Planning a competence-based curriculum: the case of four secondary schools in England

Despite the belief that schools tend to be resistant to change, it is possible to find secondary schools in the UK which are investing in the design of an innovative curriculum for their Year 7 (11-year-old students). This article focuses on four of these schools and discusses some of the challenges they face in planning and implementing their competence-based curricula (CBC). Such curricula tend to be based on the rationale that they better prepare all students for the constant changes of human knowledge and understanding. They develop transferable skills rather than subject-specific content, which are considered necessary requirements for learners as future productive members of society in the twenty-first century. Advocates of CBC argue that such curricula are more inclusive and emancipatory than traditional curricula, although this view is contested. Employing Bernstein's concepts of framing and classification of the curriculum, this article describes the challenges and constraints encountered by four schools which have endeavoured to develop a competence-based curriculum.     

能力本位课程模式的当代意义与发展

“能力本位”是以培养职业岗位实际做事能力为目标的课程模式,是20世纪90年代以来支撑我国职业教育课程改革的主流模式。随着产业形态变革与职业教育高移化,这一课程模式在中等职业教育、职业专科教育与职业本科教育中均面临严峻挑战。把职业对人的要求作为展开教育逻辑起点的根本属性,使得“能力本位”作为职业教育课程核心模式的主体地位不受质疑。解决矛盾的根本办法是发展能力本位课程模式,切入点是对能力本位课程模式中工作任务和职业能力这两个概念做出重新解释,并深化对其开发技术的设计,包括在概括性层面理解和分析工作任务,把职业能力作为关键性课程要素进行开发和设计职业能力的教学化处理技术。     

BOOK REVIEW

The orientation of vocational education towards competence-based education has led to fundamental changes in the work of vocational education teachers. This article pictures teaching in innovative, competence-based vocational education in the Netherlands. In a multiple case study, the teaching practices of 10 teachers from five vocational schools were thoroughly studied. By examining not only the actual behaviour of teachers but also their related personal ideas and professional attitudes, we learn about the ways teachers implement new educational concepts and their experienced uncertainties, dilemmas and practical tensions. These insights lead to a better understanding and specification of the concept of competence-based vocational education at the micro level of educational processes, that is, the interaction between teachers and students. Implications are described in terms of new repertoires of teaching behaviour and teaching methods – all in the context of vocational education.     

加拿大高职能力本位课程教学大纲探析

加拿大高职能力本位课程教学大纲具有以下特点:课程大纲理念与内容始终贯穿职业能力这一主线,课程大纲开发与结果始终贯穿"行业、企业导向",课程大纲目标与实施始终体现能力本位的整合能力观。借鉴其经验,我国高职教育课程大纲开发应体现全面的职业能力,设计能力培养方案,规划"教、学、做一体化"。     

Falling into LINE: school strategies for overcoming challenges associated with learning in natural environments (LINE)

As the benefits of outdoor learning have become of increasing interest to the education sector, so the importance of understanding and overcoming challenges associated with this pedagogy has gained greater significance. The Natural Connections Demonstration Project recruited primary, secondary, and special schools across south-west England with a view to stimulating and supporting ‘learning in the natural environment’ across the region. This research paper examines qualitative data obtained from case study visits to 12 of these schools. The results from teaching staff interviews and focus groups show that schools face many and varied challenges to embedding outdoor learning, and a raft of strategies are presented for tackling these challenges and integrating learning in the natural environment into much of the current curriculum.     

Designing a curriculum model for the teaching of the Bible in UK Jewish secondary schools: a case study

This paper describes the process of designing a curriculum model for Bible teaching in UK Jewish secondary schools. This model was designed over the period 2008–2010 by a team of curriculum specialists from the Jewish Curriculum Partnership UK in collaboration with a group of teachers from Jewish secondary schools. The paper first outlines the context of UK Jewish secondary schools and then the curriculum context in which this specific model was designed. It then details the model itself and concludes with a discussion of the implementation of the model and associated challenges.     

Tobephobia experienced by teachers in secondary schools: An exploratory study focusing on curriculum reform in the Nelson Mandela Metropole

Abstract

Because of its history from apartheid to democracy, the aspiration to reform schools is a recurrent theme in South African education. Efforts to reform education in schools based on the outcomes-based education (OBE) curriculum approach created major challenges for policy makers in South Africa. The purpose of this exploratory research was therefore to determine whether secondary school teachers lack the professional competence to cope with curriculum reform and whether this incompetence results in them experiencing Tobephobia (TBP). The qualitative research method was used to conduct this investigation. Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with 50 teachers in 25 public secondary schools in the Nelson Mandela Metropole. In terms of their responses, it was evident that the teachers’ concerns about their professional competencies associated with the OBE curriculum had a negative impact on their ability to implement curriculum changes in their classrooms. The comparison of OBE with the syllabus by the teachers evoked their bias towards the traditional syllabus approach in maintaining the quality of education for all learners. Because of the historical bag gage associated with the syllabus in South Africa, it is recommended that a standards approach to the curriculum be considered by the Department of Education to resolve the curriculum problems in secondary schools. The responses from the teachers in this exploratory study once again affirmed the existence of TBP in secondary schools.     

Global social issues in the curriculum: perspectives of school principals

In this article, we discuss principals’ perspectives on the priority given to the place in the curriculum of and the supporting practices related to health and sustainability education in schools in Denmark (for pupils aged 6–16). The study is situated within the discourses about critical health and sustainability education and treats the two issues as societal challenges that are important to address in schools as educational examples. We draw on the literature on school leadership challenges linked to global neoliberal trends in educational reform. The context of the study is the ongoing school reform in Denmark. The data were generated through an online survey of principals in Denmark (n = 118). The findings show that although the principals view school as an important arena for health and sustainability education, their actual support for such education lags behind. Health education is prioritized somewhat more than sustainability education; however, both are characterized by insufficient attention to teachers’ professional development and the low prioritization of collaboration within the school and between the school and community actors. Acknowledging the contradicting demands that principals face in the context of the reform, we argue for reconnecting the concept of leadership with the wider purposes of schooling and for providing space for an emergent, whole-school curriculum that addresses health and sustainability.     

Making Room for Media Studies

Media education has developed rapidly to a stage of seeking recognition and space within the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors. Making room for this new interdisciplinary study presents a particular problem in the context of the overcrowded secondary school curriculum. Enthusiasts must therefore put forward a well justified case, based on a clear perception of what the study is ‘about’. The author outlines evidence, derived from three years’ research in Scottish secondary schools, of the current range of theoretical approaches, curriculum models and teaching practices. He identifies an urgent need for whole school policies, media education school coordinators and area resource centres to provide material backing; and he argues that, to make their challenge effective, media educationalists must resolve uncertainties of theory and practice through a process of debate and development work supported by research and evaluation.     

IQEA and special schools

Projects focused on Improving the Quality of Education for All (IQEA) have been running for ten years. The Nottinghamshire special schools IQEA project is the first to draw schools exclusively from the special education sector. In this article, John Beresford, IQEA's research officer; Hilary Stokes, co-ordinator of the Nottinghamshire special schools IQEA project; and John Morris, secondary inspector and IQEA co-ordinator for Nottinghamshire LEA, briefly outline the philosophy in which IQEA is grounded. They discuss the particular challenges encountered in a special schools project and illustrate responses by providing a case study of one school's engagement in the project. The article concludes with a tentative assessment of the benefits that participation in the project has brought to the special schools and units involved.     

Development of student knowledge in competence-based pre-vocational secondary education

The purpose of this study was to gain insight into the development of student knowledge in pre-vocational secondary education schools which differ in the manner and extent to which they have implemented characteristics of competence-based education. The implementation of these characteristics was examined using a teacher questionnaire and the development of knowledge was investigated using concept mapping. The results showed that students developed slightly more knowledge in learning situations with fewer characteristics of competence-based education. The organisational characteristics of the learning situations were further found to be distinctive for the development of knowledge.     

中小学阶段的人工智能教育研究

将人工智能纳入中小学课程体系,对于提升学生信息素养、普及全民智能教育、培养人工智能人才具有重要意义。基于此,文章首先介绍了人工智能教育的发展历程和关键技术,接着梳理了美国、英国、日本、新加坡和我国的中小学人工智能教育现状,然后总结了国内中小学人工智能教育面临的挑战,最后提出了中小学阶段人工智能教育的实施框架,以期为促进中小学人工智能教育、推动教育教学改革和创新发展提供参考。     

中小学美育课程评价的价值、逻辑及路径

探索和研究中小学美育课程评价,是深化新时代教育评价改革的重要举措。中小学美育课程评价具有确证美育课程定位、推进美育课程内容完善、助力美育功能实现三个方面逐级递进的价值。构建中小学美育课程评价标准应遵循循证实践逻辑、实践范式逻辑、人的“未完成性”逻辑。通过协同多方评价主体,增强中小学美育课程评价的科学性与专业性;整合多元评价内容,探索中小学美育课程评价的全面性与系统性;制定多维评价标准,追求中小学美育课程评价的合理性与有效性;优化多种评价方法,探寻中小学美育课程评价的适切性与创造性,建构中小学美育课程评价体系。     

中职院校课程设置的探索与思考

高等院校和普通高中的不断扩大招生,使中职院校面临着越来越大的竞争压力和困难。面对着职业教育发展的要求,课程改革成为了中职教育的当务之急。课程设置是课程改革的重要环节。通过分析中国中等职业教育现状的基础上,结合教育教学改革的目标和素质教育的基本要求,以学生就业为导向,对中职教育中的课程设置从观念和方法上进行研讨,为中职教学给予参考意见。     

能力本位教育的历史与比较研究——理念、制度与课程

从历史和比较的视角,通过对欧美和澳大利亚等国家的案例分析,对能力本位教育的起源和变化发展进行深入的研究;梳理了能力本位教育的相关概念,总结了有关能力本位教育的两大模式及其特点;具体阐述了高等教育阶段能力本位教育的概念、制度以及构成能力本位教育的内容在不同历史阶段和不同国家的具体表现。     

Competence-Based Vocational Education and Training and Its Cultural Context Sensitivity

This article addresses the question of whether the concept of competence-based vocational education and training (VET) is transferable from one cultural context to another. Drawing on theoretical concepts of comparative education and sociological neo-institutionalism, the competence-based VET is defined as a new paradigm and situated within its cultural context. Then a case study of an educational transfer from Switzerland to India is presented. The article concludes that the pedagogical concept of competence-based VET is not universally applicable but includes culturally coined ideas, which need to be taken into account when trying to implement it in distant institutional contexts.     

Deconfessionalising RE in pillarised education systems: a case study of Belgium and the Netherlands

This article reflects on the place of RE in a pillarised education context, taking into account the fact of religious diversity and pluralisation among the school population on the one hand, and the freedom of religion and education of faith-based schools on the other. Particular attention will be given to Belgium and the Netherlands, which do not only have a comparable pillarised education model, but also have a quite similar religious landscape. After a brief historical sketch of the educational systems in both nations, attention will be given to the present situation and to the challenges of religious diversity and secularism in faith-based schools. In order to meet these challenges, recent developments concerning RE in Belgium and the Netherlands are discussed. In conclusion, we will outline some suggestions for the future of RE in faith-based schools in a pillarised education context.     

基于学科核心素养的中小学音乐学业测评指标体系研究

科学构建基于音乐学科素养的学业测评指标体系是对学生音乐学习进行监测和提升的重要前提。鉴于其在学业测评中的重要性,本研究借鉴现有研究中音乐测评框架建构的基本思路,从学科素养在该阶段课程标准中的表达入手,用行为描述法界定了中小学音乐学科核心素养的操作性定义;在此基础上从测评内容、测评过程、测评情境三个维度提出音乐学业测评框架;建立以“学科素养—课标内容—测评观测点”为纲的测评指标,以期进一步推进中小学音乐学业测评研究。     

Enacting key skills-based curricula in secondary education: lessons from a technology-mediated,group-based learning initiative

Bridge21 is an innovative approach to learning for secondary education that was originally conceptualised as part of a social outreach intervention in the authors’ third-level institution whereby participants attended workshops at a dedicated learning space on campus focusing on a particular model of technology-mediated group-based learning. This paper analyses the current expansion of the Bridge21 project to mainstream schools against a backdrop of government-led reforms for lower secondary education in Ireland. The key skills central to the proposed reforms aim to make education more relevant to the challenges of twenty-first-century living and, among other goals, to empower students to think critically, communicate effectively and work collaboratively. This paper investigates the viability of the Bridge21 model in facilitating the promotion of a selection of these key skills within the context of two case study schools.