OU blog

Personal Blogs

Karen Maddison

The English National Curriculum

Wednesday, 19 Dec 2018, 13:02
Visible to anyone in the world

Newspapers have written about an outdated education system changes needed for the future, politicians seem to have been reluctant to make changes to the current system for fear of it being unpopular and them losing votes, some politicians have looked unfavourably at an alternative schooling system and its supporters, preferring to maintain the current national curriculum.

   

The English National Curriculum embodies the knowledge based view of knowledge, explaining exactly what level of knowledge the students should have gained by a certain age.  The implications for teaching and learning with such a framework is quite restricting for teachers and students, teachers have certain targets to achieve with the students, students are then tested against these targets.   

  

The international trends exemplified here are curriculum as a lever for improvement, the student aims in the curriculum are targets for teachers to enable pupils to reach, as well as for pupils to achieve.  Also curriculum coherence, a national curriculum allows for conformity across the whole country and the development of an educational standard across schools.  

  

There is little freedom on the part of the professional to develop their own individual methods as they are required to comply with a predefined system.  It seems to be a little bit like a factory turning out the same version of a person time and time again and the teacher is the fabricator.  


Permalink
Share post
Karen Maddison

Knowledge and Curriculum

Thursday, 13 Dec 2018, 14:37
Visible to anyone in the world
Edited by Karen Maddison, Thursday, 13 Dec 2018, 14:40

My personal view of education is that it should prepare students for the future and their adult life, while also allowing them to flourish and develop as individuals in the best way possible, to become valuable local citizens but to also appreciate global issues.  I feel that too much emphasis is placed on ensuring that students pass exams and get the best results possible which seems to me to be more about the school and their position in league tables than for the benefit of the students. 

The UK government even publish individual school results on their https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk website, pitting individual schools against each other on a performance basis, and league tables of results are seen every year in newspapers and websites showing how well or poorly educational establishments function in the currently practised human capital system with the traditional propositional type of education, where teachers pass on facts to the students which they are then expected to commit to memory.  I think that more emphasis should be put on the well-being of students though and a broader education which, not only concentrates on the academic side of education, but also on the vocational side and individual student interests.  This reflects a more empiricist attitude to education aligning itself with Sterling (2001) and Bunting's (2004) self-fulfilment view of schooling. 

The four aims of schooling outlined by Sterling (2001) and Bunting (2004) make a lot of sense to me, socialisation helps students interact with each other and encourages them to work in teams or groups which is good experience for their future employment and community citizenship.  Vocational skills are necessary because the ultimate aim is still to achieve employment at the end of the education period.  Self-fulfilment encourages students to develop as individuals and be the best they can be in the areas that they value the most and Transformative enables equality in education and improving the planet which is of paramount importance to enable successful future generations. 

I feel that I would align myself with the sociocultural approach where knowledge is gained through experiences, both individually and socially.  This, to me, reflects what is required for life in general where people exist naturally in groups of education, employment and community.  Working together to secure a better future for everyone on the planet, learning by experiencing outcomes to decisions made and being totally involved in the direction of their own learning seems, to me, to be a very good way forward for education. 

References

Bunting, A. (2004) ‘Secondary school design for purpose – but which one?’ OECD Conference: Creating 21 Century Learning Environments, London, 28 May [Online], Available at http://www.oecd.org/education/innovation-education/21stcenturylearningenvironments.htm (Accessed 10 December 2018).

Sterling, S. (2001) Sustainable Education: Re-Visioning Learning and Change. Foxhole, Dartington, Green Books.


Permalink 2 comments (latest comment by Stuart Smith, Wednesday, 19 Dec 2018, 07:35)
Share post
Karen Maddison

My Vision of Education

Wednesday, 21 Nov 2018, 12:38
Visible to anyone in the world
Edited by Karen Maddison, Thursday, 13 Dec 2018, 14:37

It was my belief that the purpose of education was to prepare students for a life after school/college, not just to pass examinations but to enable them to be useful citizens and to eventually be able to take over the custody of the planet from the previous generation.   

From studying the three models for education I have found that my own personal view of education seems to be in line with the Capabilities approach.  I wasn't aware of it at before commencing studies but this model agrees with my beliefs that education should enable a student to become the best possible version of themselves and that education should be legislated for not just provided.    

These ideas are valuable to me because at the moment, and in the establishment that I work in, everything seems to be pointing towards exam success.  The most important thing and pretty much the single aim of school is for students to achieve high results in individual subjects and for the school to appear to be successful.   

I have held this capabilities point of view since my own son was at primary school 20 years ago but, since commencing this course, I have seen a change in my view and think that educating students for a sustainable future is now very important too and enable the next generation to be able to solve the problems that are arising.  We don't know the answers at the moment but we need to allow students to be creative and think about these issues going forward.                                                                              

I think that my job will change going forward, I want to become more involved in online education and I definitely predict a lot of development in this area in the future.  

Permalink
Share post
Karen Maddison

Let’s change STEM to STEAM

Tuesday, 13 Nov 2018, 13:54
Visible to anyone in the world
Edited by Karen Maddison, Tuesday, 13 Nov 2018, 13:56

Traditional education seems to be putting a lot of emphasis on Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) subjects in schools but what about the Arts?  In this day and age almost everyone has a smart phone, which is a mini computer, in their pocket.  We can all use our calculators to work out maths that we struggle with in our heads and ‘Google’ any subject known to man!  I'm not saying ignore the STEM subjects, they are very important, but what we don’t make allowance for in STEM is creativity, at a time when some schools are cutting down their drama and music departments surely we should be investing in them and enabling today’s students to develop a more creative side.  

We’re going to need this creative side to think up new ways to save our dying planet and creating a sustainable future for generations to come, the computers can do the mundane tasks but we need forward thinking, creative, imaginative human beings to do the things that computers can’t and develop a better future for everyone.   Arts subjects can also help with social interaction like being in a band or a drama group, mixing and interacting with different groups of people for a common aim can give young people a sense of belonging and also the ability to work well with others.  Group work is a very valuable skill to arm student with for their future. 

So, instead of cut backs in art subjects, let’s promote them, value them, invest in them and teach them, let’s give them more space on the curriculum and change STEM to STEAM.


Permalink
Share post

This blog might contain posts that are only visible to logged-in users, or where only logged-in users can comment. If you have an account on the system, please log in for full access.

Total visits to this blog: 634