Webucation

Curriculum change is something that education has been dealing with for hundreds of years and the history of education is littered with theories, ideas, claims and even legislation.

Talking to educators during a recent visit to the USA and discussing the failure of the UK education system to remain meaningful to a growing number of learners would suggest that change is in the air across the western world. What was regarded as the skills and aptitudes needed for the industrial age and more recently the information age seem to be under detailed scrutiny in a number of countries.

In the UK the debate has been accelerating in pace for some time, with efforts to develop a more personalised approach to learning and the consequences that result from tailoring the curriculum to more individual need.

The RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce) Opening Minds initiative set out to encourage the introduction of systemic change within the UK national curriculum and proposed a new competence-based curriculum. It seeks to re balance the information based national curriculum and draw in those competencies that are necessary for the 21st Century. The competencies are:

• Competences for Learning
• Competences for Citizenship
• Competences for Relating to People
• Competences for Managing Situations
• Competences for Managing Information

The initiative is being taken up by a growing number of schools in the UK - keeping one eye on the pressure on them to maintain their examination status in league tables but recognising the need for changes which meet the needs of the learners in their care.

In July 2007 the national awarding body QCA made the announced of changes to the formal secondary curriculum to reduce the prescription that existed previously to allow teachers and schools the freedom to innovate. Opening Minds, changes to the statutory curriculum and other programmes for curriculum innovation are clear indicators that we are in a continually changing curriculum landscape - exciting times.