If students were in charge of the curriculum...

In our next essay on equipping young people for a rapidly changing world, academic Bill Law refers to a recent piece of blue-skies work commissioned by QCA which recommends having slots when the timetable is put aside so that students and teachers can work together on topics of shared interest. In this ‘set aside’ time, academic and wellbeing specialists can work with motivated students on the ‘knowing how’ as well as the (more traditional) ‘knowing what’.

Allowing students to shape their own learning in this way has the potential to help them develop their capacity for decision-making, critical thinking, risk-taking and enquiry skills. It is also likely to make their learning much more relevant to their current lives and interests. As Bill says, we need to ensure that “learning reminds students of their lives and, conversely, that their lives remind them of learning”.

But if the students were in charge of the curriculum, what would they study? And would their choices help to prepare them for a rapidly changing world?

As always, I’m keen to hear your thoughts.

Comments

[tina]

the students will be the creators and the consumers of this rapidly changing world......they should be enabled by the system not molded by it.

[Bill]

People in education are more-and-more aware of the need to listen to students’ voice and to respond to individual needs. But while teaching is for exams, neither students nor teachers have much room for manoeuvre. That is why we need set-aside places in the timetable, where students and teachers can work as partners. I want to see them working together on what is worth learning, why it is of any value, and – as Tina says – how people are best enabled to grasp it.
Bill

[Nathan Holford]

Just finished my A-levels last year and totally agree with this idea. Having a specific time allocated to non-exam related working would have been extremely welcome, yet better would be for each student to be in charge (with guidance) of their own curriculum.
It's much more likely enthuse students about their subjects. An exemplar of this perhaps is in History - many of my friends complained about having to study the Italian Unification rather than Vikings or Women in the Tudor Society and it was these students who came off worse in the exams.
Naturally, the school and examination system would have to be radically changed to accomodate each student's bespoke curriculum. Perhaps online learning could facilitate classes of students with similar interests dispersed across the UK?
Will be interesting to see if, and when, this changes.

[Bill Law]

The pressures on teachers are pretty strong. They expect to be valued for good results in exams and tests. Doing some of their work in unfamiliar slots, shared with others, will not come easily to all. So this idea is going to need support from students and their families, as well as from education big-wigs. That’s why your support is important, Nathan. And you’re right, the net will be a resource. But we need ‘Curriculum 2.0’ to match ‘Web 2.0’.