Since September the world of education has honed in on curriculum, design, intent, implementation and impact. Many fabulous people have shared lots of their ideas about what a curriculum should entail and also how this will be questioned in a rigorous and robust way- so now more than ever as leaders and as classroom teachers we need to be able to explain the why behind our design and the impact thy will have on the students we teach.
For many years there have been calls for greater depth and structure within the nature of impactful delivery of the Science. As we are all aware, Science is overcrowded with content which means other skills such as retrieval of knowledge, application and understanding have the potential of not being a priority. This disconnection, lack of fluency in the structuring of the content and the key knowledge that needs to be developed could lead to Science becoming fragmented and encourage memorisation rather than conceptual understanding, and ultimately student perceiving Science as not being interesting or relevant to them.
Working with Big Ideas of Science Education (Harlen, 2015) describes a big idea as something that applies to a wider range of related content and is can be used as an overarching idea to connect a variety of different learning. They are not taught explicitly but enable the teacher and student to develop a schema of learning that links and builds upon each aspect which strengthens the cognitive abilities and enables the teacher to identify and address misconceptions. Working in such a way can enable a learner to understand and explain the world around them and develop cultural capital. Our job as leader is to effectively identify how the progression of all the small ideas that eventually build to the big idea and decide on how that looks within our own curriculum and content whilst clearly establishing what students should be learning at various points as they move through every key stage and effectively communicating this to them so they understand the route through their own educational journey. This should enable us to have clarity around our own curriculum intent within Science which should then enable us to implement it within the classroom.
Restructuring our curriculum to provide greater depth in learning will also enable us to develop coherence and clarity at the same time. Professor Graham Donaldson (2015) submitted a report which suggests that the focus of a successful curriculum should consider variety on a whole school level as well as the cross curricular responsibilities such as literacy, numeracy etc. The purpose of focusing on curriculum is to ensure that activities are the most worthwhile for the students learning and that we make best use of limited classroom time, whilst trying to maintain curiosity, promote enjoyment of scientific activity and enquiry, relevance to their everyday lives whilst still developing scientific understanding, skills and attitudes which will impact on their future decision making. Ultimately we aim to develop ambitious, capable learners which is a skill they can carry through life.
However, achieving such a purpose and progressing towards this is no easy feat. Careful consideration must be given to the order and content of the activities, how the activities are organised, the role of the teacher and how the progression in learning is scaffolded. For effective implementation of our curriculum, an understanding of how learning takes place is important as active participation of students, dialogue and discussion can really help develop ideas within Science. As leaders we need to concentrate our efforts in developing the role of a teacher to encourage the development of such skills through effective resources development and the pedagogy behind the resources or activities, enabling the students to achieve the learning intended particularly through scaffolding and modelling, effective questioning and varying the types of questions to really open a dialogue between the teacher and student and providing opportunities to assess, reflect upon and retrieve prior learning.
Evaluation of your curriculum intent and implementation is key and the way to measure its impact is through meaningful assessment. Formative and summative assessment both have a role to play in determining the impact of your curriculum due to the fact they both differ in purpose. Formative assessment enables the teacher and leader to seek and interpret evidence for use by the learners and decide how to then progress or revisit concepts in the lesson (ARG 2002). It is important to elicit what the students already know and what skills the already possess which can then inform the next steps which can enable the students to achieve the short term lesson goals which through regular retrieval and practice can then take them to longer term learning goals which impact on their understanding of the big ideas. The purpose surrounding summative assessment can establish the achievement of longer term goals and retrieval of key knowledge, however dues to the issues with reporting it does require more attention to the reliability of the data that is being provided (Black and Wiliam 2012), but one cannot discount this as a useful source of assessment especially if the goal is to aid learning (Harlen 2010).
The final strategy that is crucial in assessing the impact of your science curriculum is feedback and the role it plays in using the most current evidence of learning which should inform future learning. A way to maximise effective feedback it to involve students in as much of the process as possible as this enables them to take responsibility for their learning whilst reflecting upon it. The purpose of feedback from the teacher is to provide students with the information they need and can use to progress their learning further (Sebba 2012). Feedback is equally important for the teacher as it can feed into the teaching so the teacher can use observations, questioning and judgements on students work to adjust the challenges for the students or revisit concepts that have not yet been harnessed in the correct way (Harlen 2012). This will enable the teacher to take the appropriate steps so that the demands of the activities or resources are not unattainable nor too simple that engagement in the task is lost.
Curriculum content, pedagogy, assessment and feedback are closely intertwined components of a student’s educational experience which can significantly impact on their learning. As leaders we need to consider the implications of all these elements when reviewing our collective curriculum as they impact on each other. Depth of learning, intention will fall down if the pedagogy behind the curriculum fails to develop the necessary links to enable students to link ideas and develop their schema. Similarly, if students have no time for reflection or feedback, assessment will not have the desired impact in students taking responsibility for their learning. Achieving a well-balanced and coherently clear curriculum requires relevant content, enjoyable challenge, pedagogy that is based upon individuals starting points and assessment and feedback that is designed to support the learning of all students.
Mrs S 🧬
References
Assessment Reform Group (2002) Assessment for learning: 10 principles. Available at: [www.aaia.org.uk/content/uploads/2010/06/Assessment-for-Learning-10 principles.pdf](www.aaia.org.uk/content/uploads/2010/06/Assessment-for-Learning-10 principles.pdf) (accessed 15 August 2017).
Black P and Wiliam D (2012) The reliability of assessments. In: Gardner J (ed.) Assessment and Learning. 2nd ed. London: Sage, pp.243-263.
Donaldson G (2015) Successful Futures. Independent Review of Curriculum and Assessment Arrangements in Wales. Cardiff: Welsh Government.
Harlen W (2010) What is quality assessment? In: Gardner J, Harlen W, Hayward L, Stobart G and Montgomery M (eds) Developing Teacher Assessment. Maidenhead: Open University Press, pp.29-52.
Harlen W (2012) On the relationship between assessment for formative and summative purposes. In: Gardner J (ed.) Assessment and Learning. 2nd ed. London: Sage, pp.87-102.
Harlen, W (ed.) (2015) Working with Big Ideas of Science Education. Trieste: IAP.https://www.interacademies.org/26703/Working-with-Big-Ideas-of-Science-Education
Sebba J (2012) Policy and practice in assessment for learning: the experience of selected OECD countries. In: Gardner J (ed) Assessment and Learning. 2nd ed. London: SAGE, pp.157-170.
Tears, tantrums and all things teaching 