This illuminating post by @Rosalindphys on SLOP-amenable and SLOP-resistant makes me think how very very different humanities and arts are because (early rough thoughts only): (1) the need to organise even micro-curricular choices as narratives;
(2) these micro-curricular narratives - ranging in scale from teacher utterance to juxtaposition of detail/story/example to lesson sequence - 'carry' (express & embed) knowledge through hinterland (or core-hinterland interplay);
(3) SLOP may usefully embed but can also unhelpfully interrupt these narratives
(4) Integrating SLOP well requires a highly intuitive subject-specific & artistic/subjective sensibility concerning narrative flow: eg when/how long/how to pause to ensure definition, technical point or date is secure, so that story /suspense/ sense of puzzle isn't wrecked
(5) A further 'narrative' (narrative in a curricular sense) also cuts across this temporal positioning of content/activity & that is the subject's disciplinary dimension (traditions of /practice in debate, argument, interpretation, conditions under which valid claims can be made)
(6) Often, the role of that disciplinary dimension (generating or showing pupils a contrasting literary interpretation, an alternative causal argument to explain a war) is to unpick the very premises that led to the order/choice of facts presented in the first place....
(7) ...all this makes me BOTH more pro-SLOP than ever, because for too long 'lower-attainers' (especially) have been limited in their ability to assimilate a substantive narrative let alone join a disciplinary debate for want of attention to adequately secure substantive anchors
(8) AND yet more thoughtful about a need for great subject sensitivity in its integration and, therefore, for SLT to avoid mandating or checking on SLOP with crude audit mechanisms that treat subjects as the same.
(9) Conclusion: if SLT (or inspectors) are not asking about the way substantive & disciplinary, core & hinterland or cumulative & hierarchical work in that subject & are just looking for retrieval prac or other cog sci derived practice, they know not what they see & risk violence
Would help if remembered the link to @Rosalindphys post! rosalindwalker.wordpress.com/2018/06/10/kno…
