Curriculum change: the undiscovered country

Tideway School is an 11-16 comprehensive of 650 students. It serves the port town of Newhaven in East Sussex.

At key stage 3 (11 - 14 years) students follow a prescribed curriculum. At key stage 4 (14 - 16 years), they study a core consisting of English, Mathematics, Science, Design Technology, PE, ICT and Citizenship, along with two personal choices. Up to 30% of the current key stage students are involved in flexible programmes of study that involve work experience and some form of study at a local college.

Early in 2008 I organised a number of consultation classes with year 11 students that explored their experience of the curriculum and the kind of changes they would recommend for future students. All classes were in mixed ability groups and, at this point in their school career, students were beginning preparation for their end of course exams and making choices about future college courses or employment.

The following key points emerged from questions that were posed in class.

Question: ‘What is the purpose of the curriculum?’

Ask a teacher and you might get views ranging from ‘It’s all about preparation for life and should place equal emphasis upon the liberal arts and humanities’ through to ‘It’s all about work, emphasise literacy and numeracy’. Parent views tend to stress what’s good for their own children rather than for young people and society as a whole. Since 1997, the UK government has been quite resolute in its belief that the key strand in curriculum delivery is the development of skills that pupils need to survive, take part and compete in the ‘knowledge economy’. The latter view was most strongly reflected in student responses.

‘It’s all about work, isn’t it? That’s why we learn what we learn at school. It helps us get a job.’  
Craig.

‘It’s about getting the grades I need to go to college, university and then become a teacher.’ Zoe.

‘After leaving school it’s getting a job that matters if I want to be able to enjoy life, socialise with my mates, get a place to live, and all that. If the curriculum does not prepare me for that, then what’s the point of the curriculum?’
Riahn.

While there was a broad agreement about the purposes of the curriculum, there were some significant disagreements about the ways in which preparation for life after school is delivered. Work-related learning featured very positively in the student experience, with some being critical of the content of the mainstream curriculum.

‘I hope to become a solicitor after I have been to college and university. I did one week’s work experience at a solicitor’s office in year 10. It was one of the best things I have ever done at school. It answered a lot of questions I had about that profession. I only wish the work experience could have been longer. I felt I learned a lot more there than from some of the curriculum subjects I study.’
Jake

‘I want to be an electrician. It would have been great if I could have started some kind of apprenticeship in year 10. I can’t really see why I need to wait until I am 16 for that.’
Mike.

‘I wish we could have a greater choice of subjects to study at KS4. Having two option choices is not very many. There are so many other things that I am interested in and they just don’t appear on the school curriculum.’
Jane.

‘Who decided that it should take me two years to study a course and then be examined on it? Why can’t schools offer shorter courses? Why can’t school offer access to courses that are provided by other organisations?
Georgia.

Where do requests for greater choice, personalisation and individualism leave the curriculum? How can schools respond?

Question: ‘What is the core curriculum that should be delivered in school?’

The vast majority of students agreed that the following subjects should be part of the core curriculum: English/communication; mathematics/use of number; ICT; personal development and social skills. While there was a broad agreement on the core subject areas that should be taught, there were a range of opinions on content and methodology.

The whole area of technology for learning, what is taught, how, when and where, was a hotly debated topic.

‘There’s more to technology than Word, Excel or PowerPoint.’       
Jane

‘School takes a really narrow minded approach to students and technology. They try to make us use applications like VLEs, when what I want is to use Bebo and YouTube and all the other technologies that some schools try to ban. Let’s face it, schools simply can’t keep up with the pace of change.’                                    
Jake

‘Teachers keep telling us that technology makes learning more flexible. Does it? I still attend school from 9 till 5, sit in 1 hour lessons and am restricted to studying what’s on the timetable.’                                                                  
Daisy

These comments reflect some key issues that lie ahead for educators in the 21st century. How does the school curriculum keep pace with the fast changing world of the knowledge economy? If it takes at least three years (and that’s a conservative estimate) to implement any kind of curriculum change in school, how can we ever hope to play catch-up?

Perhaps a start is to change the nature of learning. To move, as these students were hinting at, to a more just-in-time curriculum delivery, with a technology that can support anytime-anywhere learning. Does curriculum delivery need to take place entirely in school? Are there other organisations and businesses that could deliver more flexibly? Why does a standard key stage 4 course have to last two years?

It takes imagination to demand something that does not exist and that’s the main issue for students, teachers and politicians. Beyond the core curriculum, Tideway students could not agree on what should be taught to future generations. How do you re-imagine the curriculum in a future that is very much an undiscovered country?
March 2008

Note: thank you to students who took part in these discussions. Individual student names have been changed and comments ‘polished’ in terms of English to make more sense in the flow of an article.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mr Jim Fanning is Assistant Headteacher at Tideway School, in England, United Kingdom.

 

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