I wrote the other day about Michael Young (and others) who introduced the notion of powerful knowledge which they argued can enable students to move beyond their own experiences. This debate is an active one in Scotland where its Curriculum for Excellence is under review and reform.
Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence is widely disparaged. So much so that it is often referred to colloquially as Curriculum for Excrement. I have not made this up! The problem lies in its focus on experience and skills at the expense of the knowledge which enables experience to be understood and skills contextualised. This focus limits the educational and life chances of those from culturally disadvantaged homes where literacy is not valued. There are a lot of these on both sides of the border.
The respected Lindsay Paterson was asked about the problems with CfE on the BBC's Today Programme last month. You can listen here for his comments.
I found Prof Paterson's talk by searching for 'curriculum for excrement', although, of course, he does not use the phrase. If you do this, all the sites that come up are for Curriculum for Excellence apart from the one linking to the BBC. Odd. You have to search for something like Curriculum for Excellence critique to see what people and institutions think. For example the OECD. And others ...
And now Wales has gone down this line as well. I dread to think what the next English (ie UK) government will come up with. It's worth remembering that the Gove reforms were a reaction to the Blair government's own venture into the debatable land of skills.
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