Developing a curriculum for the twenty-first century: the experiences of England and Northern Ireland

This article analyzes the common educational challenges faced by curriculum developers in the UK at the turn of the 21st century and the steps taken to address them by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority in England and the Council for Curriculum Examinations and Assessment in Northern Ireland. The paper explores how the solutions emerging during the three curriculum review phases of 1998–1999 and 2005–2007 in England and 2000–2004 in Northern Ireland came about largely as a result of collegial working between the two bodies. As well as considering steps taken to develop aims that would drive curriculum change and a curriculum that would address the learning needs of students in the 21st century, the article also considers the lessons learnt about managing and supporting curriculum change. Developments in England and Northern Ireland serve to illustrate that an effective curriculum needs to: articulate clearly the key aims that will shape and drive it; be sufficiently visionary and flexible to allow teachers to respond to the needs of students now and in the future; and provide on-going support to help embed and sustain change. The three are inter-related and successful curriculum development involves considering them together.

Globalisation and Societal Culture: Redefining schooling and school leadership in the twenty-first century

This paper highlights the importance of societal culture to developing theory, policy and practice within an increasingly globalising educational context. It argues that tensions exist between globalisation and societal culture and that globalisation makes the recognition of societal culture and cross-cultural similarities and differences more, not less, important. Consequently, the inclusion of societal culture as a factor in investigations covering such themes as the curriculum, teaching and learning, leadership and school-based management is seen as an imperative for the future development of comparative education. Accordingly, the first part of the paper clarifies the concept of 'globalisation'. In the second part, globalisation and societal culture are juxtaposed and the interface between them is explored. The third part offers a set of dimensions by which to gauge the influence of, and to compare, cultures. Finally, we illustrate our argument for greater cultural sensitivity by raising some key issues concerning school reform and improvement.     

What action learning is not in the twenty-first century

This article is about what action learning is in the twenty-first century. In 1983 Reg Revans explained how action learning differed from seven phenomena with which it had been confused. This article explores how action learning differs from seven further phenomena with which it is currently confused. The article details similarities and differences between action learning and self-directed teams, coaching, focus groups, action research, seminars, problem-based learning and experiential learning.     

Testing students under cognitive capitalism: knowledge production of twenty-first century skills

Abstract

Scholars studying the global governance of education have noted the increasingly important role corporations play in educational policy making. I contribute to this scholarship by examining the Assessment and Teaching of twenty-first century skills (ATC21S?) project, a knowledge production apparatus operating under cognitive capitalism. I analyze how ATC21S gains symbolic power and authority as it defines what counts in education through three key processes: (1) By legitimizing and disseminating new knowledge about twenty-first century skills; (2) By implementing this knowledge concretely in schools and (3) By embedding this new knowledge within a global alliance. I suggest that the knowledge produced by ATC21S in calculating and measuring twenty-first century skills contributes to the capture of living labor and its reproduction for the knowledge economy through the school system.     

Measure of opportunity: assessing equitable conditions to learn twenty-first century thinking skills

Learning Environments Research - Many school change efforts aim to foster conditions for the development of students’ twenty-first century skills in an equitable and comprehensive way, but...     

Authenticity in learning for the twenty-first century: bridging the formal and the informal

The paper attempts to bridge informal and formal learning by leveraging on affordance structures associated with informal environments to help learners develop social, cognitive, and metacognitive dispositions that can be applied to learning in classrooms. Most studies focus on either learning in formal or informal contexts, but this study seeks to link the two. The paper proposes three tenets to augment de-contextualized learning in schools by putting back the: (a) tacit, (b) social-collective, and (c) informal. This paper seeks to advance the argument for a consideration of how formal learning might be made more authentic by leveraging the affordances of informal learning. Two case examples are illustrated. The first case shows learners operating in a virtual environment in which??through the collaborative manipulation of terrain??adopt the epistemic frame of geomorphologists. The case seeks to illustrate how the tacit and social-collective dimensions from the virtual environment might be incorporated as part of the formal geography curriculum. In the second case, interactions between members of a school bowling team highlight the contextualized and authentic metacognitive demands placed on learners/bowlers, and how these demands are re-contextualized??through metacognitive brokering??to the formal curriculum. Productive linkages are made between informal and formal learnings and anchored through learners?? authentic experiences.     

Career learning and development: a social constructivist model for the twenty-first century

In the UK there have been several calls for new models ‘fit for purpose’ for careers work in the twenty-first century and in response, this article presents a model for career learning and development. This brings together recent theory regarding the ways in which people make career decisions throughout their lives in rapidly changing, turbulent labour markets and globalised economies. The model is articulated through the metaphor of a suspension bridge, which is used to explore and explain the ongoing dilemmas experienced by career practitioners and their clients as they seek to balance the opposing tensions that enable the bridge to fulfil its vital functions.     

High stakes testing and student perspectives on teaching and learning in the Republic of Ireland

There is now a well developed literature on the impact of high stakes testing on teaching approaches and student outcomes. However, the student perspective has been neglected in much research. This article draws on a mixed method longitudinal study of secondary students in the Republic of Ireland to explore the impact of two sets of high stakes examinations on student experiences. The analyses are based on surveys completed by 897 lower secondary students and 748 upper secondary students, along with 47 lower secondary and 53 upper secondary group interviews with students. Findings show the presence of impending high stakes exams results in increased workload for students, with many reporting pressure and stress. Throughout their schooling career, students clearly favour active learning approaches. However, for some students, particularly high-aspiring middle-class students, these views change as they approach the terminal high stakes exam, with many showing a strong preference for a more narrowly focussed approach to exam preparation. This article highlights how students shift from a position of critiquing exam-focused teaching methods as inauthentic to accepting such methods as representing ??good teaching??.     

Measuring twenty-first century skills: development and validation of a scale for in-service and pre-service teachers

A self-report scale that measures teachers’ confidence in teaching students about twenty-first century skills was developed and validated with pre-service and in-service teachers. First, 16 items were created to measure teaching confidence in six areas: information literacy, collaboration, communication, innovation and creativity, problem solving, and responsible citizenship. Then, the items were tested in two groups of pre-service teachers and two groups of in-service teachers respectively. Exploratory factor analyses and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to examine the scale’s validity and reliability. The analyses identified a three-construct scale including innovation and problem solving, collaboration, and utility of technology for pre-service teachers and a one-dimension scale, cross-functional skills, for in-service teachers. This study suggests that different scales should be used to measure in-service teachers’ and pre-service teachers’ confidence in teaching twenty-first century skills.     

Further education and skills in Northern Ireland: policy and practice in a post-conflict society

ABSTRACT

This paper contextualises the Further Education (FE) sector in Northern Ireland (NI). It outlines the specific political, social and economic influences that have shaped its position as a major but understated educational provider in what remains a highly divided educational system that is slowly transitioning in a post-conflict environment. Key policy frameworks underpinning sectoral development are described, showing how many policy initiatives have been both ‘borrowed’ from the English context and adapted to local need. The article proceeds to highlight a number of curricular and institutional innovations that have contributed to the development of a small-scale, but distinctive educational, social and economic model. The piece concludes by suggesting that the NI FE experience has the potential to contribute not only to its own specific conditions but, through its ‘policy and practice’ adaptations’, to positively influence FE policy and practice in other parts of the United Kingdom (UK) that require interventions around skills development economic growth and social cohesion.     

Schooling in Northern Ireland: Meeting the challenges of the twenty first century

Abstract

Political developments since the Good Friday Agreement (1998) have initiated and encouraged a process of change along a range of dimensions with the intention of creating a more inclusive society in Northern Ireland, which is reflective of wider global trends. Education policy is a significant element in this process. This paper highlights the ways in which current policy is attempting to address division within the education system its resultant social problems. The paper also considers the difficulties presented by educational reform and proposes that success does not necessarily lie in structural reform but more in the acceptance and promotion of diversity in the context of the curriculum.     

Using blended learning and out-of-school visits: pedagogies for effective science teaching in the twenty-first century

Background: Recent research and curriculum reforms have indicated the need for diversifying teaching approaches by drawing upon student interest and engagement in ways which makes learning science meaningful. Purpose: This study examines the integration of informal/free choice learning which occurred during learning experiences outside school (LEOS) with classroom learning using digital technologies. Specifically, the digital technologies comprised a learning management system (LMS), Moodle, which fits well with students’ lived experiences and their digital world. Design and Method: This study examines three out-of-school visits to Informal Science Institutes (ISI) using a digitally integrated fieldtrip inventory (DIFI) Model. Research questions were analysed using thematic approach emerging along with semi-structured interviews, before, during and after the visit, and assessing students’ learning experiences. Data comprised photographs, field notes, and unobtrusive observations of the classroom, wiki postings, student work books and teacher planning diaries. Results: We argue, that pre- and post-visit planning using the DIFI Model is more likely to engage learners, and the use of a digital learning platform was even more likely to encourage collaborative learning. The conclusion can also be drawn that students’ level of motivation for collaborative learning positively correlates with their improvement in academic achievement.     

A key leadership issue of the twenty-first century: Religion in schools in England,Wales and the Republic of Ireland

This article argues that engagement with religion is a key challenge for all leaders of schools in twenty-first-century multifaith societies. It outlines the historic and current context of the UK and the Republic of Ireland, and national and European policies that prioritise community cohesion in education. The functional and substantive roles of religion are considered as reflected in education, where they adjudicate power and shape values and behaviours. The article analyses data from nine schools in England, Wales and the Republic of Ireland to provide a snapshot of a range of leaders’ philosophies, policies and practice in relation to religion. The preferential attention and resources given to the dominant community are evident in some cases. It is argued that, irrespective of whether a school is affiliated to a specific religion or not, school leaders have some freedom in positioning religion. Their influence significantly shapes how religion and/or secular values are understood and enacted. The article concludes by suggesting that policy at national and European level that emphasises shared identities and community cohesion masks the differential power and struggles between communities that cannot be resolved by anodyne exhortation. Rather, leaders need to be selected, trained and supported to recognise the centrality of belief in the lives of many of their learners and their families and to engage with the inevitability of ongoing disagreement and struggle.