Curriculum Coherence by Design

Dr. Anna Walshe, National Council for Curriculum and Assessment.

Significant changes in society require learners to have a wide, adaptive knowledge base and understanding to enable them to be active participants in the communities in which they live and work. Increasingly, priorities in education focus not only on overall educational performance, but also on the extent to which school systems are serving the needs of diverse learners. This paper will illustrate how recent curriculum developments in Ireland are are responding to societal changes and to the needs of an increasingly diverse range of learners. Design and development of curricula that are accessible and relevant for learners in all socio-economic groups, as well those with special educational needs, is central to to educational reform in Ireland.

In Ireland, curriculum describes all of the complex factors that contribute to the planning of an educational program; it includes the philosophy and rationale, as well as all of the other factors that contribute to learning. Syllabus describes an overview of course content and lists what content to be taught. Specification describes a systematic representation of the content, described as learning outcomes which are broad statements of what young people should know and be able to do at the end of a stage of education, rather than statements of content to be mastered.

As part of the reform in education, Ireland went from describing curriculum as syllabuses to describing them as specifications; in doing this, curriculum design has shifted towards framing education in terms of learners and their development, rather than in terms of what content is to be taught. The centrality of the learner is emphasised throughout the specifications, with flexibility of teaching and learning approaches is built-in; this flexibility results in a level of autonomy for teachers that previously did not exist. The challenge for curriculum designers is to support this professional space that has been afforded to teachers with coherent, well designed curricula so that they can engage in meaningful curriculum development processes at the local, class-room level. Teachers have a more holistic and coherent practice when they engage with learning outcomes as part of their professional learning (Priestley & Drew, 2016). If the connection between learning outcomes, content and processes is clear, and the relationship between curriculum components is consistent, it is more likely that teachers’ practice will remain connected to the big ideas of curriculum as envisaged by the developers and policy makers, rather than becoming a tick box of coverage of content (Kelly, 2009).

Through careful consideration and structuring of all of the components that go towards designing a curriculum, including professional learning and the nature of the support for teachers, new curricula provide opportunities for learners to use existing knowledge (knowledge that has its origins in education) to build social knowledge (knowledge that has its origins in experience). This paper will consider how recently designed curricula in Ireland have attempted to reduce reductionism and guide teachers and learners to understand how knowledge that is specific to education in a particular discipline can be developed within a social constructivist framework.

References

Kelly, A. V. (2009). The Curriculum:Theory and Practice (6th ed.). Sage.

Priestley, M., & Drew, V. (2016). Teachers as agents of curriculum change: closing the gap between purpose and practice. In European Conference for Educational Research, Dublin, 23-26 September 2016. Dublin, Ireland. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309717743_Priestley_M_Drew_V_2016_Teachers_as_agents_of_curriculum_change_closing_the_gap_between_purpose_and_practice_Presented_at_European_Conference_for_Educational_Research_Dublin_23-26_September_2016