Thread by @MrWiseCHS

#CurriculumforWales THREAD: After an incredibly busy, rewarding and inspiring two weeks, my obsession with (and learning about) curriculum continues. Here’s some of my current thinking around CfW, taking on board ideas from @Trivium21c @MarkRPriestley @Ruth_Ashbee @Counsell_C...

...among others. As ever, this is just a thread about my current thinking (after a few coffees while the baby sleeps) and I reserve the right to do a 180 at any point once someone wiser than me helps change my mind.

So feel free to argue and critique! Here goes...

Four Purposes: It’s what we’re aiming towards for our pupils. Something we/they continually pursue. But also a guide for curriculum decisions at all levels. Curriculum decisions based upon pursuit of 4Ps and not exams/exam specs, or ‘what we’ve always done’...

...or what we think is engaging. 4Ps are not a tick list. Not something we split apart and try to teach. They are a guiding light, taken as a whole, but parked.

Pursuit of 4Ps fundamentally depends on what pupils learn. So real questions are ‘what are we going to teach?’...

...and ‘how are we going to teach it?’

Subjects are lenses through which we see the world. If we’re truly aiming for 4Ps then allowing pupils to see the world through these different lenses, and to explore these perspectives will give them a better understanding...

...and appreciation of the world. The tools to ‘thrive and contribute to the world’ as I heard @MarkRPriestley put it.

We don’t want narrow curriculum as that won’t help us in the pursuit of 4Ps. We need a whole range of subjects and a wide range of concepts, content...

...and, importantly, perspectives within those subjects. (Breadth)

Decisions will need to be made about the key concepts within the subjects. Which concepts are of most importance? (Value). Those key concepts can help pupils develop understanding and make meaning...

...of their learning. Substantive concepts (eg ‘leadership’ or ‘class’ in history) and disciplinary concepts (eg ‘interpretation’ or ‘change and continuity’ in history). These concepts (or some of them) could underpin learning at all Progress Steps but pupils’ understanding...

...of these concepts should become more sophisticated as learning progresses (depth). New concepts may be introduced and explored as well as learning progresses (breadth). The What Matters statements should give a steer on what concepts to explore.

With key substantive and disciplinary concepts as a guide, content has to be chosen. Again, What Matters and Descriptions of Learning can give a steer here but ultimately it’s the content is decision schools need to make.

Without content, the concepts remain out of reach and won’t make sense. Everything will be too abstract. Content perhaps chosen for two reasons. Firstly, is the content itself seen as valuable and significant, culturally or academically (value). Consider Poweful Knowledge.

But also, crucially, different perspectives and debate about that content, as well as alternatives to it (breadth).

Secondly, does the content help make sense of the fundamental concepts?
We want pupils to be able to see that the world is not compartmentalised...

...but see connections and influence within it. We don’t want pupils’ learning to get stuck in subject or topic silos. Start there but then look across the AOLE and between AOLEs. Pupils needs to explore how their learning connects within the subject but also between subjects...

... rather than thinking of learning as a series unconnected fragments (Coherence). As such, the concepts may act as real tools of coherence. They could be the seams that run through subjects but also across subjects and AOLEs.

I guess that’s a rather rambling (and in no way definitive) #CurriculumforWales thread addressing how we could go about deciding what we’re going to teach. I’ll need a few more coffees before I tackle ‘how we’re going to teach it’.