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Principled curriculum
design
SSAT Annual Science Conference
11 July, National Space Centre
Tom Middlehurst, Head of Research, SSAT
@Tom_Middlehurst
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Accountability: some
context to curriculum
design
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Progress 8 and floor target
A measure of progress, KS2 to KS4: a score showing how much result vary
above or below expected levels. Expected levels will score zero - and below
expected levels will mean a minus score. Floor target will be half a grade
below expected.
The average of all students' progress across 8 subjects:
1.
a double-weighted English element (Lang & Lit have parity – both must
be taken)
2.
a double-weighted maths element
3.
three other EBacc subjects
4.
three further "high value qualifications"
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Three (or four?) other measures
• Progress 8
•Attainment 8 – the average grade students achieve in the same P8
subjects
• % English/Maths – the % of students who achieve a C+ in English (either
Lit or Lang) and maths
• % Ebacc – the % of
students who achieve
Ebacc
• Looking to introduce a
destination measure
as well
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Outcomes beyond
examinations
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Why do we educate young people?
Broad views on the philosophy of education (Williams,
1961)
Transmission of culture (e.g. Arnold)
Preparation for work (e.g. OECD)
Personal empowerment (e.g. Freire)
Preparation for citizenship (e.g. Council of Europe)
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Setting
the scene
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Some ancient history
Education Reform Act 1988
National curriculum
• Attainment targets
• Programmes of study
• Assessment arrangements
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Duties of the secretary of state
1. It shall be the duty of the Secretary of State so to
exercise the powers conferred by subsection (2) below
as a)
b)
to establish a complete National Curriculum as soon as is reasonably
practicable (taking first the core subjects and then the other
foundation subjects); and
to revise that Curriculum whenever he considers it necessary or
expedient to do so.
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2. The Secretary of State may by order specify in relation to
each of the foundation subjects—
a) such attainment targets;
b) such programmes of study; and
c) such assessment arrangements;
3. An order made under subsection (2) above may not
require—
a) that any particular period or periods of time should be allocated during any
key stage to the teaching of any programme of study or any matter, skill or
process forming part of it; or
b) that provision of any particular kind should be made in school timetables for
the periods to be allocated to such teaching during any such stage.
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What is
curriculum?
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Curriculum: an evolving context
 The courses taken (Scottish HE, late 17th century)
 Four questions (Tyler, 1949)
 What educational purposes should the school seek to attain?
 What educational experiences … are likely to attain these purposes?
 How can these educational experiences be effectively organized?
 How can we determine whether these purposes are being attained?
 “All the learning which is planned or guided by the school, whether it is
carried on in groups or individually inside or outside the school.” (Kerr,
1968 p. 16)
 “the school curriculum (in the wider sense) is essentially a selection from
the culture of a society.” (Denis Lawton 1975 p. 7)
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The role of teachers (Stenhouse 1975)
 “A curriculum is an attempt to communicate the
essential principles and features of an educational
proposal in such a form that it is open to critical scrutiny
and capable of effective translation into practice.” (p. 5)
 The proposal should have three parts:
a) In planning
b) In empirical study
c) In relation to justification
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Wiliam’s principles of curriculum design
• A good curriculum is:
Balanced
Rigorous
Coherent
Vertically integrated
Appropriate
Focused
Relevant
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Balanced
“We are the first generation of
educators who know we have no idea
what we’re doing . . .
Because we have no idea what is
coming, we have to future proof our
students, and the way to do that is with
a broad and balanced curriculum”
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Balanced
The test of successful education is not the amount of
knowledge that a pupil takes away from school, but his
appetite to know and his capacity to learn. If the school
sends out children with the desire for knowledge and some
idea how to acquire it, it will have done its work.
Too many leave school with the appetite killed and the
mind loaded with undigested lumps of information. The
good schoolmaster is known by the number of valuable
topics which he declines to teach.
(Sir Richard Livingstone, President of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, “The
purpose in education” 1941)
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Discussion point
How do we achieve a broad
curriculum (across the school
and in subjects) that
prepares students for
anything they might want to
do in the future?
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Rigorous:
 Disciplinary habits of mind are important, specific,
powerful ways of thinking that are developed through
sustained engagement with the discipline.




Mathematics: transformation and invariance
History: provenance and context
Statistics: dispersion as well as central tendency
Sociology: structure and agency
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Rigorous:
 Cognitive competencies
 Cognitive processes and strategies
 Knowledge
 Creativity
 Intra-personal competencies
 Intellectual openness
 Work ethic/conscientiousness
 Positive core self-evaluation
 Inter-personal competencies
 Team-work
 Leadership
Pellegrino and Hilton (2012)
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Discussion point
How can we be faithful to the
discipline of our subject?
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Coherent:
 Subject-based curricula
support disciplines but tend to
undermine coherence across
different aspects of learning
 How can you make sure that
the totality of students’
experiences reinforce one
another?
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Discussion point
How can we ensure that the
totality of students’
experiences reinforce each
other?
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Vertically integrated
In which order would you teach the areas of the following
shapes (currently arranged alphabetically)?
Parallelogram - 3
Rectangle - 2
Square - 1
Trapezium - 5
Triangle - 4
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Vertically integrated
• Universal
– Addition before multiplication
• Natural
– Multiplication before division
– Differentiation before integration
• Arbitrary
– Areas of triangles before areas of parallelograms
• Optional
– The Romans before the Vikings
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Vertically integrated:
The “spiral curriculum.” If one respects the ways of thought
of the growing child, if one is courteous enough to translate
material into his logical forms and challenging enough to
tempt him in advance, then it is possible to introduce him at
an early age to the ideas and styles that in later life make
an educated man. We might ask, as a criterion for any
subject taught in primary school, whether, when fully
developed, it is worth an adult’s knowing, and whether
having known it as a child makes a person a better adult. If
the answer to both questions is negative or ambiguous,
then the matter is cluttering the curriculum.
Bruner, J. (1960). The Process of Education
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Discussion point
How does our curriculum
promote progression over
time?
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Appropriate – 485 + 214
Leverhulme Numeracy Research Programme
1.00
Over 5 years, the increase
in facility is 75%—an
average of 15% per year.
0.90
0.80
Facility
0.70
0.60
0.50
0.40
0.30
In other words, in a class of
30, only four or five children
learn this each year.
0.20
0.10
0.00
6
7
8
28
9
Age (years)
10
11
12
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Discussion point
How do we know we’re
teaching the right content at
the right stage?
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Focused (ten big ideas)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
All material in the Universe is made of very small particles.
Objects can affect other objects at a distance.
Changing the movement of an object requires a net force acting on it.
The total amount of energy in the Universe is always the same but energy can
be transformed when things change or are made to happen.
The composition of the Earth and its atmosphere and the processes occurring
within them
The solar system is a very small part of one of millions of galaxies in the
Universe.
Organisms are organised on a cellular basis.
Organisms require a supply of energy and materials for which they are often
dependent on or in competition with other organisms.
Genetic information is passed from one generation of organisms to another.
The diversity of organisms, living and extinct, is the result of evolution.
30
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Discussion point
How use our curriculum time
parsimoniously? (cf big
ideas)
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Relevant
• About what to learn (Curriculum)
• About how to learn (Pedagogy)
• Degree of choice should be influenced by
– Consequences (for the individual and for society)
– Maturity
• Consequences of choices (and especially poor choices)
about what is to be learned are generally greater than
choices about how learning should be achieved, so
– For younger learners, many if not most learning outcomes need to be nonnegotiable. As they get older their wishes should become predominate
their interests (progressive lowering of the “safety net”)
– From the earliest age, however, learners should be involved in decisions
about how they learn best.
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Relevant
 Intrinsic factors




What is the subject really like?
Authenticity of experience
Habits of mind
Developing identity (e.g., mathematics, plumbing)
 Extrinsic factors
 “Critical filters” for particular careers
 Financial rewards
 Consequences
 Closing down of options (“leaky pipes”)
 Sensitive periods
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Discussion point
How do we contextualise the
curriculum and give students
informed choice about what
they learn and how they
learn it?
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Wiliam’s principles of curriculum design
• A good curriculum is:
Balanced
Rigorous
Coherent
Vertically integrated
Appropriate
Focused
Relevant