Transcript CfE design principles

A Curriculum for Excellence
toolkit - from learning and
teaching to programme design
Sooh Sweeney, director of curriculum
John Muir, assistant principal, curriculum
and quality
Curriculum for Excellence and
Essential Skills at Ayr College
– starting off with learning and teaching
• Curriculum for Excellence – the four capacities
– The development of the success, confidence, responsibility and
effectiveness through engaging and challenging learning and teaching
experiences
• Essential skills – the five elements
– The development of core, personal and learning, employability,
citizenship and health and wellbeing skills through engaging and
challenging learning and teaching experiences
Our basic assumption
Effective essential skills development lies at the heart of
effective learning and, therefore, teaching.
Essential skills develop not only as part of the formal structure
of the curriculum but, crucially, they need to permeate all
facets of the learning and teaching experience. Both are vital
components in the development of essential skills.
Essential skills at Ayr College
Core skills
Personal and
learning skills
• Communication
• Self-awareness
• Numeracy
• Positive attitude
towards learning
• ICT
• Working with
others
• Problem solving
• Self-direction and
the opportunity
to analyse and
think critically
• Plan activities
and allow them
to self-organise
and/or organise
others
Citizenship
skills
• Multicultural
issues
• Equality and
social fairness
• Disadvantage and
taking steps to
make a difference
• Rights and
responsibilities
• Tolerance for
others
Employability
skills
• Promoting
punctuality and
dependability
• Set and meet
priorities or
deadlines
• Preparedness and
flexibility
• A positive work
ethic
Health and
wellbeing
• Mental,
emotional, social
and physical
wellbeing
• Lifestyle choices
and changes
• Physical
education,
physical activity
• Food and its
impact on health
• Issues associated
with substance
misuse
• Relationships,
sexual health and
parenthood
The changes we’ve been making
•
From the discrete to the integrated delivery and assessment of core skills
•
The harmonisation of the planning of learning to incorporate essential skill development
•
Overarching essential skill development through programme essential skill sets
•
Enabling students to assess their own essential skill development and to gauge that
against the team’s planning and delivery
•
Providing dedicated staff whose principle role is to facilitate essential skills development
•
Ensuring that effective essential skills development is a central feature of professional
review and reflection
•
The development of an essential skills curriculum unit and the participation of all staff
members in promoting effective essential skills throughout the college
•
Incorporating essential skills development into every aspect of our quality review process
Where we’ve been; where we’re going
Our main focus has been on
creating a cultural shift in
respect of the delivery of
learning and teaching
Our new focus is to
consolidate, reinforce and
enrich this cultural shift by
attending to the design of
learning experiences at the
earliest of stages
That’s where our Curriculum for Excellence toolkit comes it!
Purpose of the toolkit
Designed to help in the exploration and analysis of the
curriculum design principles and how they relate to:
curriculum unit; department
programmes; subjects; levels; year group
and individual subject units or topics
The result of this process feeds into and informs:
programme design;
self evaluation process;
and operational planning process.
Challenge
and
enjoyment
Breadth
Coherence
Depth
Relevance
Progression
Personalisation and
choice
Breadth (range of experiences)
Opportunities for a broad range of experiences?
Do any experiences form a dominant part within the
programme?
How much of a ‘part’ do the various experiences play in
the whole programme?
Are these opportunities organised so that learners will
learn and develop through a variety of contexts within
both the classroom and other aspects of college life?
None
Minor
Significant
Practical
experiences
(within college)
Theory
Work experience:
real or simulated
Enterprise
Guest speakers
Social
networking/
collaboration
Outdoor learning
Other
Depth (thinking, learning and understanding)
Are learners required to:
remember facts,
explain,
interpret the information in another way,
analyse through critical thinking and problem solving,
apply their learning in another context?
What is the level of complexity of the thinking?
There should be opportunities to
develop their full capacity for different
types of thinking and learning.
Depth (thinking, learning and understanding)
• Instruction
Gaining organised
knowledge
Development of
intellectual and
practical skills
• Coaching
• Exercises
• Supervised
practise
• Deeper
questioning
• Active
participation
Enlarged
understanding of
ideas and values
Gaining organised
knowledge:
• How to...
• Facts'n'figures
• Theories
• What is it...
• Guidelines
• Structure
• Rules
Development of
intellectual and
practical skills:
• Practical workshops
• Applying theory
• Putting into context
• Learners articulate/
express in own words
• Creating
• Using
• Developing
• Solving problems
• Carrying out a task
• Prepare, produce,
implement
Enlarged
understanding of
ideas and values:
• Exploring different
contexts
• Seeing the bigger
picture
• 'Transferable'
• Stretch
• Why?; What's next?
• Impact on society
• Reference to own lives
• Sustainability
• Global
• Added value in the unit
eg graded unit or
projects
Progression
Learners are to experience continuous progression in their learning within a
single curriculum framework. Each stage should build upon earlier knowledge
and achievements. They should be able to progress at a rate which meets
their needs and aptitudes, and keep options open so that routes are not
closed off too early. There should be progression in the experiences and
outcomes from level to level.
Scheduling within the programme
is meaningful in supporting the
progression of:
Able to progress at a rate which
meets their needs and aptitudes?
skills, ability, required knowledge?
Is each stage building upon earlier
knowledge and achievements?
Is there progression in the E&Os
from level to level?
Personalisation and choice
(flexibility)
Respond to individual needs and support particular aptitudes and talents.
Increasing opportunities for exercising responsible personal choice as they
progress. Once they have achieved suitable levels of attainment across a wide
range of areas, the choice should become as open as possible. Safeguards to
ensure that choices are soundly based and lead to successful outcomes.
Personal choice
Personalisation
Safeguards
… within units
Adaptations to
individual needs
Safeguards to ensure
choices are soundly
based
… within programme
Respond to individual
aptitudes and talents
Safeguards to ensure
choices lead to
successful outcomes
Relevance
They should understand the purposes of their activities. They
should see the value of what they are learning and its relevance
to their lives - present and future.
Purpose
Are purposes of
activities clearly
explained?
Value
Content
Experience
Value punctuated
throughout the
learning?
Is the learning/
topics made
relevant to their
present lives?
Is learning related
to work or life skills
through activities
Do learners see the
value of what they
are learning?
Is the learning/
topics made
relevant to their
future lives?
eg: site visits, guest
speakers, employer
talks, work
experience (real or
simulated);
industry links?
Coherence
Coherence
Taken as a whole, learning activities should combine to form a
coherent experience.
There should be:
clear links between the different aspects of their learning
opportunities for extended activities which draw different strands of
learning together.
Practical experiences
(within college)
Project work, graded
units, added value
units
None
Minor
Work experience:
real or simulated
Enterprise
Significant
Challenge and enjoyment
(
challenging, engaging, motivating, encourage high aspirations, ambitions for all)
At all stages, aptitudes and abilities:
appropriate level of challenge to achieve their potential
active in their learning
opportunities to develop and demonstrate their creativity.
support to sustain their effort
demonstrating
skills
role playing
analysing
evaluating
applying
linking
presenting
comparing and
contrasting
explaining
reflecting
developing
creativity
demonstrating
creativity
Benefits of the CfE toolkit
Exploration
Reflection
Dialogue
A tool with 7 Lenses
Focus
Stimulate ideas
Identify what is important/ significant
Quality improvements and enhancements
Universal
Curriculum manager, programme team, lecturer
Curriculum unit, Programme, Unit, Session
Sooh Sweeney
[email protected]
John Muir
[email protected]