tag:theconversation.com,2011:/uk/topics/curriculum-for-excellence-11222/articlesCurriculum for Excellence – The Conversation2019-11-13T14:56:54Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1269542019-11-13T14:56:54Z2019-11-13T14:56:54ZWhy a new report attacking Scottish education policy is based on bad methodology<p>Nicola Sturgeon <a href="https://www.scotsman.com/education/nicola-sturgeon-judge-me-on-education-record-1-3861506">famously said</a> in 2015 that she should be judged on her record in tackling educational issues – especially her efforts to close Scotland’s persistent attainment gap between advantaged and disadvantaged young people. So it’s not a surprise that Scottish education has been a major talking point in the election campaign – centring on the Scottish government’s flagship education policy, the <a href="https://www.gov.scot/policies/schools/school-curriculum/">Curriculum for Excellence</a> (CfE). </p>
<p>A rancorous debate has <a href="https://www.tes.com/news/scotlands-curriculum-really-narrowing">surfaced periodically</a> in Scotland since 2015, focusing on allegedly falling attainment and narrower curriculum choice for secondary school pupils in their senior years. Now it has been reignited by a <a href="https://www.academia.edu/40840793/Widening_The_Gap_FINAL_VERSION">critical report</a> by Jim Scott, an honorary professor at the University of Dundee, claiming that attainment in national qualifications at the age of 16 has plummeted under the SNP government. </p>
<p>Inevitably, this has been <a href="https://www.scotsman.com/news/opinion/columnists/don-t-let-snp-mislead-you-about-the-state-of-scottish-education-murdo-fraser-1-5044304">seized on</a> by opposition politicians. Liz Smith, the Conservative shadow education minister said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The least able pupils are losing out most under Curriculum for Excellence. That is surely the most worrying trend, given that it was structured around key principles designed to do the exact opposite.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But, in our view, Professor Scott’s report is not a fair reflection of what has been happening in Scottish education. It has what we believe are methodological flaws that have led to results and claims that are very misleading. </p>
<h2>Point of departure</h2>
<p>The Curriculum for Excellence, which was introduced in the early years of this decade, is a shift <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-nicola-sturgeon-put-her-biggest-hitter-in-charge-of-scottish-education-63965">away from</a> learning dominated by teachers, focused purely on academic achievement and knowledge, towards a system designed to equip youngsters with flexible learning skills for life. </p>
<p>Based on four educational purposes – creating successful learners, responsible citizens, effective contributors and confident individuals – the curriculum strongly focuses the central role of learners and shifts the emphasis from the acquisition of knowledge/content to the development of skills. It is thus a very different approach to the one <a href="https://theconversation.com/in-britains-battle-over-school-curriculum-celtic-nations-have-got-it-right-90277">being taken</a> south of the border.</p>
<p>Like Professor Scott, <a href="https://dspace.stir.ac.uk/retrieve/a57ea804-e02d-4a02-a127-8f53d4c74fb7/shapira-and-priestley.pdf">our recent</a> publications <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/rev3.3180">have been</a> critical of many aspects of this policy: the way it has been articulated and implemented – and particularly the trend towards curriculum narrowing for senior secondary pupils. Yet our analysis shows that attainment at the National 5 (typically ages 15-16) and Higher (17-18) levels has actually risen – both in terms of the overall percentage of passes and the proportion of pupils who achieved at least five passes at both levels. </p>
<p>So what is going on? Without addressing the full range of claims in the report, we’ll give you an example to illustrate our point. One of the claims in Scott’s report, which was <a href="https://www.thenational.scot/news/18019298.failed-curriculum-significant-impact-kids-attainment/">widely reported</a> in the Scottish media, was this: “attainment in Scottish [National levels 3 to 5] in S4 pupils has dropped by at least 32.9% for each level since CfE was introduced in 2013”.</p>
<p>The report uses Scottish Qualifications Authority official statistics to show that there were 335,397 passes in 2018-19 at National 3-5 levels, compared to 503,221 passes in 2012-2013. Simple maths thus suggests that the total number of passes in 2018-19 stands at 66.6% of the total number of passes in 2012-2013. Yet a drop in the total number of qualifications achieved is not necessarily evidence of a decline in attainment.</p>
<p>It is problematic to simply compare raw numbers from year to year unless you account for all changes between the baseline and other years. The reality is that students in Scotland are not entered for National 4 and 5 qualifications in the way that they used to be: for instance, the country has ended the widespread practice of double counting passes for each student at these two levels. </p>
<p>Students <a href="https://dspace.stir.ac.uk/retrieve/a57ea804-e02d-4a02-a127-8f53d4c74fb7/shapira-and-priestley.pdf">are also</a> being put <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/rev3.3180">forward</a> for fewer qualifications because the curriculum has been narrowed, typically from eight to six subjects in S4. At the same time, the size of the secondary school population has been continuously falling for the past ten years. </p>
<h2>A better approach</h2>
<p>To meaningfully compare the number of passes over time, you need to instead examine attainment as a proportion of the total number of entrants or awards for each year. When we did this, it showed that after the introduction of the CfE, there was a 15% increase in the proportion of passes at National 5 level. There was also a corresponding decrease in the proportion of passes at the lower National 3 level – suggesting that attainment has risen over the period as more students enter for and pass the higher-level qualification. </p>
<p><strong>Changes in % of passes per year at National 3 to 5 levels</strong></p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301532/original/file-20191113-77310-mcplmd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301532/original/file-20191113-77310-mcplmd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301532/original/file-20191113-77310-mcplmd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=314&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301532/original/file-20191113-77310-mcplmd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=314&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301532/original/file-20191113-77310-mcplmd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=314&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301532/original/file-20191113-77310-mcplmd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301532/original/file-20191113-77310-mcplmd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301532/original/file-20191113-77310-mcplmd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Source: SQA, data adapted from Professor Scott’s report.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Scottish government data also shows that at National 4, 5 and Higher levels, attainment gaps between Scottish school leavers living in the most advantageous and most disadvantageous areas are getting smaller (see yellow, blue and grey lines in the chart below). Meanwhile, the gap between pupils in the most and least disadvantaged areas who leave school with no qualifications has remained – with small fluctuations – at about 3% since 2014-15 (see the purple line below). </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301536/original/file-20191113-77291-yhl9ph.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301536/original/file-20191113-77291-yhl9ph.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301536/original/file-20191113-77291-yhl9ph.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301536/original/file-20191113-77291-yhl9ph.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301536/original/file-20191113-77291-yhl9ph.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301536/original/file-20191113-77291-yhl9ph.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301536/original/file-20191113-77291-yhl9ph.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301536/original/file-20191113-77291-yhl9ph.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Source: SQA, data adapted from Professor Scott’s report.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The above analysis, which received some additional input from our colleagues <a href="https://www.stir.ac.uk/people/255862">Mark Priestley</a> and Michelle Ritchie, hopefully illustrates the dangers of ill-informed political debate around education in Scotland – we go into more detail in <a href="https://mrpriestley.wordpress.com/2019/11/08/curriculum-for-excellence-and-attainment-in-national-qualifications/amp/?__twitter_impression=true">this blog post</a>. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, it is not easy to evaluate the CfE conclusively at this point in time. One of the arguments that we have been making in our recent work is that there is not enough evidence on the impacts of the policy yet. We need more research into everything from the breadth of education students are receiving to the number of A to C grades at National 5 and Higher levels to what happens in the years after people leave school. </p>
<p>Our new two-year research project, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, will go some way towards addressing this gap. We’ll combine the available administrative data with new research from social surveys, interviews and focus groups in secondary schools. In the meantime, the frustrating reality for voters is that any bold claims about the success or failure of the Scottish government’s approach to education must be taken with a large pinch of salt. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300096/original/file-20191104-88414-1yh2yvf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300096/original/file-20191104-88414-1yh2yvf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300096/original/file-20191104-88414-1yh2yvf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300096/original/file-20191104-88414-1yh2yvf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300096/original/file-20191104-88414-1yh2yvf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=176&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300096/original/file-20191104-88414-1yh2yvf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=176&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300096/original/file-20191104-88414-1yh2yvf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=176&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/the-daily-newsletter-2?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKGE2019&utm_content=GEBannerB">Click here to subscribe to our newsletter if you believe this election should be all about the facts.</a></em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/126954/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marina Shapira has received funding from the Economic and Social Research Council, British Academy, Nuffield Foundation.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Camilla Barnett is a research assistant on the two-year Nuffield Foundation funded project "Choice, Attainment and Positive Destinations: exploring the impact of curriculum policy change on young people". </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tracey Peace-Hughes has previously received funding from the ESRC for a doctoral studentship.</span></em></p>It is still not easy to reach firm conclusions about Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence.Marina Shapira, Lecturer in Quantitative Research Methods, University of StirlingCamilla Barnett, Research Assistant, University of StirlingTracey Peace-Hughes, Research Fellow, University of StirlingLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/902772018-01-19T13:54:14Z2018-01-19T13:54:14ZIn Britain’s battle over school curriculum, Celtic nations have got it right<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202421/original/file-20180118-158531-c7wnhr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">"Peidiwch â cholli!"</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/intelligent-group-young-school-children-all-211281496?src=AhWqYCLhV1i-L0lhbntpNA-1-29">ESB Professional</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2013/apr/15/margaret-thatcher-education-legacy-gove">national curriculum</a> introduced by Margaret Thatcher’s governments in the 1980s was a seminal development in UK education history. Applying to England, Northern Ireland and Wales (but not Scotland, which has a tradition of educational independence), the move was highly controversial. </p>
<p>With too much content and little flexibility on what could be taught, it was a teacher-proof curriculum that was widely decried by education experts as badly thought out and damaging to young people. Such criticisms seemed borne out, as it was reviewed and revised <a href="http://cee.lse.ac.uk/ceedps/ceedp57.pdf">throughout the 1990s</a>. </p>
<p>By the new millennium, new curricular forms were emerging – first in <a href="http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2004/11/20178/45862">Scotland</a> and <a href="https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/incoming/education-reform-in-northern-ireland-28034497.html">Northern Ireland</a> in 2004 (education in Northern Ireland and Wales had been devolved). These moved away from specifying in detail what content to teach, shifting towards giving schools and teachers more autonomy. </p>
<p>England appeared to be heading in the same direction under New Labour following a major review of the national curriculum in <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/6332537.stm">2007-08</a>. But after the coalition government was elected in 2010, these reforms were ditched <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-28989714">in favour of</a> a more traditional fact-based approach. </p>
<p>Wales, on the other hand, has followed the other Celtic nations. It <a href="http://gov.wales/topics/educationandskills/schoolshome/curriculuminwales/curriculum-for-wales-curriculum-for-life/?lang=en">announced</a> its own new curriculum in 2015.</p>
<h2>Curriculum wars</h2>
<p>The new Celtic curricula have been widely <a href="http://www.education.uct.ac.za/sites/default/files/image_tool/images/104/scenarios.pdf">attacked</a>. Critics claim they downgrade knowledge – effectively dumbing down learning – and overemphasise skills, particularly those required for the workplace. </p>
<p>They are often derided as “progressive”, apparently a pejorative term – and arguably an inaccurate description in any case. They blur the boundaries between subjects, say critics, and devalue knowledge from academic disciplines in favour of everyday knowledge. </p>
<p>While such criticisms invariably contain some truth, they are not helping improve British education. They have created unhelpful dichotomies of traditional versus progressive, knowledge versus skills, and the teacher as a “sage on the stage” versus the teacher as a “guide on the side”. A good, balanced education should attend to all these dimensions.</p>
<p>The new Celtic curricula are grounded in specific purposes of education, which provide a clear starting point for schools to develop a curriculum. In Scotland these are articulated as attributes and capabilities, <a href="https://education.gov.scot/scottish-education-system/policy-for-scottish-education/policy-drivers/cfe-(building-from-the-statement-appendix-incl-btc1-5)/What%20is%20Curriculum%20for%20Excellence?">set out</a> under four headings: successful learners, responsible citizens, effective contributors and confident individuals. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202423/original/file-20180118-158525-1pkojpb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202423/original/file-20180118-158525-1pkojpb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202423/original/file-20180118-158525-1pkojpb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202423/original/file-20180118-158525-1pkojpb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202423/original/file-20180118-158525-1pkojpb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202423/original/file-20180118-158525-1pkojpb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202423/original/file-20180118-158525-1pkojpb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202423/original/file-20180118-158525-1pkojpb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Scotland’s reforms.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p>Northern Ireland <a href="http://ccea.org.uk/curriculum/overview/aim_and_objectives">has three overall</a> learning objectives, developing young people as: individuals, contributors to society, and contributors to the economy and environment. </p>
<p>Statements of purpose like these describe what an educated young person should look like at the end of a stage of education. They should allow schools to choose suitable content themselves; and teach it in ways that enable children to develop the knowledge and skills necessary for successful lives – as critically engaged citizens with successful careers. </p>
<p>I believe that this is greatly preferable to a curriculum apparently devoid of purposes and framed primarily around content decided by national policymakers. </p>
<p>English schools, though in many cases they will teach similar things to their Celtic counterparts, face overcrowded syllabuses which leave insufficient time to focus on teaching for understanding. Schools potentially start their curriculum development with questions of what to teach without necessarily asking why teach it. </p>
<p>Critics do have a point when they say the progressive Celtic curricula lack attention to knowledge, but I think this is largely a problem with implementation – particularly in Scotland. As the OECD’s Andreas Schleicher stated on BBC News in December 2016, Scotland needs to move from an intended curriculum to an implemented curriculum. </p>
<p>Historically, progressive approaches to education placed a high value on knowledge. Indeed the father of progressive education, the American philosopher John Dewey, <a href="https://brocku.ca/MeadProject/Dewey/Dewey_1907/Dewey_1907c.html">emphasised</a> the importance of engaging with the accumulated wisdom of mankind. </p>
<h2>Could do better</h2>
<p>How then to explain Scotland’s <a href="http://hdl.handle.net/1893/11356">implementation problem</a>? A decade after the launch of the Curriculum for Excellence, Scottish education <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-nicola-sturgeon-put-her-biggest-hitter-in-charge-of-scottish-education-63965">has been</a> undergoing a substantial review and has become a weak flank for the government’s opponents. </p>
<p>I would argue that the non-progressive elements of this curriculum have contributed to schools’ struggles to bring the vision to life – above all framing the curriculum as detailed learning outcomes. </p>
<p>These hundreds of statements arrayed into hierarchical levels are a throwback to England’s original National Curriculum, which simplistically saw learning as a neat linear progress to be measured at every stage, not a messy and emergent developmental process that varies between individuals. </p>
<p>Learning outcomes have been associated with a tendency for schools to track their performance against <a href="http://cedefop.europa.eu/files/3054_en.pdf">predetermined statements</a>. They can make teachers risk-averse and inclined towards a bureaucratic tick-box approach to the curriculum. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202424/original/file-20180118-158531-zkhlhs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202424/original/file-20180118-158531-zkhlhs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202424/original/file-20180118-158531-zkhlhs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202424/original/file-20180118-158531-zkhlhs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202424/original/file-20180118-158531-zkhlhs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202424/original/file-20180118-158531-zkhlhs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202424/original/file-20180118-158531-zkhlhs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202424/original/file-20180118-158531-zkhlhs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Learning difficulties.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/asian-students-exam-studying-hard-worrying-660002209">Klattisak Lamchan</a></span>
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<p>So it’s really interesting to see the latest iteration of this sort of curriculum emerging in Wales. The developers of the <a href="http://learning.gov.wales/resources/improvementareas/curriculum/?lang=en">Curriculum for Wales</a> seem cognisant of the problems afflicting these curricula elsewhere. </p>
<p>Development materials emphasise the importance of clearly identifying and making sense of educational purposes. They stress that knowledge – as well as skills – need to be prominent in teachers’ thinking as they enact the curriculum. </p>
<p>Yet they recognise that traditional subjects are only one way of articulating this knowledge. Though knowledge shouldn’t be handed down as if to Moses on tablets of stone, subjects are still seen as a useful means of dividing the curricular cake. They can sit alongside more integrated approaches such as having learning themes that cut across subjects or offering hybrid subjects such as social studies. </p>
<p>Some critics <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-38855531">have suggested</a> there are problems with implementing this new system, too, but it’s far too early to make judgements. The system doesn’t have to be fully operational until 2021. </p>
<p>Crucially, teachers are to be involved in all stages of developing the curriculum. They’re being given a vital role in making sense of the curriculum’s purposes, as well as the mechanisms and processes that support this. It will be a question of first getting the curriculum right, then thinking about how accountability processes can be best developed. Judging schools by narrow measures of attainment will not be the order of the day. </p>
<p>The report launching a Curriculum for Wales was called <a href="http://gov.wales/docs/dcells/publications/150225-successful-futures-en.pdf">Successful Futures</a>. Hopefully this will turn out to be prescient.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/90277/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mark Priestley's work has been informed by previous grants from ESRC and the Scottish government, but nothing current. He is a member of the Welsh Government Curriculum and Assessment Group, an advisory committee that meets three times per year. He is also a member of two Scottish government advisory committees - the Curriculum and Assessment Board and the Leaders Forum.
</span></em></p>Should the teacher be a sage on the stage or a guide on the side? Neither, it seems.Mark Priestley, Director of the Stirling Network for Curriculum Studies, University of StirlingLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/639652016-08-19T11:26:09Z2016-08-19T11:26:09ZWhy Nicola Sturgeon put her biggest hitter in charge of Scottish education<p>As teachers and pupils in Scotland return to school after the summer holidays, those in charge are battling to get the system right. Scottish education has been through major reform in recent years. Now much more is coming after Nicola Sturgeon, the first minister, put her deputy in charge. </p>
<p>Within weeks of being appointed in May, former finance secretary John Swinney unveiled <a href="http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2016/06/3853">a package</a> of important reforms. If they make Scottish education excellent, it could be a strong step for the Scottish nationalists towards eventually winning the argument on independence. </p>
<p>Long separate from the rest of the UK, Scottish education has tended to think very highly of itself. It was served a reality check in 2000 when the OECD began <a href="https://www.oecd.org/pisa/">providing data</a> on how well 15-year-old pupils from around 70 countries apply their knowledge of reading, maths and science. </p>
<p>These PISA rankings, the sun around which the education world now orbits, put Scotland at merely mid-table while lauding Finland and <a href="https://www.oecd.org/pisa/">more recently</a> Hong Kong and Singapore. With the improvement project kicked off in Scotland in the 2000s, the authorities are hoping to climb higher. </p>
<h2>Curriculum for Excellence</h2>
<p>Best known in this project is <a href="http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/learningandteaching/thecurriculum/whatiscurriculumforexcellence/">Curriculum for Excellence</a> (CfE), rolled out since 2004. The philosophy is that heavy teacher instruction and over-reliance on memory work won’t produce young adults with the flexible interactive skills to cope with the changing demands of 21st-century learning. </p>
<p>CfE puts more emphasis on pupils interacting with the teacher and with each other. It favours more oral and collaborative learning. It has wider aims than just academic achievement, <a href="https://theconversation.com/free-university-tuition-will-help-snp-defend-a-very-mixed-record-on-education-58828">aiming explicitly to</a> generate successful learners, confident individuals, effective contributors, and responsible citizens. It gives teachers more freedom to develop teaching materials that draw on their local area. </p>
<p>This is quite a shift from the likes of England and the US, where curriculums are more centrally managed; and teaching and assessment more prescribed. Like in the old Scottish system, these implicitly think of teachers as technicians who can be given packs of teaching materials to implement. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134653/original/image-20160818-12315-11y68so.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134653/original/image-20160818-12315-11y68so.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134653/original/image-20160818-12315-11y68so.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134653/original/image-20160818-12315-11y68so.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134653/original/image-20160818-12315-11y68so.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134653/original/image-20160818-12315-11y68so.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134653/original/image-20160818-12315-11y68so.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134653/original/image-20160818-12315-11y68so.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">‘We don’t need no …’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jiscinfonet/310329658/in/photolist-5Ui8cP-58xyi7-tqwcm-tqwas-qGDhuQ-c8jqUG-c8jr5w-c8jr8u-c8jqZh-8eJvC5-c8jr3d-Ave2ht-CJFBA6-MitVo-MitMd-ee3SnH-r6CBzV">Jisc INFONet</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Has CfE worked? The approach has much to recommend, but implementation has been a problem. It was never well explained to teachers. Because it was introduced in stages, only those at the top understood the big picture. For a profession used to being told what to do, teachers’ role in generating content was not clear enough. Swinney himself <a href="http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/education/14530615.Scotland_s_curriculum_seen_as__mystery_tour___warns_John_Swinney/?commentSort=oldest">recently described</a> the curriculum as a “mystery tour” for teachers. </p>
<p>This caused problems with assessment. Instead of the explicit guidance under the old system, teachers now receive a general series of “outcomes” which they have to use as they see fit rather than following common guidelines. It wasn’t made clear that the old guidance was still intended to be used as well. </p>
<p>An <a href="http://www.oecd.org/edu/school/improving-schools-in-scotland.htm">OECD report</a> on the Scottish system in 2015 called for greater clarity in assessment and more consistent evaluation about how the curriculum is being implemented across the country. It also pointed to the problem of extra bureaucracy created by giving teachers more autonomy. </p>
<p>The OECD did list many positives, including “real professional engagement, trust and consensus” within Scottish education. But it found that pupils were doing less well in areas of greater deprivation than before, offsetting achievements with migrants and gender. It is generally assumed that countries’ education systems improve when they score highly on academic excellence and social equity. </p>
<p>As <a href="http://pasisahlberg.com">Paasi Sahlberg</a>, the apostle of the Finnish education miracle, recently <a href="http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/13415380.Educationalists_converge_on_Glasgow_for_2016_conference/">put it</a>, Scotland’s system is “knocking on heaven’s door” – not quite paradise but within sight.</p>
<h2>The new reforms</h2>
<p>Swinney’s <a href="http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2016/06/3853">reforms</a> are potentially very wide ranging. They signal plans to reduce the control of Scotland’s 32 councils by decentralising school management, while creating new educational regions and giving £100m direct to schools from next year. </p>
<p>One leading theme is teacher professionalism, envisaging members of staff in schools fully cognisant with CfE to enable colleagues to develop their professional learning. To improve school leadership there will be a new programme for aspiring and existing headteachers, while teachers will get more funding to obtain masters-level qualifications (all Finnish teachers have one). </p>
<p>These changes are also intended to address the deprivation gap, among various other measures. These include ensuring there are enough teachers of science, maths, technology and engineering; and a new sort of teacher that works between upper primary and early secondary. Currently, Scottish pupils often regress in early secondary years. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/swinney-warned-to-proceed-with-caution-on-reform-stwhmwpd0">Potentially</a> most controversial are plans for standardised testing in primary 1, 4, 7 and the third year of secondary. There are also plans for clearer performance information for parents, school inspections more focused on the government’s <a href="http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Education/Schools/NationalImprovementFramework">education priorities</a>, and an annual report of school performance information at national level. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134654/original/image-20160818-12303-bv8mof.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134654/original/image-20160818-12303-bv8mof.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134654/original/image-20160818-12303-bv8mof.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134654/original/image-20160818-12303-bv8mof.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134654/original/image-20160818-12303-bv8mof.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134654/original/image-20160818-12303-bv8mof.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134654/original/image-20160818-12303-bv8mof.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134654/original/image-20160818-12303-bv8mof.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Soon to make way for the primary 1s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/leif/4626494372/in/photolist-83PZAm-28X3B2-n4Dm9R-s7NgGb-9qt1sA-mLp43r-zyAELY-sa67uB-9Ty8ou-4B55kL-qx84BW-9STV16-9qt2u7-9qsZay-9qpZQX-fzaPas-8Y9ZR6-jiY24m-8Yd3tA-8joma4-8dzYk8-jcN519-fzCPkm-8J8Hgs-rSEfNS-rQUod2-s7WwYN-qYXcNY-9qpXZ4-eJG1m9-8dshmS-deFuHx-deFtdQ-9h2h5c-deFunZ-2ggiPE-2kkLaj-deFtZi-9qsYFL-7Zzsps-eTP84J-fyxmXL-8Yd2Ry-51eZS3-f9K7m-8oJdZv-76PRue-6o3FXv-HhcNG4-saekh4">Leif Harboe</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The verdict</h2>
<p>These are certainly more than just high-level aspirations. The extra emphasis on teacher professionalism takes their responsibilities seriously. The reforms wisely don’t suggest any silver bullet to the deprivation gap, recognising the need for adjustments across the board that don’t hinder pupils from better backgrounds. </p>
<p>Standardised testing is a concern. It is not clear why the Scottish government is embracing a strategy which in England has <a href="https://theconversation.com/stressed-out-the-psychological-effects-of-tests-on-primary-school-children-58913">been proven</a> to take an unwelcome psychological toll and narrows the curriculum by encouraging teachers to focus on areas being tested. </p>
<p>This is not to say there shouldn’t be assessment in primary schools. Any jurisdiction worth its salt, such as Ontario, Canada, analyses what results are saying. This is not used to shame teachers, still less pupils, but to put in place necessary learning for teachers and pupils to improve.</p>
<p>If the Scottish government takes this kind of balanced approach to testing and follows through on raising standards in other areas, the country may yet achieve what it wanted in the early 2000s. There is some way to go, but scaling the OECD rankings and creating a system that the world envies is certainly not out of the question.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/63965/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Beth Dickson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Scots thought their education system was world-beating, until the OECD started publishing rankings.Beth Dickson, Senior University Teacher in Teacher Learning, University of GlasgowLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/285262014-06-27T11:05:44Z2014-06-27T11:05:44ZWhy you won’t see Gove-style proposals on curbing school extremism in Scotland<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/52368/original/qdqzz4yb-1403798640.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Gove's proposals won't apply in Scotland</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/knox1013/8916324987/in/photolist-ezUuMa-dqQAyn-ezUxqT-ezUDXM-9bxC3K-ezXTBm-ezUto4-ezXLh3-ezUKNe-ezXP1N-ezULHx-ezUHEM-ezXxP3-ezUwNX-ezUC2H-ezUH96-ezUL6F-ezUwoD-ezUpPc-ezUywD-ezUsmx-ezXQYj-ezXy9o-ezUEF2-ezUJdX-ezUy9H-ezUrq6-ezXEzN-ezUqdM-ezXQkQ-ezXMMf-ezXNfs-ezXU1L-ezXQ3E-ezUCLV-bPQF4v-bAVXQo-bPQCjn-bAVYRL-bPQA74-bAVYkQ-bPQzKi-ezXPDf-ezUsXM-ezUtJr-ezUFZM-ezUBoB-ezXE1y-ezXGpY-ezUqMV">Wasi Daniju</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Michael Gove’s recent proposal that English schools must “actively promote British values” caused a predictable <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=gove%20british%20values&src=typd">storm of merriment on Twitter</a>. He made his statement earlier this month ahead of the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/consultation-on-promoting-british-values-in-school">launch of a consultation this week</a> proposing new regulations requiring state schools to comply with the same principles as free schools and academies, and allowing Ofsted to intervene where schools failed to meet these standards. </p>
<p>The government’s definition of British values as “democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs” is pretty uncontroversial. So is the reminder that schools, like the rest of us, must comply with the 2010 Equality Act. </p>
<p>None of this is particularly new. The proposed regulations will require schools to “actively promote” these “fundamental values” and not just respect them, but the authorities’ power to intervene is specifically restricted to a limited range of scenarios. </p>
<p>Also new, I suppose, is the controversy which Gove stoked up by linking the original announcement to the furore over allegations that Muslim extremists were influencing some Birmingham schools. But I’m not convinced this will make a big difference to the relationship between schools and the authorities in practice. And despite the furore the controversy is probably being overstated – it’s not far from what was recommended by the Labour-era <a href="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200607/cmselect/cmeduski/147/14705.htm">Crick report</a>, for example. </p>
<p>Nonetheless it does raise some interesting and challenging issues for teachers and governors in England’s schools, perhaps particularly around the issue of <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-27978327">gender discrimination</a>. It also poses the question of what all this might mean for schools in other parts of the UK. </p>
<h2>What happens north of the border</h2>
<p>This issue is particularly pertinent in Scotland, where national identities and values inevitably play a significantt role in the independence debate. Scottish education has always been distinctive, and has continued to evolve in its own ways since devolution. One important manifestation of this was the decision in 2002 to undertake a major reform of the entire school curriculum, with the appointment of a review group which reported two years later.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2004/11/20178/45862#1">2004 proposals</a> identified four key purposes of education as those that enable young people to become, “successful learners, confident individuals, responsible citizens and effective contributors.” These principal goals, rather than specific skills and knowledge, were to form the core around which schools and colleges should organise learning.</p>
<p>This outline was <a href="http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/thecurriculum/whatiscurriculumforexcellence/thepurposeofthecurriculum/index.asp">subsequently developed</a> by Education Scotland, the agency responsible for quality and curriculum, to encompass sets of attributes and capabilities for each of the four principal goals. </p>
<p>In the case of “responsible citizens”, the attributes are “respect for others” and “commitment to participate responsibly in political, economic, social and cultural life”. The five capabilities include, “develop knowledge and understanding of the world and Scotland’s place in it”; and “understand different beliefs and customs.”</p>
<p>The Scottish government has also promoted greater attention to Scottish issues across education. It has accepted a number of recommendations from its <a href="http://www.scotland.gov.uk/News/Releases/2012/03/scottish-studies01032012">working group on Scottish studies</a>, which argues that learning about Scotland should be embedded right across the curriculum from early years to senior phase. It is also promoting teaching of Gaelic and Scots in state schools.</p>
<p>Ideas about education and national values are inevitably surfacing in the independence debate. The Scottish government’s <a href="http://www.scotreferendum.com/reports/scotlands-future-your-guide-to-an-independent-scotland/">white paper on independence</a> describes education as, “also about who we are as a nation”, a claim it makes in relation to the new curriculum. In relation to higher education, it defends free tuition as an expression of “the values that underpin our education system.” More generally, the white paper speaks of the rule of law, democracy and liberty as national values, as well as the “shared values of fairness and opportunity, and promoting prosperity and social cohesion.”</p>
<h2>Different emphasis</h2>
<p>So far, so similar. In practice, Scottish values and British values turn out to mean more or less comparable things for those politicians who try to promote them. We might spot a greater emphasis on egalitarianism in the Scottish texts, and an anxiety about ethnic and religious segregation in the English ones, but the positive values are largely the same; only the adjectives -– British or Scottish –- differ.</p>
<p>What is striking about the Scottish policy texts, though, is their lack of attention to ethnic and religious diversity. This partly reflects the nature of Scottish nationalism today, which usually describes itself as civic rather than ethnic, but also mirrors the relatively small scale of ethnic minority communities in Scottish society. Remember that <a href="http://www.scotsman.com/faith-schools-debate-1-1811428">despite some talk</a> about an Islamic faith school in Glasgow a few years ago, there is <a href="http://www.qalam-academy.org/">still only one</a> in Scotland. Even <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-27974840">the reported appearance</a> of a Scottish Muslim in a jihadist recruitment video this week has so far provoked little comment from Scotland’s political leaders.</p>
<p>So perhaps we should not be surprised that the debate over citizenship and education has taken a slightly different course north of the border. The different tone of the debate in Scotland is such that it is unlikely that the Scottish government will come under pressure to introduce anything equivalent here, regardless of what effect you believe the changes will have in England. But more striking than the differences is the extent to which policy developers in both countries have adopted similar perspectives on the values that should underpin the school curriculum.</p>
<p>Survey data suggest that <a href="http://www.bsa-31.natcen.ac.uk/read-the-report/democracy/introduction.aspx">most Britons see these values</a> as more important to national identity than being born in Britain or having British ancestry. It seems reasonable to conclude that very few people will object to the idea of schools promoting democracy, liberty and the rule of law, as well as tolerance and respect for different religions and views. But politicians should note that the survey findings also show that most Britons believe that our political institutions fail to live up to their expectations. That problem is not one that can be solved by tinkering with the school curriculum. </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/28526/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Field does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Michael Gove’s recent proposal that English schools must “actively promote British values” caused a predictable storm of merriment on Twitter. He made his statement earlier this month ahead of the launch…John Field, Professor Emeritus, Lifelong Learning, University of StirlingLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.