but check readiness

37. Final Thoughts • Address the filters – values, experience, common sense • Researching maybe more important than research • There need to be values but there must be openness to learning • Have an ideology but don’t be an ideologue

38. “The schools that have written such statements for every subject have only created more waffle for inspectors to gloss over. Will every teacher read and take on board each of those different intent statements and use them to guide their planning and teaching? Or will they just sit on the website in the hope that it keeps Ofsted happy?

39. – Michael Tidd, Headteacher TES “What a waste of valuable time that could have been spent on the real work of ensuring that we design and create the best curriculum for the needs of the children in our schools. And then when Ofsted come and ask us the question, we could just show them the answer.”

40. Under Pressure … and getting out from under

41. Some ongoing realities • “Being a headteacher now is like being pecked to death by hens” • “and being a teacher is like being pecked to death by even more hens” • “If it’s not coming down on you from above, it’s coming up at you from below. It’s like having a shower and a douche at the same time” “We’re in a marriage, you’re just having an affair” “Everybody’s buck stops here!” “The tyranny of the immediate”

43. And……. • The vocabulary of exhortation • The irritating cult of perfection • 57 varieties of improvement • Working smarter • Vulnerability/Impostor syndrome

45. Slaying Dragons

47. Unjustified, aggressive certainty Monoliteracy LBD (Latest book disease) It worked in Uzbekistan and sent their PISA status stratospheric There is no other way Like what?

48. Just a few thoughts • Testing will save us • It’s the Curriculum, stupid!!! • No, it’s the stupid curriculum • We know the best that has been thought and all that.. • A knowledge based curriculum is a form of nationalist, class driven colonialism of the mind

49. Coming to terms with the tablet and virtual reality will be more demanding than successive world wars, depression, the rise of fascism, the collapse of Empire and some other minor stuff our parents and grandparents went though

50. We need to educate people for jobs that have not yet been invented - so that will be easy then!!!! • Operate First