Learning from Legacy, and
Leading Legacy – managing and
shaping the future curriculum
Don Passey
Senior Research Fellow
Department of Educational Research
Director
Centre for Technology Enhanced Learning
Lancaster University
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Looking at legacy
What are the key issues highlighted by the examples of legacy
and evidence-based outcomes in yesterday’s showcase?
How will schools, now and in the future, balance the formal,
informal and non-formal curriculum?
And supplementary to this question:
What is the current shape of our curriculum?
In what ways have improvements already been made and
outcomes evidenced, in our own and other institutions?
What are the key points to consider?
How can a future curriculum be conceived?
How can it be shaped and managed?
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Vocational and lifelong
learning
Our management of education has been driven by concerns for
supporting individuals in terms of a ‘local vocation‘
Two recent major factors have highlighted the need to
reconsider approaches based on this premise
Individuals are much more likely to be involved in a series of
'vocations' in their lives, involving the need for lifelong learning
approaches
ICT and digital technologies now enable education to happen
beyond the walls of institutions
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Questions - 1
How many of your students do you think will go into a vocation
for life?
How many of your students do you think will go into a ‘local
vocation’?
How far do you feel you are meeting the needs of the balance
of – vocation for life, multiple vocations, local vocations, distant
vocations?
To what extent are you currently using ICT and digital
technologies to enable education beyond the walls of
classrooms?
Do you think there are benefits to using ICT and digital
technologies to enable education beyond the walls of
classrooms?
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Formal, informal and nonformal environments
Managing education now requires a need to consider three key
elements
The formal (classroom) environments
Subject and topic focus
The non-formal (after-school and society) clubs and activities
Group and team-work focus
The informal (out-of-school, home and other location)
endeavours
Individual, interest and independent focus
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Questions - 2
On this model of the curriculum, how would you plot your
current practices?
Where would you like to take future practices?
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Blended models of education
and learning
Balancing the three elements in different ways means that
different models of education and learning can be conceived
and considered
Different blended possibilities already exist - consider 'afternoon
school' in Germany, traditionally the responsibility of parents,
but teachers are now using digital technologies to support
learning at home during this time; ‘School of the Air’ has been
established for a long time in Australia where geography
prevents regular classroom attendance; schools in Turkey are
open across the day, and students attend either morning or
afternoon school; schools in Egypt run in similar ways, but
morning and afternoon schools are run by different sets of
teachers and school managers
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Questions - 3
Is the same model appropriate for all your students?
Are there some students where a different model might work
better?
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Longer term skills and
competencies
Curricula in schools focus on knowledge acquisition across a
range of subject or topic areas
Longer-term skills and competencies can be developed from
these areas of knowledge, but not easily without additional
frameworks of support
There is now an arguably greater need for individuals to
develop and use a wide range of technical and social skills for
their future career needs
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Questions - 4
How far do you feel your curriculum supports the development
of ‘soft’ skills?
In what ways would the model of the curriculum best be
developed to do this?
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Access from different providers
Some individuals already attend more than one ‘educational
institution’ or ‘provider’
As a standard provision in some locations, some learners attend
a secondary school for certain lessons, a further education
college for specialist courses, and have one-to-one support from
a tutor or counsellor
If learners attend different institutions, (or even if they do not),
access through digital technologies to resources that offer
expert support is likely to offer important opportunities not only
to learners now but also to learners in the future
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Questions - 5
Do you provide alternative curricula for some of your students?
Do you know of practices in at least five other institutions where
they provide alternative curricula?
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Vision and leadership
Vision and leadership is important
In those emerging blended models of education that we see
already, vision and leadership accounts for the past,
accommodates the present, and considers important needs in
the future
How future educational management needs will be provided,
and how these will include adequate training and consideration
of vision and leadership, is a clear need
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Questions – 6 – rating your
abilities to
Recognise and acknowledge the importance of the non-formal and
informal curriculum
Consider how effective evidence-based projects and home-link
activities can be built into the non-formal and informal curriculum
Endorse outcome-evidence-based activities
Adopt transformational projects with a real-world community
development focus
Support the creation of practice (placing and managing projects)
Consider how project-based activities can integrate open and social
technologies to improve educational provision
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Encourage intergenerational learning, through student-led and teacherfacilitated activities (allowing extensions of students’ technical and
associated skills)
Consider how technical and professional support can be offered
Consider how high quality learning materials are provided by
professionals and ICT-based materials
Identify how a management focus can critically enhance the formal
curriculum through longer-term needs of pupils and communities
How would you rate your abilities to vision this form of future?
What leadership capabilities would you want, or do you feel you need,
to extend or develop these forms of practice?
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