‘I Was Little Then’

Should pupils with severe learning difficulties be introduced to history in the National Curriculum? Views are divided. David Banes, teacher, Rainbow School, Bedford Education Authority, and a member of the National Curriculum Development Team (SLD), and Judy Sebba, coordinator, National Curriculum Development Team (SLD), Cambridge Institute of Education, are exploring access to history. They describe how the use of personal video material can help some pupils to become more aware of ‘the past’, an essential component of learnin g history.     

Planning for Their Future

Robert Ashdown (Headteacher of St. Luke's School, a special school for pupils with severe learning difficulties in Scunthorpe, Humberside) argues that although the years since the Education Reform Act have been marked by intensive curriculum development in special schools for pupils with severe learning difficulties, external pressures may have forced schools to focus on the National Curriculum at the expense of the whole curriculum. This risk remains with the new, slimmer National Curriculum. This article reports on what has been achieved and what remains to be done, particularly as regards the personal and social development of pupils.     

芬兰《幼儿教育和保育国家课程指导》的内容与启示

《幼儿教育和保育国家课程指导》是芬兰政府颁布的指导芬兰幼教工作的纲领性文件。芬兰的幼儿教育和保育强调尊重儿童的内在价值,为儿童发展提供支持。在课程实施中体现公平性、整体性、集体性、环境舒适性、快乐性、语言中心等原则:课程内容主要包括数学、自然科学、社会-历史、艺术、道德和宗教一哲学等六个方面。芬兰《幼儿教育和保育国家课程指导》重视保障体系的建构,关注地方差异,强调政策的弹性,对我国具有借鉴意义。     

Teaching subjects to pupils with profound and multiple learning difficultiesConsiderations for the new Framework

Nicola Grove, who lectures in speech and language therapy and works in a school for pupils with severe and profound learning difficulties, and Nick Peacey, Director of the Special Educational Needs Joint Initiative for Training (SENJIT) at the Institute of Education, discuss the development of a framework for teaching National Curriculum subjects to pupils with profound learning difficulties through discussion with mainstream specialists.     

A Jigsaw Approach to Group Work

Using group work as a way of meeting children's individual learning needs is becoming more widespread in a variety of schools. Richard Rose, head of Wren Spinney School, Kettering, Northamptonshire LEA, and a member of the National Curriculum Development Team (SLD) at Cambridge Institute of Education, describes a strategy for promoting group work in schools for pupils with severe learning difficulties.     

The Climate Emergency and the Transformed School

Education in frugality is less important for young people in the climate emergency than pressurising governments to act. Schools can help in this directly, as well as indirectly by passing on the necessary understanding. This understanding is interdisciplinary as well as disciplinary, but schools in England at least have always been too attached to the latter – as shown by the meagre attention given to climate change in the National Curriculum. A wider problem has been the teaching profession's attachment to traditional ways, a problem shared by other professions. Internet learning, for instance, is challenging the traditional assumption, also found mutatis mutandis in law and medicine, that teaching is face-to-face. The urgency of climate change means that significant changes in traditional professional attitudes may first occur in education. One way young people in England can act is by campaigning to take the National Curriculum out of ministers’ hands and setting up a National Curriculum Commission. On climate change, we might expect it to favour a mix of (1) disciplinary and interdisciplinary, (2) face-to-face and internet-based, (3) top-down and collaborative learning and (4) whole-class and personalised learning.     

Creativity as a twenty-first-century competence: an exploratory study of provision and reality

Recently, creativity has begun to be talked about as a twenty-first-century competency [UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation). 2006. The World Conference on Arts Education: Building Creative Capacities for the 21st Century: Working Document, Lisbon, Portugal, 6–9 March 2006. Lisbon: UNESCO]. Several government-endorsed publications have also stressed the importance of fostering creativity in the classroom [Robinson Report. (1999). Great Britain Department for Education and Employment. Department for Culture, Media and Sport. National Advisory Committee on Creativity and Cultural Education. All Our Futures: Creativity and Culture in Education. London: DfEE; DfES. (2004). Excellence and Enjoyment: A Strategy for Primary School. London: DfES; QCA. (2005). Find It! Promote It! London: QCA]. This study aims to explore opportunities to foster creativity following the new National Curriculum’s introduction (DfE (Department for Education). [2013a. National Curriculum for Art & Design. London: DfE; DfE. 2013b. National Curriculum for History. London: DfE; DfE. 2013c. National Curriculum for Science. London: DfE]). It explores provision and attempts to go beyond this into daily classroom practices by interviewing teachers. Analysis indicates a wide variation in terms of in-school provision. Certain schemes of work may be more successful at fostering creativity and that relying purely on the National Curriculum can hinder opportunities for creativity. Teacher responses indicate that they value creativity but find it hard to accurately describe incidents of creativity being fostered and teaching creatively is often confused for teaching for creativity. Training has been designed to address this, although a pervading emphasis on schools’ performativity will mean creativity is not embedded into daily learning to the extent it can be a twenty-first-century competence unless there is a major policy change.     

Book Reviews

The Assessment of Special Educational Needs: International Perspectives
The National Curriculum: Access for Pupils with Autism
Social Education and Personal Development
Modern Languages for All
Curriculum Considerations in Inclusive Classrooms
Child Protection: A Whole Curriculum Approach
Ethics, Ethnicity and Education
The Regular Education Initiative     

The National Assessment in Science at Key Stage 3 in England and Wales and its Impact on Teaching and Learning

The development of a framework for the content and assessment of National Curriculum science in England and Wales, following the 1988 Education Reform Act, is described, with a particular emphasis on assessment at the end of Key Stage 3 (14-year-old pupils). The University of Exeter evaluations of Key Stage 3 science assessments in 1995 and 1996 are outlined and the findings concerning the reliability and validity of the testing are presented. The views of science teachers on the impact of this assessment on teaching and learning are summarised, with particular reference to the structure, delivery and interpretation of the National Curriculum, the setting of pupils, continuity and progression, the preparation of pupils for the tests and teacher assessment.     

中学语文素养发展性评价的尝试

语文新课程标准将“全面提高学生的语文素养”放在课程基本理念的首位。为贯彻“立足过程,促进发展”这一基础教育课程改革教学评价的核心理念,真正科学地评价学生的语文素养,天津市河东区教育中心进行了有益的探索与实践,建立了一套以学生学习活动全过程评价为主的发展性评价体系,对学生逐步形成良好的学习习惯、提升语文素养起到了激励和促进作用。     

'We're Doing History'— What Does It Mean?

Is it credible to claim 'We're doing history' in schools for pupils with severe learning difficulties or is it merely playing with words? Dr Jean Ware and Nick Peacey believe the claim can be justified through the use of the programmes of study for history in the National Curriculum. Dr Ware is now at the School of Education, University of Wales, Cardiff, and Nick Peacey is at the Department of Educational Psychology and Special Educational Needs, Institute of Education, London University.     

日本新修订高中学习指导要领与理科课程的新变化

2009年3月日本文部科学省公布新修订《高中学习指导要领》,高中阶段的理科课程设置结构、课程类型、修业方式均出现了新的变化,不仅新设了科学与人类生活和理科课题研究两门综合性的课程,而且物理、化学、生物、地学各科课程的目标、内容构成以及学习方式也在新课程理念的影响下发生了新的变化。     

Speech, Language and the New Curriculum

The National Curriculum provides a stimulus for teachers and speech and language therapists to work together but issues of assessment need to be tackled next. Carol Miller, Faculty of Education and Continuing Studies, Birmingham University, reports on interviews with 13 teachers about the National Curriculum.     

How should we define Exceptions?

'Modifying' or 'disapplying' the National Curriculum – what do these terms mean? Neither is clearly defined in the Education Reform Act, statutory instruments or circulars. Yet both begin to apply from this month onwards as the National Curriculum is introduced into schools. Guidance from the Department of Education and Science is urgently needed, suggests Brahm Norwich, lecturer in the Department of Educational Psychology and Special Educational Needs, Institute of Education, London University.     

How Accessible is Level 1 Maths?

Some teachers have been expressing doubts about the appropriateness of the early levels of National Curriculum mathematics targets for children with learning difficulties. Dr Brian O'Toole, lecturer in special education, and Pamela O'Toole, also at the Department of Education, Manchester University, report a study of 99 children in special and mainstream schools which supports these doubts. Many of the seven-year-olds were unable to succeed at Level 1 in number and will need structured preliminary programmes to do so.     

基础教育呼唤高师学科教学中融入探究式学习——以物理学科为例

探究式学习是世界各国普遍认同和实施的一种新的课程学习方式。在中学实施探究式学习难以落到实处,其中最主要的原因是教师不能有效指导。高等师范院校担负着培养中学师资的重任,要根据基础教育发展的诉求,将探究式学习列入课程计划并结合学科特点在教学中有计划地实施。教学实践表明:在高师物理教学中实施以物理课题研究为载体的探究式学习,不仅是当务之急,而且在操作层面上也是完全可行的。     

Primary‐Secondary Transfer after the National Curriculum

Much recent comment by the Department of Education and Science (DES) and National Curriculum Council (NCC) has suggested that continuity difficulties will largely disappear as a result of the introduction of the National Curriculum. The National Curriculum, however, does not address the main issue — lack of communication between teachers. Any effect it has is likely to be caused by changes in ways in which primary schools are organised to deliver the curriculum — changes which will bring them closer in ethos to the secondary sector.     

《义务教育英语课程标准》十年修订与反思

《义务教育英语课程标准》（实验稿）自2001年试验以来,经过十年的实践、摸索与反思,对我国义务教育英语教学产生了深远的影响。《义务教育英语课程标准》（2011年版）在秉承实验稿基本理念的基础上进行了合理的修订,更加贴近《国家中长期教育改革和发展规划纲要（2010—2020年）》的精神和我国英语教育的实际情况。     

Special Education in Parliament

Information about the future shape of the National Curriculum can be gleaned from replies to questions in the House of Commons over recent months, and also about the numbers and percentage of pupils with statements of special educational needs, for whom the National Curriculum can potentially be modified or disapplied, under the terms of the Education Reform Act. The Bill received Royal Assent on July 29.