All good teachers have always striven to find new and better ways of engaging children and promoting better learning. That process will continue under CfE. The notion of ‘Implementation in 2010′ is particularly unhelpful. Changes in methodology, encouraged by AifL, Critical Skills, Personal learning Planning, etc have been on going for several years now and will continue. Real change is a gradual, responsive and evaluative process – thus the byline ‘Evolution not Revolution’.
With the final Experiences and Outcomes published it is now possible to start open discussions with schools about how we plan our journey from where we are. I see two strands to moving forward.
- To establish a genuine sharing mentality across schools.
- To agree the nature and extent of support needed when moving on from 5-14.
Glow must be a key feature of both of these. To promote sharing schools are being ‘encouraged’ to put forward an example of existing learning in science this term. It is proposed that all SIP development next year will be conducted with sharing across schools in mind at the outset. To seek agreement on what suppport is needed I am, this term, in the process of a round of conversations with schools to move forward the ‘thinking out loud’ process started in February (Feb 13th post – Building a science curriculum) It has become very clear that any attempt to put in place something that really is supportive and genuinely flexible can easily become wordy, complex and inaccessible.
Our present challenge is to construct a means of presentation that provides selective easy access to focussed support as required, be it background theory or hints on how to start lessons. On this matter I fear it is a case of back to the drawing board so nothing to share yet.
This is the latest draft of the strategy paper:
Download the draft proposal (May 15th).
