The NCCA and Curriculum Planning SDPI Summer School June 2005 John Hammond NCCA

Outline

• NCCA: what it does and how it works • Some thinking on curriculum and assessment development • Some thoughts on environmental factors in curriculum and assessment development • The planning process we use • Featuring – key questions and implications for schools

Rationale for the CEB/NCCA Establishment of the Curriculum and Examinations Board (CEB) “…to broaden the social base of decision making so that the process of selecting knowledge, skill or experience for inclusion on the national curriculum will address the common good.” Logan and O’Reilly (1985 )

Functions of the NCCA

 Advise the Minister on curriculum for early childhood, primary and post-primary schools, and on assessment practices in schools  Review of the curriculum  Special educational needs  Effective transition from primary to post-primary  Review and advise on the in-service needs of teachers  Promote and conduct/commission research  Promote equality of access to education, particularly gender equity

The Current Work of the NCCA • Moving from occasional, large-scale curriculum development and reform to continuous, rolling review • An increased focus on generic system issues – SEN, interculturalism, assessment and reporting • Currently in review and development phase • Increased research profile

The staff

• Chief Executive (1) • Deputy Chief Executives (2) • Directors, Curriculum and Assessment (6) • Education Officers Full-time, 5 yr secondment (6) • Other Education Officers contract/secondment (4) • Admin team (8) • Information Specialist/Manager (1) • Part-time/ Occasional (33)

Elements of NCCA Curriculum Planning • Initiation • Scoping • Consultation • The Research Phase • Processing • Approval • Implementation

Representative structures • Council (direct reporting) • Primary, Junior Cycle and Senior Cycle Coordinating Committees (advisory role) • Special Focus Committees / Boards of Studies • Curriculum and Course Committees for subjects and curriculum areas (developmental role) • Working Groups (technical executive role )

Who is represented?

• Department of Education and Science • State Examinations Commission • Parents • Teachers • School Management • Business • Relevant bodies e.g. subject associations • Higher Education (Senior Cycle) • Expertise as appropriate • Designated Bodies (under Statutory Council)

Representation issues • Some partners are more powerful than others • Familiarity breeds ???

• Representatives reflecting the policy of the body ad the views of the members they are representing • Representatives informing/influencing the policy of the body they are representing • Undertaking an effective Consultation Process on major documents/reports and on syllabuses • Role/nature of relationship with particular partners e.g. business/industry, Department of Education and Science

From the perspective of schools, how has curriculum development by consensus served us?

Some thoughts on curriculum • Curriculum is not ‘neutral’ • It is a social, cultural and political construction • It is usually - and should be - contested • Direct influence of the NCCA applies in the curriculum as envisaged • Influence on the curriculum as implemented and mediated by schools/teachers is less direct

Some thoughts on curriculum • How partnership plays out influences curriculum discourse and curriculum policy (Gleeson 2004) – Consensualism leads to fragmentation – Loose curriculum discourse – Quick-fix reform – Poor implementation processes and realities • Trends in NCCA thinking – Seeing the curriculum as a managed and planned process – Seeing the point of ‘mediation’ as critical – Moving towards ‘big-picture building’ as the basis of reform

What are the factors we need to address to ensure that the gap between the rhetoric and the reality of curriculum change is narrowed ?

Some thoughts on assessment Traditional assessment • Standardised competitive comparative assessment • Hierarchical – stratified, sequenced, graded knowledge and tests • Belief in generalisability of results • Happens after the learning has taken place • Links to regulated selection Some possibilities?

• Assessment as integral support of learning progress • Descriptive, quality-focus • Aimed at improving social relations between teacher and student through sharing information • Democratic and transformative purposes • Collective and individual outcomes

Kelleghan on Assessment 2001

It is ironic that at a time when higher standards of achievement, such as deep conceptual understanding, an interest in and commitment to learning, a valuing of education, and student confidence in their capacities and attributes are being proposed for all students that the means that are being adopted to meet the objective are likely to to inhibit rather than facilitate its attainment…… …..the greatest potential for using assessment to improve the quality of education would seem to lie in the improvement of teachers’ assessment skills…

Should/how can we begin to see assessment as, in the first instance, an essential tool of the learner, the teacher and the school….rather than the state?

Developments on the horizon… • Rolling review and evaluation of the revised Primary Curriculum • Multi-stranded review, development and research activity at junior cycle • Proposals for the future development of senior cycle education • Curriculum area review – business, languages, mathematics, guidance • Guidelines on SEN, ICT, Interculturalism

Environmental Factors • • The speed of globalisation and its twin demands – ‘difference’ and ‘complexity’ • Marketisation of education • Personalisation of education – the individual or the common good?

• Inequality and the lack of a strong commitment to addressing it • Generally, responding to ‘imperatives’ • Insufficient investment in education

What does the future hold for the Irish education system? Will it become… a catalyst for change?

a counterpoint to change? a casualty of change?

Elements of NCCA Curriculum Review • Initiation • Scoping • Consultation • The Research Phase • Processing • Approval • Implementation

Initiation

• Ministerial correspondence • DES • A redirection of existing work • Environmental/contextual • Public outcry • ‘slow burn’ issue • NCCA strategic plans/remit • Council

Scoping 1

• Taking account of context – Initiator and why initiated – Environmental, organisational and C/A contexts • Establishing scale/size and quality of review – Linked to initiation and resources – Relevance to enabling structures used • Clarifying purpose/s – The less clarified – the greater the expectation – Essential for organisation, staff and enabling structures involved

Scoping 2

• Clarifying the intended outcomes and outputs – Particular links to processing, approval and implementation • Establishing a rough timescale – Limited ‘windows of opportunity’ – Being strategic • Estimating approximate costs – Human and material – Linked to all other elements of review

Scoping 3

• Charting an initial master plan of the phases and stages of the review – Design? Consultation? Research? Processing?

– Linking outcomes to the sequencing of elements of the review • Outcome of scoping often set out in background paper or review proposal • Plan must be flexible and agile

Key Questions on Initiation and Scoping

How to handle the fine line between the feasible and the fantastic…..?

Who scopes? Who counts in scoping?

How to scope for flexibility and agility?

Consultation – Why consult?

Statutory responsibility To inform curriculum and assessment advice To establish and build consensus To achieve buy-in for policy Initiatives To engage and empower stakeholders

Stakeholders • • • • • Teachers/teaching bodies School management Further & Higher Ed.

DES Business

Who is consulted?

Greater emphasis on • • • • Parents Students Community & voluntary sector The school as community

Documents Documents Documents Documents Documents Documents Documents Paper-based consultation Still the preferred method for major Developments and proposals

Meetings Meetings Meetings Meetings Meetings Meetings Meetings Conferences & seminars Consultative Committees Public meetings Bilateral meetings Focus Groups etc.

Face-to-face A strong format for direct communication

International comparisons Greater use of ...

Research The Media

Technology Technology Technology Technology Technology Technology Technology

online survey online forum e-mail responses

Increasingly online

Bringing technology and face-to-face together A new way to entice young people to enter into a dialogue with the local Council to discuss their vision for the future...

Ideas Ideas Oldham’s ‘Think’ Bubble

Lessons of Consultation

• Clear definition, time-scale and budget • Advance programme identifying all consultation activities • Mix the modes • Exploit new technology • Take account of the needs of stakeholders • Importance of capacity-building • Integrity and credibility • Real engagement, not tokenism

Strengths and weaknesses of the NCCA’s consultation process? How should schools ‘weight’ the strength of different voices in consultations with the NCCA?

How can we engage marginalised groups and voices more effectively?

Implications for schools • Greater curricular choice and flexibility – creative

programmes of study

• Wider range of assessment approaches, modes and

methods Attention to

• Integration of a wider range of learners • Engagement with cross-curricular or integrated

curriculum dimensions

• Attention to the learning culture and environment –

independent learning, different settings

• Centrality of curriculum planning, professional

development, educational guidance

Stephen Ball

An…unstoppable flood of closely interrelated reform ideas is permeating and reorienting education systems in diverse social and political locations…The novelty of this epidemic of reform is that it does not simply change what people, as educators, scholars and researchers do, it changes who they are.