What do we want our learners to learn and why?
Curriculum for Wales is a purpose led curriculum with a focus on learning. Curriculum for Wales states that a 'content focused curriculum does not guarantee meaningful learning, only certain topics are covered to some extent'. Schools and practitioners must understand the shift from content to meaningful learning.
This framework gives schools and practitioners the autonomy to select learning for their learners that should enable them to realise the four purposes of the curriculum.
All curriculum development should have a clear purpose in mind. A clear understanding of the purpose of learning and why specific knowledge, skills and experiences are important helps focus the planning of progress and learning and teaching.
The Journey to curriculum roll-out 2021
The shift from content to learning
The most important thing to understand about Curriculum for Wales is that it is purpose driven and this means that the emphasis moves from what learners know to the people that they will grow up to be. A school's curriculum should promote learning that will equip all learners for ongoing learning, work and life. With the shift in Curriculum for Wales moving from content to learning it is really important that we have a good understanding of what that actually means.
Response and Reflection
What's the learning ?
Here is a photograph of a children's choir performing on stage in an Eisteddfod. Without referring to the specificity of the content or the activity, what's the deep learning taking place?
Some examples of learning could be developing resilience and confidence, communication skills, refining, persistence, respect, belonging or diversity. These are examples of learning that can't develop in one activity or in one lesson; It is learning which needs to be enhanced and deepened, transferred from one context to another over a period of time.
You may also be able to identify more. However, what should be clear is the shift in focus from the task itself to the meaningful learning. The following questions may help you to define and identify the learning when designing your curriculum.
What is the learning here?
Why is this learning important for our learners?
Does it enable them to progress towards the four purposes?
How do we go about selecting learning for our curriculum and how do we decide what our learners need to learn?
During the engagement phase of curriculum development you will have engaged with the curriculum materials and had time for sense-making. Schools may have updated their vision for learning, and it is suggested that you co-construct a vision for learning, which you may have written as a statement if that was helpful, which captures what you want for your learners in the Expressive Arts.
We suggested that you:
seek inspiration from the four purposes and their characteristics,
gain a deeper understanding of the vision of the Expressive Arts and understand what is new in the guidance,
explore the needs of your learners and the needs of your communities
consider the importance of the arts to support well-being
This vision for learning in the Expressive Arts could be your starting point for selecting the learning.
What do our learners need to learn in the Expressive Arts?
Your vision for the Expressive Arts
How can your co-constructed vision for learning inform your selection of learning and identify what your learners need to learn?
Response and Reflection
Consider how your vision can provide a starting point from which you can begin to identify what your learners need to learn.
Your vision for learning represents the aspirations for your learners and therefore you need to refer to it throughout the design process. Analysis of the vision will identify key aspects of learning that you may choose to permeate through your curriculum for the Expressive Arts. An example vision, created for the purpose of this task, is used in the response and reflection exercise below.
Looking at this worked example, which expresses the aspirations for learners in the Expressive Arts, we can pick out elements of the vision and formulate questions that provide the basis for developing an element of learning.
How can we develop creativity in our learners?
What knowledge skills and experiences will learners need to express themselves which will support their resilience, confidence and self-esteem?
What experiences do they need to appreciate different cultures, traditions, heritage and societies?
How does the identified learning support learners to progress towards the four purposes?
The vision for our learners is for them to be creative, imaginative and to develop confidence in expressing themselves. They will explore, create and respond to the arts as an artist and as the audience and will develop resilience, confidence and self-esteem as they do so.
All learners will gain appreciation of cultures, traditions, heritage and societies in Wales and in the world. The Expressive Arts will provide a platform to support wellbeing and engage with issues that arise and prepare to become active citizens of the 21st century.
Statements of what matters
All practitioners need to be aware of the fact that every statement of what matters includes detail that lies beneath its headline 'title' and it is here that the learning for that statement is expressed. These statements of what matters are statutory in Curriculum for Wales. The statements of what matters in each AoLE act as a ‘lens’ through which different content, topics and issues can be explored, giving practitioners the flexibility to identify those which are relevant to the needs of their learners, their school or setting and their community. Together they contribute to realising the four purposes of the curriculum. The learning in the Expressive Arts is supported by three statements of what matters and they should be considered holistically when designing a school’s curriculum. They are interdependent, with each one supporting the development of the other two.
Exploring the expressive arts is essential to developing artistic skills and knowledge and it enables learners to become curious and creative individuals.
Exploring this Area, both through their own creative work and other people’s, engages learners with genres, techniques, tools, materials and practices and enables them to become curious and creative individuals.
By exploring forms and disciplines in the expressive arts, whether through experimentation, play or formal research and inquiry, learners can develop an understanding of how the expressive arts communicate through visual, physical, verbal, musical and technological means. This exploration can also progress their understanding of how the expressive arts shape ideas and feelings. It can encourage them to develop their imagination and draw upon their own experiences, skills and talents to become creative artists themselves.
The expressive arts are also a powerful medium through which learners can explore Wales and its unique and diverse traditions, history and cultures. They can provide opportunities for learners to explore their own cultural heritage and that of other people, places and times, and through this discover how the expressive arts can be used to shape and express personal, social and cultural identities. Learners will be exposed to and explore work from diverse cultures and societies and learn about these influences, histories and impact. Learners can also explore how the expressive arts can be used to question and challenge viewpoints and be a force for personal and societal change.
Responding and reflecting, both as artist and audience, is a fundamental part of learning in the expressive arts.
Responding within the expressive arts engages the emotions and the intellect. Response may be a simple sensory reaction to artistic stimulus or a critical analysis of creative work. The ability to reflect is deepened as learners increase their knowledge and understanding of how and why creative work is developed and produced. Adopting the skills and critical vocabulary encountered in this Area can equip learners to consider creative work in a range of media, forms, genres and styles. Learning the important skills of refinement and analysis can contribute to their creative development. Learners’ resilience can also be developed when they are encouraged to identify how they can improve their work and respond to feedback from others. The act of responding encouraged by engagement in this Area challenges learners to reflect on the effectiveness of their own work and that of others, including the work of diverse artists from Wales and beyond.
Creating combines skills and knowledge, drawing on the senses, inspiration and imagination.
By engaging with this Area, learners will be given opportunities to be innovative and bold, to create individual work and to develop their own identity as artists in Wales. This learning and experience can foster resilience and flexibility to overcome challenges. Creating in the expressive arts embraces a range of activities including planning, drafting, designing, making, choreographing, shaping, composing and editing. Creating requires learners to develop and demonstrate control of a range of skills and an application of knowledge. During the creative process learners communicate through a variety of art forms or disciplines. Communication includes performing, presenting, sharing, exhibiting and producing with consideration of the audience. In this Area, learners’ engagement with the creative process can enable them to recognise opportunities to transform their ideas safely and ethically into work which has cultural and commercial value, and to use their creative skills to realise ambitions.
The Expressive Arts Area of Learning and Experience (Area) spans five disciplines: art, dance, drama, film and digital media and music. Although each discipline has its own discrete body of knowledge and skills, it is recognised that together they share the creative process of exploring, responding and creating – the creative process is the common thread.
The creative process of exploring, responding and creating are demonstrated clearly through the statements of what matters.
The statements of what matters set out the key understanding learners must develop and the mandatory cross-curricular skills.
The Journey to curriculum roll-out 2021
Response and Reflection
On the right is a task that you may want to do as an area of learning or as a school to identify the learning within the statements of what matters for the Expressive Arts. One of them has been done and the selected learning has been underlined; do you agree with the learning that has been identified? The selected learning is not about context, or themes, or topics – the selected learning is broad and guides you towards the essence of that selected learning. It allows for progression and can be used to develop discipline specific knowledge, skills and experiences and will enable learners to make progress towards the four purposes.
This activity will support you to identify what your learners need to learn within this statement. We suggest you share and compare your ideas with your colleagues and put ideas together for the learning in your curriculum.
Repeat the process with the other statements of what matters, and you are sure to see commonalities between them, which is a reflection of how interconnected they are.
One approach to this stage of curriculum design could be to create a table similar to the example provided. In this example you can clearly identify the selected learning from the statement of what matters and how this has been interpreted to consider the essence of that learning. Space has been provided for the practitioners to consider the knowledge, skills and experiences that their learners need to develop. Examples have been provided on how this learning could develop some of the characteristics of the four purposes. Click on the image to download a copy.
Next steps
As your next steps we suggest the following:
Revisit your AoLE vision
Select learning from your AoLE vision
Select learning from each statement of what matters
You will want to discuss the best way to record and represent the learning that you have selected.
Finally it will be important that you share your learning with other AoLEs.
You will probably find that there are commonalities in the learning with other AoLEs. This learning offers opportunities for collaboration and to build connections across the curriculum in order to create a holistic and meaningful learning experience for the learner.
It is important that you invest time together as teams to develop this step of selecting the learning in the Expressive Arts and consider the knowledge, skills and experiences that will support your learners to progress towards the four purposes of Curriculum for Wales.