Curriculum Design
In Ofsted’s curriculum research, three types of approach towards curriculum design (as characterised below by Spielman, 2018) were identified: knowledge-led, knowledge-engaged and skills-led. We have chosen for our curriculum to be knowledge-engaged.
A knowledge-engaged curriculum
- is less reliant on curriculum theory but still maintains knowledge as a focus
- believes that knowledge underpins and enables the application of skill
- has a slightly stronger emphasis on cross-curricular teaching than in a knowledge-led curriculum in order to make the curriculum relevant and meaningful to pupils and for putting knowledge into context
“Most of the curriculum leaders from the knowledge-led and knowledge-engaged schools stressed the importance of the subject as a discipline. They provided pupils with subject-specific vocabulary and knowledge that allowed them to build links and enhance their learning across other subjects.” (Spielman, 2018)
Our curriculum has been designed using the following factors to influence its development:
- A knowledge-rich curriculum is important. Based on the “Matthew effect” (the (knowledge) rich get richer and the (knowledge) poor get poorer), planning a curriculum with an emphasis on knowledge and vocabulary ensures success for all, particularly the disadvantaged. A broad curriculum supports learning in the core subjects – particularly reading, where Daniel Willingham states that “reading tests are knowledge tests in disguise” and that “teaching content IS teaching reading” (2012)
- Effective teaching is minimising the overload of working memory to maximise retention in long-term memory. “The aim of all instruction should be to improve long-term memory. If nothing has been changed in long-term memory, nothing has been learnt.” (Kirschner, Sweller & Clarke)
- Effective learning may not necessarily look the same across different ages and subjects. Poor proxies for learning (Robert Coe, 2013): students are doing lots of work; students are engaged; students are getting feedback; classroom is calm; students have given correct answers. Effective learning can only happen over an extended period of time, but indicators of effective teaching can include those listed in Rosenshine’s Principles of Instruction (2012)
- We need to focus on augmenting remembering as this is a critical skill for lifelong learning. We support children to remember an increasing amount over time: this is particularly important as knowledge underpins and enables the application of skill. It is therefore important that learning makes it to the working memory; this will not happen if:
- “over-exciting” activities are used to introduce learning rather than to consolidate it (e.g. a maths game – children are more likely to remember the rules of game rather than learn the actual maths concepts)
- the working memory is overwhelmed: stages of learning should be broken down into the smallest chunks possible
- retrieval methods aren’t used regularly: the struggle of trying to retrieve something strengthens memory.
- Building a 3D curriculum (a term defined by Clare Sealy (2017) as a curriculum that promotes remembering) is important in order to make vertical, horizontal and diagonal links:
- vertical links: ‘high yield’ concepts deliberately constructed within a subject that are encountered across year groups (for example, the concept of achievement: this can be explored through learning about Mary Seacole and her accomplishments in KS1, to the legacy of the Ancient Greeks in KLS2, to Katherine Johnson and the other ‘Hidden Figures’ in UKS2)
- horizontal links: links between subjects, commonly known as cross-curricular, or themed (for example, evolution: in UKS2 history, key figures and their theories of evolution; in science, evolution and inheritance; in RE, theories of creation)
- diagonal links: learning connected across both year groups and across subjects (for example, Mary Anning as a historical significant figure in KS1 and again as a key scientist in understanding the history of evolution UKS2)