Greg Ashman: 'Learning lessons from the failure of Scotland's Curriculum for Excellence'

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Debbie_Hepplewhite
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Greg Ashman: 'Learning lessons from the failure of Scotland's Curriculum for Excellence'

Post by Debbie_Hepplewhite »

I have added a link to Greg Ashman's very important piece to the 'General Forum' because it's so important regarding curriculum guidance for any country - not just Scotland.

When I myself first read (or tried to) Scotland's 'Curriculum for Excellence' I was shocked and dismayed by its complexity and thought it was utterly ridiculous as a document to support teachers and to underpin teaching. No wonder Greg comments in his conclusions that this kind of curriculum leads teachers to imploring 'Just tell me what to teach'. As if their working life isn't hard enough without trying to wade through such a humungous, complex document.

I find it quite gratifying then, when years later, people other than me are pointing out the same problems with the Curriculum for Excellence that I first identified some time ago.

In fact, what I find amazing nowadays is the growing community of people who have observed various aspects of official documents over the years and who are now writing about the plethora of their ideologies and flawed guidance which have hindered teachers so badly (in various countries) leading to many actually leaving the teaching profession - and, worse still, leading to so many failed children. It is impossible to hold those in authority to account for this state of affairs - but the least those in charge can do is to get fully on board with research findings and simplifying guidance rather than making a meal of it by the kind of complications noted by the OECD below!
Learning lessons from the failure of Scotland’s “Curriculum for Excellence”
https://gregashman.wordpress.com/2017/0 ... xcellence/
Unfortunately, the path of CfE has not been smooth. Its detractors are pulling their hair out while even its fans admit that it needs a bit of work. John Swinney, Scotland’s education minister, has brought in reforms that include the introduction of more assessment.

These reforms are the result of a review conducted by the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and commissioned by the Scottish government. The OECD noted:

“Curriculum for Excellence represents an ambitious departure seeking to develop a coherent 3-18 curriculum around capacities and learning, rather than school subjects, with a different approach to assessment from that in place before. It is complex as it is organised around four capacities (covering 12 attributes and 24 capabilities across the four); five levels, from early to senior; seven principles, six entitlements, ten aims, and four contexts for learning; eight curriculum areas and three interdisciplinary areas; and several hundreds of Experiences and Outcomes.”

I think there are two linked aspects of this statement that are critical: the departure from a system based upon school subjects and the complexity of the system that replaced it.
You only have to look at the OECD's description above (in blue) of the complexity of the Curriculum for Excellence to realise what a ludicrous, indigestible approach this is likely to be in reality for busy teachers.

If anyone is interested in further information about the battle for the approach to reading instruction in Scotland, you can read about some developments here - a thread in which I refer to my responses to the Curriculum for Excellence with regard to early reading instruction - now with over 18,000 views:

https://phonicsinternational.com/forum/ ... .php?t=707
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Debbie_Hepplewhite
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Re: Greg Ashman: 'Learning lessons from the failure of Scotland's Curriculum for Excellence'

Post by Debbie_Hepplewhite »

See Anne Glennie's battle in Scotland to inform teachers about evidence-informed reading instruction and what she and the teachers are up against - please visit Anne's blog here:

http://www.thelearningzoo.co.uk/blog/

Anne Glennie is a founding member of IFERI, see her bio here:

http://www.iferi.org/members/anne-glennie/#more-47
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Debbie_Hepplewhite
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Re: Greg Ashman: 'Learning lessons from the failure of Scotland's Curriculum for Excellence'

Post by Debbie_Hepplewhite »

More observations about the scenario in Scotland via the educationandstuff blog:

https://educationandstuff.wordpress.com ... education/
Axl Rose and Progressive Education

Posted on March 22, 2017 by Greg Foley

Reading this article in Guardian about the worrying decline in the performance of the Scottish Education system, I couldn’t help but think about the words of that great philosopher, Axl Rose. Actually they’re not really his words – they’re from the movie Cool Hand Luke but he says them at the start of the song, Civil War, from the album Use Your Illusion II.

The famous words are the following: “Some men you just can’t reach”. And when it comes to education, I suspect we will never reach those who believe in progressive education, and ‘believe’ is the appropriate word. What is progressive education? Well, it’s a sort of mish-mash of a number of ideas but the following are some of beliefs of the progressive educator:
Do look at the article in the Guardian flagged up by Greg Foley:

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2 ... are_btn_tw
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Debbie_Hepplewhite
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Re: Greg Ashman: 'Learning lessons from the failure of Scotland's Curriculum for Excellence'

Post by Debbie_Hepplewhite »

Following Greg's post on Scotland's Curriculum for Excellence, he was approached by several teachers from Wales worried about a similar type of curriculum mandated in Wales.

Greg wrote this about the Welsh curriculum:
Bad times ahead for education in Wales
https://gregashman.wordpress.com/2017/0 ... -in-wales/
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Debbie_Hepplewhite
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Re: Greg Ashman: 'Learning lessons from the failure of Scotland's Curriculum for Excellence'

Post by Debbie_Hepplewhite »

I found this paper very interesting and very important - for Scotland and for wider afield where people are creators of curriculum policies and are subject to curriculum policies:

http://www.euppublishing.com/doi/pdfplu ... .2017.0177
Scottish Affairs 26.2 (2017): 176–193 DOI: 10.3366/scot.2017.0177
# Edinburgh University Press www.euppublishing.com/scot

‘THERE IS NO ALTERNATIVE’: SCOTLAND’S CURRICULUM FOR EXCELLENCE AND ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH HIGH CULTURE
Alan Convery

Abstract

This article uses the concept of high culture to assess the underlying assumptions and philosophy of Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence (CfE). For the most part, these remain vague and unarticulated. This has two consequences. First, a consensus forms easily around CfE because it means different things to different stakeholders and is presented to teachers as a depoliticised and technocratic policy response. Second, because its core tenets are so hazy, it is extremely difficult to argue against. Although CfE is widely regarded to have at its heart some form of constructivism, the justification for such an approach is never articulated. By assessing CfE’s relationship with high culture, this article attempts to flush out its implicit core assumptions. Its central argument is that CfE cannot simultaneously please everyone. Perfectly justifiable alternative curricular paths have been abandoned. Far from being a technocratic and depoliticised policy response, CfE is in fact a much more controversial and ideological shift than the level of scrutiny it has thus far received would suggest.

Alan Convery is Lecturer in Politics at the University of Edinburgh. He researches Scottish and British politics and he is Deputy Editor of the British Journal of Politics and International Relations. His first book is The Territorial Conservative Party: Devolution and Party Change in Scotland and Wales (Manchester University Press, 2016).
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