Curriculum Theory

‘Making the most of the weather’: Analysing attempts to support outdoor learning in Scottish schools.

by Pete Allison

Thorburn, M. & Allison, P. (2012). Analysing attempts to support outdoor learning in Scottish schools, Journal of Curriculum Studies, 1-23. DOI:10.1080/00220272.2012.689863

The new ‘Curriculum for Excellence’ in Scotland outlines a policy vision of a more integrated and holistic form of... more The new ‘Curriculum for Excellence’ in Scotland outlines a policy vision of a more integrated and holistic form of education; a commitment which offers considerable prospects for increased levels of outdoor learning in schools (Learning and Teaching Scotland, 2010). With reference to Fullan’s theorizing on achieving educational change, we investigated four main implementation areas, namely: policy aims, partnerships arrangements and associated professionalism and sustainability issues. We collected evidence through a series of sixteen semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders at national, local authority and school level. Despite increased agreement on aims, we found that improving the frequency and quality of outdoor learning in schools was adversely influenced by the patchwork nature of partnership support at national and local authority levels. This has curtailed the prioritizing of outdoor learning in schools and of teachers being supported when trying to make use of their increased curriculum decision-making responsibilities. Thus, we found only limited evidence of policy-related innovation and considerable evidence of policy stasis. As such, building national capacity is proving difficult. We conclude that further research on how some atypical schools have managed to develop their programmes offers the best prospects for understanding the complexities of achieving greater levels of outdoor learning.

You Are Not Your Brain: Against "Teaching to the Brain"

by Gregory Nixon

Published in the *International Handbook of Academic Research and Teaching: Proceedings of Intellectbase International Consortium*, vol 22, Spring 2012, San Antonio, TX, USA, 298-306.

Since educators are always looking for ways to improve their practice, and since empirical science is now accepted in... more Since educators are always looking for ways to improve their practice, and since empirical science is now accepted in our worldview as the final arbiter of truth, it is no surprise they have been lured toward cognitive neuroscience in hopes that discovering how the brain learns will provide a nutshell explanation for student learning in general. I argue that identifying the person with the brain is scientism (not science), that the brain is not the person, and that it is the person who learns. In fact the brain only responds to the learning of embodied experience within the extra-neural network of intersubjective communications. Learning is a dynamic, cultural activity, not a neural program. Brain-based learning is unnecessary for educators and may be dangerous in that a culturally narrow ontology is taken for granted, thus restricting our creativity and imagination, and narrowing the human community.

Reparative Curriculum

by Aparna Mishra Tarc

Curriculum Inquiry

Supporting learners' public engagement with traumatic histories of mass human violence can develop and sustain... more Supporting learners' public engagement with traumatic histories of mass human violence can develop and sustain reparative relations across and between strained social collectives. In this article I theorize the intrapersonal and inter-political dynamics of psychical and social reparation through a classroom case of reparative learning. I analyze the emotional responses of beginning teachers engaging with traumatic Aboriginal history as depicted in Robert Arthur Alexie's novel Porcupines and China Dolls. My analysis of students' trouble with the novel offers insight into the psychical production of reparative curriculum as it is raggedly pieced together in the learner's capacity to feel for the unimaginable lives and worlds of others.

Understanding teacher agency: The importance of relationships

by Mark Priestley

Priestley, M., Biesta, G.J.J. & Robinson, S. (2012). Understanding teacher agency: The importance of relationships. A paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Vancouver, Canada, 13-17 April 2012.

In this paper we provide an overview of a theory of teacher agency, and we draw upon empirical data from two schools –... more In this paper we provide an overview of a theory of teacher agency, and we draw upon empirical data from two schools – both secondary – participating in our Teacher Agency and Curriculum Change project (ESRC reference: RES-000-22-4208). Our aim is to understand why agency is achieved differently in different settings by teachers who have broadly similar values, beliefs and levels of experience in common. In the paper, we first set out how we define and theorise agency, and what this means for understanding and researching the factors that contribute to teacher agency. We present our view of agency as an emergent phenomenon rather than as a capacity residing in individuals. We then relate this concept to the work of teachers, thereby setting out a framework for understanding teacher agency. Against this background, we present findings from our research that highlight the impact of relational dimensions on the achievement of agency by teachers as they enact Scotland's new Curriculum for Excellence within different contexts of the Scottish school system.

Metacognition: Are your learners really thinking about the content?

by Timothy Clapper

Clapper, T. C. (2012). Metacognition: Are your learners really thinking about the content? Evolllution. http://www.evolllution.com/curriculum_planning/metacognition-are-your-learners-really-thinking-about-the-content/

Processing information can be matched with metacognition strategies in outcomes-based curriculum design and... more Processing information can be matched with metacognition strategies in outcomes-based curriculum design and facilitation. Teachers and student alike must be shown how to use certain strategies to enhance the metacognition process.

A theory of cognitive content and the curriculum: entitlement to momentous truth

by John Tillson

Evolutions of curriculum paradigm in post-modern society

by Emanuel Soare

Potential for excellence: Interdisciplinary learning outdoors as a moral enterprise

by Pete Allison

Allison, P., Carr, D. & Meldrum, G. (2012). Potential for excellence: Interdisciplinary learning outdoors as a moral enterprise. The Curriculum Journal, 23(1), 43-58. Doi .org/10.1080/09585176.2012.650469

The Headspace Project: Computer-Assisted Fabrication as an Introduction to Digital Architectural Design

by Stanislav Roudavski

WITH PRESENTATION SLIDES. Cite as: Roudavski, Stanislav and Anne-Marie Walsh (2011). 'The Headspace Project: Computer-Assisted Fabrication as an Introduction to Digital Architectural Design', in Circuit Bending, Breaking and Mending: Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Computer-Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia, ed. by Christiane M. Herr, Ning Gu, Marc Aurel Schnabel and Stanislav Roudavski, pp. 579-588

Written for architectural educators, this paper discusses whether digital fabrication can be usefully employed in... more Written for architectural educators, this paper discusses whether digital fabrication can be usefully employed in early architectural education. The paper uses examples from a course that aims to introduce the fundamentals of digital architectural design to first-year students. To achieve this, the course integrates digital fabrication as the core element of the production workflow. Challenging but rewarding, early adoption of digital fabrication exposes students to the process- and material-based thinking of contemporary architecture at a time when they form lasting attitudes to designing.

Selective Jamming: Digital Architectural Design in Foundation Courses

by Stanislav Roudavski

Cite as: Roudavski, Stanislav (2011). 'Selective Jamming: Digital Architectural Design in Foundation Courses', International Journal of Architectural Computing, 9, 4, pp. 437-461

This article considers how the concepts and practice of digital architectural design can influence early architectural... more This article considers how the concepts and practice of digital architectural design can influence early architectural education.The article approaches this topic through one example, the Virtual Environments course – a constituent of the Bachelor of Environments program at the University of Melbourne.The institutional remit of this course is to introduce first-year students to the roles of design representation. However, recently, the course developed to encompass these pragmatic educational aims and began to question canonical attitudes towards architectural education and practice.At the core of this course are the notions, methods and skills of digital architectural design, understood not as a stylistic option or as a novel paradigm, but as a catalyst for creativity, experimentation, critical thinking and the sustained growth of creative communities.

Canadian identity and curriculum theory: An ecological, postmodern perspective

by Linda Laidlaw

Attention to Place: Learning to Listen

by Sean Wiebe

Co-Authored with Craig MacDonald

MacDonald, C. & Wiebe, S. (2012). Methods in place: Learning to listen. Journal of the Canadian Association for Curriculum Studies, 9(2), 86-108.

In this paper we set out to explore the speculative function and nature of narrative in autoethnographic research. We... more In this paper we set out to explore the speculative function and nature of narrative in autoethnographic research. We consider how place--as locus, milieu, setting in which we narrate the distance between ourselves and events we can remember, places where we can remember being (or, in this case, becoming: becoming authors)--enriches our understanding of autoethnographic research in Education. Determining autoethnography as new frontier and as site for the construction of a way of life, we offer and invite beginnings in literary enjoyment of life through autobiographical writings for the Social Science of Education. We find ourselves digressing, and suggest that this may be a turn our memory takes on its homeward journey. We celebrate life.

On the Utility of Curricula in Unsupervised Learning of Grammars.

by Vasant Honavar

Tu, K. and Honavar, V. (2011). On the Utility of Curricula in Unsupervised Learning of Grammars. In: Proceedings of the Twenty-Second International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI 2011) pp. 1523-1528.

We examine the utility of a curriculum (a means of presenting training samples in a meaningful order) in unsupervised... more We examine the utility of a curriculum (a means of presenting training samples in a meaningful order) in unsupervised learning of probabilistic grammars. We introduce the incremental construction hypoth- esis that explains the benefits of a curriculum in learning grammars and offers some useful insights into the design of curricula as well as learning algo- rithms. We present results of experiments with (a) carefully crafted synthetic data that provide support for our hypothesis and (b) natural language corpus that demonstrate the utility of curricula in unsuper- vised learning of probabilistic grammars.

Developing Core Competencies

by Gregory Linton

BIBLICAL HIGHER EDUCATION JOURNAL 4 (Winter 2009): 11-23

“Core competencies” are the attitudes and skills that students should develop by the time they graduate from an... more “Core competencies” are the attitudes and skills that students should develop by the time they graduate from an academic program. They are the qualities that are necessary for success and excellence in any field of service. Too often, Bible colleges neglect to state and define clearly these expected student outcomes. Consequently, students experience an incoherent curriculum, and faculty members struggle to assess the effectiveness of their teaching. Faculty members in Bible colleges can remedy these shortcomings by engaging in an intentional, five-stage process of identifying, defining, and assessing the core competencies of their curriculum. These core competencies will serve as the threads that run through the general education courses, Bible courses, and professional courses,tying them together as a coherent whole.

An Introduction to Ways of Being in Research

by Sean Wiebe

Co-authored with Mark Daley
Published in Educational Insights

And in stepping back, we may find that there are ways of being human that matter, that bare and express meaning, both... more And in stepping back, we may find that there are ways of being human that matter, that bare and express meaning, both to the researcher as a human being and to the wider community where the researcher performs.

Whatever happened to curriculum theory? Critical realism and curriculum change

by Mark Priestley

Priestley, M. (2011) Whatever happened to curriculum theory? Critical realism and curriculum change. Pedagogy, Culture and Society, 19[2], 221-238.

In the face of what has been characterised as a ‘crisis’ in curriculum – an apparent decline of some aspects of... more In the face of what has been characterised as a ‘crisis’ in curriculum – an apparent decline of some aspects of curriculum studies combined with the emergence of new types of national curriculum which downgrade knowledge – some writers have been arguing for the use of realist theory to address these issues. This paper offers a contribution to this debate, drawing upon critical realism, and especially upon the social theory of Margaret Archer. The paper first outlines the supposed crisis in curriculum, before providing an overview of some of the key tenets of critical realism. The paper concludes by speculating on how critical realism may offer new ways of thinking to inform policy and practice in a key curricular problematic. This is the issue of curriculum change.

The social practices of curriculum making

by Mark Priestley

EdD Thesis (2007)

This thesis is concerned with the ‘problem’ of change in education, an issue characterised in much of the literature... more This thesis is concerned with the ‘problem’ of change in education, an issue characterised in much of the literature as a paradox of innovation without change. The thesis draws upon school-based empirical research, undertaken in the context of the reactions by Geography, History and Modern Studies teachers to the notion of teaching integrated social subjects, set against the wider framework of the Scottish Executive’s curriculum policy. The thesis first sets the topic in its Scottish and wider context, before undertaking a comprehensive review of the themes that emerge from the worldwide literature on educational change. These include the paradox of innovation without change, teacher mediation of change initiatives, departmental and school cultures, the subject centredness of schooling and factors that have been noted to underpin successful change initiatives. The thesis sets out a theoretical position that draws upon the critical realist social theory of Margaret Archer. This approach posits a centrist approach to the contentious structure/agency debate, suggesting a complex relationship between social structures, cultural forms and individual agency, whereby social reproduction and transformation are played out through continual social interaction. From this foundation of theory, I develop a practical methodology for researching change in school settings. My empirical work consists of a questionnaire sent to 100 schools, and two linked case studies, where data was collected through semi-structured interviews, observations and analysis of school documents. The research identifies trends in school provision and, through the case studies, the processes of curriculum making are investigated using the aforementioned methodology. The thesis concludes that such processes are ineluctably social practices, and that those seeking to innovate in schools should pay attention to the social dimensions of change – the engagement of people with ideas and the social structures that impede, distort or promote change. The thesis concludes by presenting a set of general principles that might serve to facilitate change promoted by future initiatives.

The Development of Scotland's Curriculum for Excellence: amnesia and déjà vu.

by Mark Priestley

Priestley, M. & Humes, W. (2010) The Development of Scotland's Curriculum for Excellence: amnesia and déjà vu. Oxford Review of Education, 36[3], 345-361

Scotland’s new Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) has been widely acknowledged as the most significant educational... more Scotland’s new Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) has been widely acknowledged as the most significant educational development in a generation, with the potential to transform learning and teaching in Scottish schools. In common with recent developments elsewhere, CfE seeks to re-engage teachers with processes of curriculum development, to place learning at the heart of the curriculum and to change engrained practices of schooling. This article draws upon well-established curriculum theory (notably the work of both Lawrence Stenhouse and A.V. Kelly) to analyse the new curriculum. We argue that by neglecting to take account of such theory, the curricular offering proposed by CfE is subject to a number of significant structural contradictions which may affect the impact that it ultimately exerts on learning and teaching; in effect, by ignoring the lessons of the past, CfE runs the risk of undermining the potential for real change.

Educational change in Scotland: Policy, context and biography

by Mark Priestley

Priestley, M. & Miller, K. (in press) Educational change in Scotland: Policy, context and biography, The Curriculum Journal.

The poor success rate of policy for curriculum change has been widely noted in the educational change literature. Part... more The poor success rate of policy for curriculum change has been widely noted in the educational change literature. Part of the problem lies in the complexity of schools, as policymakers have proven unable to micromanage the multifarious range of factors that impact upon the implementation of policy. This paper draws upon empirical data from a local authority-led initiative to implement Scotland’s new national curriculum. It offers a set of conceptual tools derived from critical realism (particularly the work of Margaret Archer), which offer significant potential in allowing us to develop greater understanding of the complexities of educational change. Archer’s social theory developed as a means of explaining change and continuity in social settings. As schools and other educational institutions are complex social organisations, critical realism offers us epistemological tools for tracking the ebbs and flows of change cycles over time, presenting the means for mapping the multifarious networks and assemblages that form their basis.

The Visceral Imagination: A Fertile Space for Non-Textual Knowing

by Sean Wiebe

With Celeste Snowber
Published in the Journal of Curriculum Theorizing

We come to this work as two educators informed by our art forms of poetry and dance to explore with sense, in... more We come to this work as two educators informed by our art forms of poetry and dance to explore with sense, in sensuality, and partly incensed to investigate a fertile space for understanding non-textual knowing. We embark on living in ways that exceed present limitations and open up space for the visceral imagination. Poetry and embodied engagement brings us closer to the finely nuanced textures of our experiences. To know through and with the body is an invitation to celebrate the sensuous details of the everyday world where the landscape speaks in a language which is rooted in the smell of the earth and the feel of our skin. This essay takes the readers on a journey with their full bodies and ushers them into a poetic rendering of the sensuous world within and without.