Context: The straight and the narrow

Initial research into the 'narrowing; of our school curriculum. Does it exist and how does it impact on teaching and learning and student progress.

My initial hunch is that yes it exists! The pressure to make 'progress' is everywhere. This is not progress as defined by the teacher or the parents but progress as defined by the state, (and a clearly ideological department for education), and this creates a huge push towards exam success. Progress is not meant in its vaguest sense but within the clearly defined parameters of the exam board specification and KS2 scores. In my school currently we are urged to complete at least one mock exam per term for exam classes (to measure 'progress') and that time alone adds up to a huge amount of exam based prep and focus.

Stories of narrowing curriculum are everywhere (See list below), and it is unlikely to change anytime soon depsite the depth of opposition such as Ken Robinson and many others.


I think this animated video of Ken Robinson's talk is interesting in terms of my project as around the 3 minute mark he identifies how our current education system has been designed around the "enlightenment view of intelligence in which deductive reasoning is of highest importance.. and that there are two types of people in the world; academic and non academic"  This highlights how many students are isolated in our current education system and how the narrow 'academic' education can have a damaging impact on many participants.





Narrowing curriculum in the news: Web links: 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/12062111/A-level-refroms-to-lead-to-narrowing-of-the-curriculum-a-leading-head-has-warned.html

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/narrowing-our-focus-in-education-leads-us-down-a-blind-alley-10452569.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-21857689

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-30330256

 http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/feb/16/historians-michael-gove-curriculum

http://uex.sagepub.com/content/49/7/743.full.pdf+html


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