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Curriculum Rationale

CPD: Subject Level Curriculum (by Kat Howard and Claire Hill), topic 2.1.2

What Should a Strong Curriculum Achieve?

A strong curriculum should aim to do the following:

Convey subject importance

Convey subject importance

  • Curriculum should convey our subject as concrete and meaningful in the context of the wider world.
Think outside the building

Think outside the building

  • A strong curriculum reaches beyond immediate context, beyond exam specifications and beyond the remit of a national curriculum framework.
Relate to students

Relate to students

  • A strong curriculum should enable students to form a personal connection with the subject knowledge.
  • Students can then translate this knowledge to the world around them.
Draw deep connections

Draw deep connections

  • The patterns and connections across components need to go deep and be insightful.
  • This is to help students create meaning and build a stronger schematic framework for the subject.
Acknowledge history

Acknowledge history

  • The curriculum should pay respect to its origins and traditions as part of its ongoing evolution.
  • It should also include the changes or developments of the subject over time, to expose students to the subjective and the changeable in our discipline.
Balances knowledge with practice

Balances knowledge with practice

  • The relationship between skills and knowledge as coexistent, interdependent and symbiotic.
  • Skills such as analysis and evaluation are a manifestation of knowledge in practice.
  • The curriculum must balance knowledge with opportunities to practise what has been learned.

Test yourself on Curriculum Rationale

  • Which of the following is NOT a feature of a strong curriculum?

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