The Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) and new National Qualifications

This short paper provides a brief overview of the Curriculum for Excellence and SQA plans for new qualifications. Much of this information may already be familiar to you – the aim is to draw attention to what universities shouldbecome familiar with in relation to the experiences and achievements of young people in the secondary or college sectors who are, or in the future may be, preparing to enter degree programmes.

The principlesof the Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) areinformed by ideas in an influential paper published in 2004[1] with support from all political parties, focus on the development of four “capacities” for young people as successfullearners, confident individuals, responsible citizens and effective contributors, and cover education from age 3 to 18. CfE seeks major changes in learning and teaching, but carries various uncertainties as it aspires to raise standards for all young people, prepare them for a changing future and close the gap between the highest and lowest achievers.It has been suggested that the four “capacities” are exactly what universities have tried to develop among their students. There are continual reminders that the curriculum has to be personalised for individual learners, but how this can be accomplished remains somewhat opaque.

CfE aims to target new teaching methods emphasising active learning, discussion, debate and critical thinking. Broad achievements, as well as specific academic attainments, are valued. Traditional objectives and activities are replaced by learning and teaching that encompasses 4 levels of experiences and outcomes (Es and Os) in a bold attempt to define the curriculum less prescriptively than in the past. The initial Es and Osvaried in qualityand regular reviews, rather like the SQA’s periodic reviews of courses,seem likely.

From Primary 1 to Secondary 3, the broad general educationphase,Es and Os reflect areas of expressive arts, health and wellbeing, languages, mathematics, religious and moral education, sciences, social studies and technologies. Interdisciplinary work that focuses on real-life issues is seen as particularly important. New qualifications become central in the last three years of secondary (S4 to S6), the senior phase of CfE. The senior phase and new qualifications are the aspects of CfE of greatest interest and concern for universities.

Much greater autonomy for teachers, schools, colleges and local authoritiesis stressed inCfEdevelopments in order to create space for imaginative teaching and approaches which make learning more relevant, active and motivating. Inevitably,this leads to substantial diversity across classrooms, schools, colleges and regions. Teachers have looked for CPD to aid rapid movement from prescription to autonomy, and there are suggestions that the very significant wider implications of diversity have had inadequate consideration. This underlines the importance of communication among the education sectors about what is going on and what is expected. Millions of words have been written about CfE. For example, aBuilding the Curriculum series offered guidance on assessment, teaching and learning[2] andexcellence groups[3] in 17 curriculum areas and higher order skills addressed questions of what is excellence and how this can be promoted. Although there is copious material on Scottish Government websites, clear concise information is lacking (e.g. on how the achievement of the 4 capacities is to be assessed).

New national qualificationswill be introduced in the session 2013/14 to articulate with the start of the senior phase in S4. The programme of development will be:

  1. 2013/14:National 4 and National 5, normally taken in S4, willreplace Standard Grade (General and Credit levels) and Intermediate 1 and 2. National 4 will be a simple pass/fail dependent on internal school assessments, but National 5 will have an externally assessed element. New National Literacy and National Numeracy units will form part of English and mathematics.
  2. 2014/15:Revised Higher (level 6 SCQF): awards with assessment support materials available by April 2014.
  3. 2015/16:Revised Advanced Higher (level 7 SCQF): awards will be available with assessment support materials by April 2015. Education Scotland expects this to be a more demanding award than in the past.
  4. The existing National Qualifications at Access, Intermediate 1 and 2, and Higher will have some availability in 2013/14 and/or 2014/15 for learners who have followed the current curriculum arrangements. (Intermediate qualifications will be available in 2014 on an exceptional basis, existing and new Highers will have a dual run in 2014/15 only, and there will be no dual run for Advanced Highers.)
  5. Scottish Baccalaureates in Science and Languages have been available since 2009. It is expected that these awards will be developed in some other areas.
  6. Within the earlier broad education phase, profiles at the transition stages of P7 and S3 are being developed by schools in conjunction with individual learners.
  7. Schools and local authorities will make the decisions about the number, range and timing of qualifications. Prospective university students will, in the CfE senior phase, continue to sit appropriate examinations. Schools are anxious to know whether the new qualifications will be recognised as credible for university admission.

Among the questions still to be asked are:

  • Is the breadth of subject choice available in the senior school years (recognised as a major strength of Scottish education) to be sustained? Confusion about the number of qualification courses that can be taken by learners in S4 stems from the guidance that each National Qualification course should start in S4 and comprise 160 hours of learning. This suggests a narrowing of the curriculum from, say, 8 to 5 examinable courses in S4. In practice, some schools are planning 5 or 6 subjects in S4 while others offer up to 8. Lower numbers of subjects may mean reduced numbers of learners can engage with several languages or be qualified to progress to study STEM subjects in HE. Higher numbers may imply that S3 rather than S4 marks the stage that starts preparation for the new qualifications.
  • What changes will characterise assessments for the new qualifications as different from those in the past? SQA aims to assess compatibility with CfE by ensuring that: learners are on the way to becoming confident individuals, responsible citizens, effective contributors, and successful learners; course specifications reflect the principles of progression, personalisation, choice, depth, challenge and enjoyment; scope is available for peer- and self-assessment, personal learning planning, and comment-based marking; and skills for learning, life and work are integrated with the qualifications. The effectiveness of this approach remains to be seen.
  • Will individuals be assessed on such skills and capacities? Government bodies (e.g. Education Scotland) offer extraordinarily positive perspectives on progress in these areas as well asreferringto very positive impacts fromCfE on young people’s knowledge, skills and competences. But no data beyond anecdotal comment is available to enable checks on the validity of claims or criteria for either broad achievements or specific attainments.
  • Why is there an absence of independent evaluative research associated with these developments? While CfE may have the potential to “lead the world” in addressing curriculum problems that have been articulated in many countries, the evidence-base for the effectiveness of its educational approach is nowhere to be found. Not only do we not know what is going well and what is not, without an evidence-base we have no way of developing a proper understanding or an ability to plan so that things go better.
  • Where are adequate clarifications of concepts such as interdisciplinary work and active learning to be found in the context of CfE? It is not clear that the full potential of these aspects is generally well recognised even though they are seemingly being implemented widely.

There will be increasingflexibility, and so variation, in the patterns of learners’ journeys as young people progress towards degree level work. Universities are encouraged to respond to this by ensuring admission practices remain appropriate and fair, andcollaborating with schools on aspects of the new curriculum, assessmentand approaches to learning and teaching. In the future, young people’s opportunities to achieve qualifications in particular years will depend on how their school has chosen to structure the introduction of CfE, and many will spread their Highers and other qualifications over several years. Universities will not be able to assume a single ‘normal’ model for when pupils are presented for Highers, or that they will necessarily have the opportunity to study for a full range of Highers in a single year. This makes it especially important that all the sectors are clear about what are the necessary knowledge and skills learners need in order to enter and benefit from higher education, irrespective of which routes they may have taken.

Education Scotland claims prospective university students will be confident, articulate, self-aware, solution-focused learners, collaborative in approach but with capacity for personal learning, able to make links across areas of learning with a high standard of analytical and evaluative skills, and attitudes to learning that are open and constructive. Their knowledge, it is suggested, will grasp environmental issues, their relevance to life and learning, increased global awareness and the use of technology to access and harness knowledge sources. While this message is encouraging, there has been no independent evaluation of these claims orany systematic evidence to support them from ES.

Sally Brown

January 2013

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