Network of School Planners Conference
Curriculum Planning
John Hammond, Deputy Chief Executive, NCCA
Structure of presentation: elements of
Curriculum Planning
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Initiation and scoping
External context
Organisational context
Curriculum review/planning
Making changes
Evaluation of change
Collaboration and consultation at all stages
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Curriculum planning and change
Clear
intentions
Change is
happening
Change takes Evolve and
time
support
rather than
implement
Elements of
heat and light
Agile
strategies
Design for
participation,
not use
Understand
dynamics of
change
Teachers –
essential
change agents
among others
Teachers
handling
conflicting
expectations
Teachers –
change is
personal and
professional
Change beliefs,
dispositions,
practices
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ESRI Research: A good teacher is someone…
 Who explains things well and encourages
questions
 Who enjoys teaching
 Who likes their subject
 Who relates the subject to life
 Who you can talk to
 Who has a good sense of humour and
‘doesn’t give out all the time
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ESRI Research: Good learning happens when…
 It’s clear what you’re supposed to be
learning
 You’re having fun
 When it’s being done in different ways,
through different activities
 When the subject is practical (or the
teaching methods are practical)
 When the pace is right – not too much
expected, not too little
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ESRI Research: Learning
It’s hard to concentrate because all we do is read
from the book…there’s no fun stuff….
If the class is boring you just cannot concentrate,
even how much you want to take it in and
everything, I think if it’s boring it just won’t stay in
your head, you just want the class to end.
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ESRI Research: Alarm bells…
 Transition remains very difficult for some students
 Students ‘engage’ with or ‘disengage’ from learning in
second year
 Negative effects of streaming intensify year to year
 The Junior Certificate can feature too large in the
educational experience
 Subjects students enjoy most they have least access to
 Suitability of curriculum for a minority is questioned
 Gender and social class differences emerge along
predicable lines
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ESRI Research: Streaming, class allocation,
subject levels, underperformance
I have to say I think this was the stupidest thing they
could ever have done, was to decide before you
even come into the school. I cam into the school
and I know I wasn’t brilliant at Irish but I wasn’t
terrible and I was put in one of the low pass
classes. And I was sitting there and everybody was
learning cad is ainm duit and I’m like oh my god
this is stupid…and now…like I’m like…sort of not
learning it or something.
They are clever and we are dumb
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ESRI Research: Good news for schools…
 Schools do make curriculum choices
 Positive interactions and informal school
atmosphere really do count!
 School policy in areas of curriculum planning can
have a real effect
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Key questions for NCCA…
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Effectiveness of rebalancing JC syllabuses?
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Should the number of (core) subjects be specified?
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Should the number of exam subjects be limited?
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Should more concrete advice be generated on suggested
programmes of study? More autonomy for schools?
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How best to support mixed-ability settings and differentiated
teaching and learning?
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Introduce a wider range of possibilities in summative
assessment?
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Review and revise least popular courses – Maths and Gaeilge
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Key questions for schools…
Whether to/how to
 encourage within-class differentiation over
streaming?
 control the impact of the exam on student
engagement and teaching methods?
 provide more access to practical subjects and
adopt the pedagogy in other subjects?
 promote access to higher level subjects?
 promote a positive social and extra-curricular
climate?
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Planning: Internal school factors
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School tradition
School culture
Staffing
Facilities
Resources
Views of Board of Management and Trustees
Relationship with other schools
Potential for outreach
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Planning: Organisational context
 The inclusive school
– International learners
– Special educational needs
– Educational disadvantage
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Changing lives of students / student behaviour
Schools as changing organisations
Developments in curriculum and assessment
Responding to research findings
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Planning: External context
 The speed of globalisation and its twin demands –
‘difference’ and ‘complexity’
 Individualisation and education – the individual or
the common good?
 Marketisation of education
 Inequality and the lack of a strong commitment to
addressing it
 Accountability, responding to ‘imperatives’
 Challenges facing children and young people
From NCCA Strategic Plan 2006-2008
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Planning: Initiation and scoping
Why is planning being initiated?
What is the essential purpose of the planning?
Aligning planning with key contexts
What scale and quality of review/planning is
envisaged?
 What are the intended outcomes?
 What timescale and costs are involved?
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Some thoughts on curriculum
Curriculum is not ‘neutral’
It is a social, cultural and political construction
It is usually - and should be - contested
Direct influence of the NCCA is on the
curriculum as envisaged
 Direct influence of schools/teachers on the
curriculum as realised
 Curriculum – the full range of learning
experiences the learner encounters
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Resources
NCCA Website - www.ncca.ie
School Development Planning:
Curriculum Review at Junior Cycle
ESRI Research – 3 NCCA summaries/commentaries
john.hammond@ncca.ie
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