The National Curriculum was brought in 1988 and set out what students were expected to know and arrangements for assessment at each key stage. With the government specifying what schools were required to teach, it seemed to settle the curriculum debate. However, there is a difference between prescribing what is to be taught and the curriculum as the lived interaction between teachers, pupils and texts within the classroom and wider school.
The New Ofsted Framework returns focus back on curriculum, its intent, implementation and impact. This raises questions for senior leaders on the overall shape of their school's curriculum, but it also raises questions for middle leaders and subject teachers, who must now think carefully about the content of what they teach, how it is sequenced and delivered. If asked, 'why do you teach this unit at this point, and not another?', a teacher needs a better answer than 'that's where it's listed in the specification.' It is true that for exam classes that the specification exerts significant influence on what is taught, yet it is up to the teacher to decide the selection of texts, scholars and pedagogical approaches.
In writing the scheme of work, I've used OCR's own curriculum planner as the basis, but keeping the following principles in mind:
1. Cumulative
Knowledge needs to be carefully sequenced, and this should be visible in the scheme of work. In this scheme of work, teaching is split between two teachers. In choosing who teaches what, I've tried to maximise the opportunities for synoptic links between topics both vertically and horizontally. It is sensible to begin with Ancient Greek Influences and the Soul. As students learn about Plato's theory of forms, pupils can simultaneously learn how this applies to the soul. It is also in these units that pupils are introduced to foundational concepts, epistemological and ontological categories, which weave through the course. As we go deeper into the course, students make more complex synoptic links vertically, considering how Platonic thoughts bare influence in the thought of Augustine, and tracing Aristotle's influence in the thought of Aquinas.
2. Rigorous
A more rigorous curriculum means pupils should be exposed to 'the substance' of our subject, and that means going beyond the textbook and reading philosophical and scholarly texts. This is not just to support the most able pupils, though there is an expectation for the higher grade bands that pupils engage in some original research. But there is growing consensus that reading challenging texts benefits all pupils.
In every unit, I have tried to think carefully to identify one text that would stretch and challenge pupils. For example, in the Attributes of God unit, the textbook makes reference to Whitehead, but does not discuss Process Thought, which I wanted to correct with a carefully chosen text, which pupils could then use as a counterpoint to the traditional views of God's omnipotence in their essays.
There are various articles on how to equip pupils to read philosophical texts. In summary, the key points are:
1) Context - giving students sufficient context to access the text, who wrote it, when and to what purpose.
2) Vocabulary - teaching pupils philosophical and theological terms, which I plan to write about in a future post.
3) Argument - giving pupils strategies to identify the structure of an argument, a particular feature of philosophical texts, and how to use annotation effectively.
4) Structure/Concepts - teaching pupils to break down the extract into sections, identifying the key concepts and summarising, perhaps aided by the Cornell Note system.
3. "Sticky"
In recent years there has been growing discussion on the implications of cognitive science for learning. A beautifully illustrated and concise summary of the research can be found in Weinstein and Sumeracki's 'Understanding how we learn' (2019), which takes teachers through five core strategies; i) spacing, ii) elaboration, iii) concrete examples, iv) visuals and v) retrieval practice.
In philosophy we are dealing with complex and abstract ideas, and so within the scheme of work, I've tried to plan in advance what thought experiments or analogies can be used. For example, when talking about God's relationship to time, it can be compared to music on a CD. All the music is stamped onto the disc. The laser reads the music as if it were becoming but every note is there, beginning, middle and end. The future may be unknown to us, like notes on the CD, but it is already fully known to God
I've also tried to plan for frequent low-stakes assessment, ensuring core concepts and vocabulary is secure, and thought when topics can be revisited to maximise impact.
While on the surface questions about curriculum might seem abstract or obscure, it forces us as teachers to step back and think about the big picture, and surely that is to be welcomed.
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