The NCCA and Curriculum Planning SDPI Summer School June 2005 John Hammond NCCA
Dec 24, 2015
Outline
• NCCA: what it does and how it works• Some thinking on curriculum and
assessment development• Some thoughts on environmental factors
in curriculum and assessment development
• The planning process we use• Featuring – key questions and implications
for schools
Rationale for the CEB/NCCA
Establishment of the Curriculum and Examinations Board (CEB)
“…to broaden the social base of decision making so that the process of selecting knowledge, skill or experience for inclusion on the national curriculum will address the common good.”
Logan and O’Reilly (1985)
Functions of the NCCA
Advise the Minister on curriculum for early childhood, primary and post-primary schools, and on assessment practices in schools
Review of the curriculum
Special educational needs
Effective transition from primary to post-primary
Review and advise on the in-service needs of teachers
Promote and conduct/commission research
Promote equality of access to education, particularly gender
equity
The Current Work of the NCCA
• Moving from occasional, large-scale curriculum development and reform to continuous, rolling review
• An increased focus on generic system issues – SEN, interculturalism, assessment and reporting
• Currently in review and development phase
• Increased research profile
The staff
• Chief Executive (1)• Deputy Chief Executives (2)• Directors, Curriculum and Assessment (6)• Education Officers Full-time, 5 yr secondment (6)• Other Education Officers contract/secondment (4)• Admin team (8)• Information Specialist/Manager (1)• Part-time/ Occasional (33)
Elements of NCCA Curriculum Planning
• Initiation • Scoping• Consultation• The Research Phase• Processing• Approval• Implementation
Representative structures
• Council (direct reporting)• Primary, Junior Cycle and Senior Cycle
Coordinating Committees (advisory role)• Special Focus Committees / Boards of
Studies• Curriculum and Course Committees for
subjects and curriculum areas (developmental role)
• Working Groups (technical executive role)
Who is represented?
• Department of Education and Science• State Examinations Commission• Parents• Teachers• School Management• Business• Relevant bodies e.g. subject associations• Higher Education (Senior Cycle)• Expertise as appropriate• Designated Bodies (under Statutory Council)
Representation issues
• Some partners are more powerful than others• Familiarity breeds ???• Representatives reflecting the policy of the body ad
the views of the members they are representing• Representatives informing/influencing the policy of
the body they are representing • Undertaking an effective Consultation Process on
major documents/reports and on syllabuses• Role/nature of relationship with particular partners
e.g. business/industry, Department of Education and Science
Some thoughts on curriculum
• Curriculum is not ‘neutral’• It is a social, cultural and political
construction • It is usually - and should be - contested• Direct influence of the NCCA applies in the
curriculum as envisaged• Influence on the curriculum as
implemented and mediated by schools/teachers is less direct
Some thoughts on curriculum
• How partnership plays out influences curriculum discourse and curriculum policy (Gleeson 2004)– Consensualism leads to fragmentation– Loose curriculum discourse– Quick-fix reform– Poor implementation processes and realities
• Trends in NCCA thinking– Seeing the curriculum as a managed and planned
process– Seeing the point of ‘mediation’ as critical – Moving towards ‘big-picture building’ as the basis of
reform
What are the factors we need to address to ensure that the gap between the rhetoric and the reality of curriculum change is
narrowed?
Some thoughts on assessment
Traditional assessment• Standardised
competitive comparative assessment
• Hierarchical – stratified, sequenced, graded knowledge and tests
• Belief in generalisability of results
• Happens after the learning has taken place
• Links to regulated selection
Some possibilities?• Assessment as integral
support of learning progress
• Descriptive, quality-focus
• Aimed at improving social relations between teacher and student through sharing information
• Democratic and transformative purposes
• Collective and individual outcomes
Kelleghan on Assessment 2001
It is ironic that at a time when higher standards of achievement, such as deep conceptual understanding, an interest in and commitment to learning, a valuing of education, and student confidence in their capacities and attributes are being proposed for all students that the means that are being adopted to meet the objective are likely to to inhibit rather than facilitate its attainment……
…..the greatest potential for using assessment to improve the quality of education would seem to lie in the improvement of teachers’ assessment skills…
Should/how can we begin to see assessment as, in the first
instance, an essential tool of the learner, the teacher and the
school….rather than the state?
Developments on the horizon…
• Rolling review and evaluation of the revised Primary Curriculum
• Multi-stranded review, development and research activity at junior cycle
• Proposals for the future development of senior cycle education
• Curriculum area review – business, languages, mathematics, guidance
• Guidelines on SEN, ICT, Interculturalism
Environmental Factors
• The speed of globalisation and its twin demands – ‘difference’ and ‘complexity’
• Marketisation of education • Personalisation of education – the
individual or the common good?• Inequality and the lack of a strong
commitment to addressing it• Generally, responding to ‘imperatives’• Insufficient investment in education•
What does the future hold for the Irish education system? Will it
become…a catalyst for change?
a counterpoint to change? a casualty of change?
Elements of NCCA Curriculum Review
• Initiation • Scoping• Consultation• The Research Phase• Processing• Approval• Implementation
Initiation
• Ministerial correspondence• DES• A redirection of existing work
• Environmental/contextual• Public outcry• ‘slow burn’ issue
• NCCA strategic plans/remit• Council
Scoping 1
• Taking account of context– Initiator and why initiated– Environmental, organisational and C/A contexts
• Establishing scale/size and quality of review– Linked to initiation and resources– Relevance to enabling structures used
• Clarifying purpose/s– The less clarified – the greater the expectation – Essential for organisation, staff and enabling structures
involved
Scoping 2
• Clarifying the intended outcomes and outputs– Particular links to processing, approval and implementation
• Establishing a rough timescale– Limited ‘windows of opportunity’– Being strategic
• Estimating approximate costs– Human and material– Linked to all other elements of review
Scoping 3
• Charting an initial master plan of the phases and stages of the review– Design? Consultation? Research? Processing?– Linking outcomes to the sequencing of elements of the
review
• Outcome of scoping often set out in background paper or review proposal
• Plan must be flexible and agile
Key Questions on Initiation and Scoping
How to handle the fine line between the feasible and the fantastic…..?Who scopes? Who counts in scoping?How to scope for flexibility and agility?
To engage and empower stakeholders
Statutory responsibility
To inform curriculum
and assessment advice
To establish and build consensus To achieve
buy-in for policyInitiatives
Consultation – Why consult?
• Teachers/teaching bodies
• School management• Further & Higher Ed.• DES• Business
Stakeholders
• Parents• Students• Community & voluntary sector• The school as community
Who is consulted?
Greater emphasis on
Documents Documents Documents Documents
Documents Documents Documents
Still the preferred method for major Developments and proposals
Paper-based consultation
Conferences & seminars
Consultative Committees
Public meetings
Bilateral meetings
Focus Groups etc.
Face-to-face
Meetings Meetings Meetings Meetings
Meetings Meetings
Meetings
A strong format for direct communication
online survey online forum e-mail responses
Technology Technology Technology Technology
Technology Technology Technology
Increasingly online
Oldham’s ‘Oldham’s ‘Think’ BubbleThink’ Bubble
A new way to A new way to entice youngentice youngpeople to enter people to enter into a dialogueinto a dialoguewith the local with the local Council to discussCouncil to discusstheir vision for the their vision for the future...future... Ideas Ideas
Bringing technology and face-to-face together
• Clear definition, time-scale and budget• Advance programme identifying all
consultation activities• Mix the modes• Exploit new technology• Take account of the needs of stakeholders• Importance of capacity-building• Integrity and credibility• Real engagement, not tokenism
Lessons of
Consultation
Strengths and weaknesses of the NCCA’s consultation process? How should schools ‘weight’ the strength of different voices in consultations with the NCCA?How can we engage marginalised groups and voices more effectively?
Implications for schools
• Greater curricular choice and flexibility – creative programmes of study
• Wider range of assessment approaches, modes and methods Attention to
• Integration of a wider range of learners• Engagement with cross-curricular or
integrated curriculum dimensions• Attention to the learning culture and
environment – independent learning, different settings
• Centrality of curriculum planning, professional development, educational guidance
Stephen Ball
An…unstoppable flood of closely interrelated reform ideas is permeating and reorienting education systems in diverse social and political locations…The novelty of this epidemic of reform is that it does not simply change what people, as educators, scholars and researchers do, it changes who they are.