Curriculum

published:  August 2009

What should children and young people learn? The Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency (QCDA) describes the curriculum as “the entire planned learning experience of a young person”, which includes skills, values and personal development in addition to what is to be taught and learnt.  But what does this mean in practice?  The key factor is the design of the curriculum at school level. It is the point at which the curriculum meets the learner that is crucial and it is what teachers do that really matters.

Evidence from research featured in this Research for Teachers (RfT) summary suggests that learning and achievement flourished when it involved some or all of the following:

• planning for learning that is “context based”
• connecting the curriculum with young people’s experiences of home and community
• planning for learning experiences that structure dialogue in group work and encourage collaborative learning
• designing content and experiences that identify and build on pupils’ existing understandings
• flexible learning across different areas of the curriculum, and
• ensuring teachers have excellent professional development in subject knowledge to enable them to create learning experiences of this kind.

This month’s RfT summary shows just how wide-ranging the curriculum can be. Drawing on research findings from eleven robust studies* we give examples of effective curriculum planning and delivery that not only covers subject material, but helps to challenge the most able and talented, close gaps in attainment, promote working together and, by motivating pupils, encourage lifelong learning. We also present six case studies which illustrate ways in which teachers have successfully incorporated the six key features into curriculum design in different contexts.

*The studies were selected from an international review of individual studies from systematic research reviews’ published by QCDA in 2008 (see further reading).