Radical learning reform unveiled

[Ali P]

The headline is misleading because this is about something called the Curriculum for Excellence, which applies to Scotland but is scarily reminsicent of other so called 'reforms' which involve the same old state imposed outcomes.

This Herald article, which describes CfE as an attempt to

move teaching away from rote learning and make it more relevant

also reports

As part of ongoing reform of what is taught in primary and secondary schools - known as the Curriculum for Excellence - a series of documents have been produced to show what children should know in each subject during their school life.

Sounds like a conflicting set of messages to me.

Meanwhile the SNP govt is either oblivious to what is actually behind the 'reform' or is happy to go along with it. The Scottish Education Secretary, Fiona Hyslop, is said to have

welcomed publication of the new outcomes, which cover eight areas - languages, maths, health and wellbeing, sciences, history, geography and modern studies. They also cover literacy and numeracy.

"We are marking the reform of the Scottish education system as we prepare our young people for the challenges of life in the 21st Century," said Ms Hyslop. "The reforms are intended to raise standards by improving learning and teaching with literacy and numeracy a key focus."

I despair. I really do.

[OrganisedPauper]

Same sh*t, different day.

[Sheila Struthers]

This is a very nasty wolf in fluffy baa baa gear.

As someone who has been following the development og the CfE on and off from the start and as someone who really wants this to be able to deliver the kind of education described , I could rant on for a very long time about this but won't

Curriculum for Excellence - Aims, purposes and principles

All sounds lovely, but how they going to assess it?



This is how: Curriculum for Excellence - Experiences and outcomes

Literacy: http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/Images/...cm4-539867.pdf

Health and Wellbeing: http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/Images/...cm4-540031.pdf

etc, etc....

Have just realised that the press release was referring to the fact that these "outcomes" are now in pretty PDFs and no longer in draft form.

The health and well-being ones have been "shrunk" by the use of loads of code refs which make them slightly more difficult to understand imo - should have kept a copy of the draft ones

Anyway, promised I'd save you from a rant....



Sheila

[Diane]

All words really, isn't it?

Like the revolving houses (to follow the sun) that Britain was going to build people when they came back from the Second World War.

Diane

[Crank Parent]

The Curriculum for Excellence isn't new. It was in place in my kids ex-school years ago!