CURRICULUM REVIEW


focus should be placed on 21st century skills – what students can actually do with knowledge, rather than what units of knowledge they have. To prepare our young people for the competitive world outside of education, the curriculum must support the point that learning factual knowledge and the ability to apply, analyse and solve problems, go hand-in-hand. Futurelab believes that there is much to be done to


Content vs skills T


he governmenT’s national curriculum review must put greater emphasis upon the ways schools can meet the challenges of delivering content and skills in a rich way that genuinely improves outcomes for students.


Content and skills are intrinsically linked, so greater


With the government’s review of the national curriculum well underway,Gareth Wynne from education development charity Futurelab argues that a focus on 21st century skills is vital


to a lingering decline in competitiveness, diminishing economic growth and a bleaker future for all.” Perhaps, at least in england, the pendulum has


modernise educational choices and allow young people to learn in ways that suit them. The new network of Futurelab hubs has been set up to help raise standards across the UK and uses enquiry-based learning as a core part of its strategy to develop independent, confident learners. This approach to teaching and learning sees children


working in partnership with their teachers to decide their own curriculum and how they will be taught, with the aim of engaging pupils through their own interests and education, encouraging them to want to learn and find things out for themselves. This allows students to be the originators or initiators of ideas and questions, and then gives them just the right amount of support and freedom to make progress. Teaching in the maintained sector is better than it


ever has been and yet employers continually express dissatisfaction about the levels of skills that accompany school-leavers and college graduates entering the workforce, according to Dylan Wiliam, emeritus Professor of educational Assessment at the Institute of education. Also one of Futurelab’s trustees, Prof Wiliam


argues that “schools have improved dramatically, but the changes in the world have been even more extraordinary. In the past, the rate at which our schools generated skills was greater than the rate at which low- skill jobs were being destroyed, so we made progress”. given the current premium on talent and skills and


the relentless shedding of “no qualification” jobs in the UK, it is no longer sustainable for schools to work simply as “talent refineries”. Prof Wiliam suggests that “schools have to be talent incubators, and even talent factories. It is not enough to identify talent in our schools any more; we have to create it”. This has profound implications for an education


system that has become more and more reliant on spoon-feeding content and teaching to the test resulting in large cohorts of passive learners, even in our “outstanding” schools, and increasing swathes of disaffected and non-engaged young people. The Leitchreview ofskills, published back in 2006,


was stark: “In the 21st century, our natural resource is our people and their potential is both untapped and vast. skills will unlock that potential. The prize for our country will be enormous – higher productivity, the creation of wealth and social justice. The alternative? Without increased skills, we would condemn ourselves


10


swung too far towards simply “content”. In the remit for the review of the national curriculum, the word “skill”, let alone any mention of 21st century skills, is conspicuous by its absence. The focus is on “what they (pupils) should know” and providing “young people with the knowledge they need to move confidently and successfully through their education”. The recent review of vocational training by


Professor Alison Wolf was more forthcoming in the area of skills. The government enthusiastically accepted all of Prof Wolf’s recommendations although business representatives were less pleased when it comes to work experience, which is recommended should no longer be compulsory. The Confederation for British Industry commented:


“All young people should do work experience and we’re concerned that the government removing the statutory duty on schools could lead to some students missing out on this vital way of developing employability skills.” of course content and skills are intrinsically linked,


but greater focus should be placed on 21st century skills. While accumulation of knowledge is important, what students can actually do with that knowledge, the generic transferable skills and how they actually acquire information and knowledge for themselves is equally as crucial. The challenge for schools is how they respond seamlessly to the need to develop learner’s skills to meet the needs of 21st century workplaces, create talent and ensure the national curriculum standards, content and expectations are met. As a starting point, senior leadership teams will find


it helpful to ask themselves what skills their alumni need in order to succeed in the post-school world. I suspect, based on many recent conversations with leadership teams, that few will have had this discussion. many schools would, quite rightly, argue that


they incorporate aspects of the personal, learning and thinking skills (PLTs) framework, encompassing independent enquirers, creative thinkers, reflective learners, team-workers, self-managers and effective participants, within their curriculum. What schools have not necessarily achieved is the


consistent use of language around the desired skills across all of the siloed curriculum areas, resulting in acquired skills not being used across the curriculum and wasted duplicated effort to reteach and relearn later on. In addition, many will not have explicitly articulated


the skills to parents and indeed learners, imparted in language that makes sense to both, in order to promote consistent opportunities for skills acquisition in the


home or community. I suspect that terms like “media literacy” and “digital literacy” won’t mean much to most families. schools also need to think more creatively about


how they combine different areas of the curriculum and use time and space imaginatively to create extended opportunities for learners to acquire and refine skills. For example, The Fuse, published by the Council


for Industry and higher education stated that: “The ICT curriculum for schools focuses on using word processing and office productivity tools, rather than engaging children in understanding the computing principles that underpin games, internet services, and the green issues they are passionate about. “schools should support the integration of creative


and digital in the curriculum, and such courses should not be seen as easy. Practically, this might involve a joint departmental enquiry-based learning project covering ICT, art and design. The expanding video games and visual effects industries, among others, would most definitely welcome these developments.” Joint government and industry initiatives also have


an important enabling role to play. Chancellor george osborne, in his recent speech at google Zeitgeist, announced that Blackberry is launching an Apps challenge for UK schools which would teach kids how to design new online tools and that Intel would run a range of schemes supporting young people to set up online businesses. The new millennium Learners project run by


the oeCD’s Centre for educational research and Innovation succinctly summed up the role that governments should play. They “should make an effort to properly identify and conceptualise the set of skills and competencies required” and “incorporate them into the educational standards that every student should be able reach by the end of compulsory schooling”. It warns that this set of skills and competencies needs to become the very core of what teachers and schools care about and “can only be done by incorporating them into the national education standards that are enforced and assessed by governments”. many of the so-called 21st century skills are related


to processes around knowledge management such as information selection, acquisition, integration, analysis and sharing in socially networked environments.many of these competencies, if not all, are either supported or enhanced by ICT. Technologies businesses, not surprisingly given the


ICT angle, are heavily influencing the agenda. Cisco, Intel and microsoft sponsor a major research project, Assessment and Teaching of 21st Century skills, intended to develop new approaches, methods and


technologies for measuring the success of 21st century skills. The work, initially undertaken in six countries, aims to provide “clear, operational definitions of 21st century skills” and “classroom-based strategies for helping students develop the skills”. Watch this space. The challenges for both schools and government,


albeit slightly different, are clear. The government’s national curriculum review must put greater emphasis upon the ways schools can meet the challenges of presenting content and developing skills in a rich, engaging way that genuinely improves outcomes for students. schools must provide the opportunities, such as via


enquiry-based learning projects, for extended learning and skills development – ideally co-constructed with young people themselves to incorporate their own interests and to develop shared ownership of learning – and hardwire connections across the curriculum to facilitate generic transferable skills to be applied in each subject area. They should, ideally, develop a common language


around 21st century skills that makes sense not only to the learners but also to their parents and carers. only in this way can skills development be supported consistently both inside school and outside school time in homes and communities. some schools have started to think about a “skills


progression ladder” and are even having conversations across the “supply chain” (e.g. primary/secondary or secondary/further education college) to align language, opportunities and expectations and promote seamless transition by understanding more fully the skills their learners have already acquired and those which could be developed further. other schools are seeking to blend informal learning


with the formal curriculum in order to support key skills development. But significant challenges remain. Why is it, for example, that typically boys might spend hours on their console perfecting their gaming skills to get to the next level (thereby demonstrating resilience), yet immediately admit defeat when presented with a challenge or problem in a formal educational setting? Why is it that some organisations tend to make similar judgements about individual capability too soon, compounding negative self-perception? Answering these questions, and the examples given


above, are steps in the right direction but there is much more to do. In the words of george Bernard shaw, “what we want to see is the child in pursuit of knowledge, not knowledge in pursuit of the child”. It is time to give the skills-content pendulum a


decent push. • Gareth Wynne is associate director at Futurelab.


Further information Futurelab is an independent charity dedicated to transforming teaching and learning through the use of innovative technology and practice. It is currently developing a nationwide network of Futurelab hubs which are helping schools adopt a disciplined approach to school improvement and to ensure the imaginative and efficient use of resources. visit www.futurelab.org.uk


SecEd • June 9 2011 SecEd


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16