Literature review - National Curriculum extract review

Overview of the structure of the National Curriculum

The document sets out the framework for the national curriculum. It gives the overall school curriculum and the statutory national curriculum. It also gives statements on inclusion and development of pupils. It also quotes 'competence in numeracy and mathematics, language and literacy across the school curriculum'.

It also important to understand the different schools and how the curriculum affects them.

'Every state-funded school must offer a curriculum which is balanced and broadly based' 

• Primary teaching - is more broad, although a teacher can specialise in specific areas of the curriculum or learning etc...
• Secondary teaching - teacher normally have a depth knowledge of a specific subject area etc..

Prepare pupils at the school for the opportunities, responsibilities and experience of later life and promotes the spiritual, moral, cultural..... as quoted in the national curriculum.

The national curriculum forms one part of the school curriculum. It also states there is time in the school day and in each week, term and year to go beyond the national curriculum specifications.
                           
Maintained schools are required to follow the statutory curriculum. Schools are free to include other subjects and topics. All schools must publish their curriculum online.

Pupils of compulsory school age in Community and foundation schools, including special community and special foundation schools and in voluntary aided and voluntary controlled must follow the national curriculum.

• community schools, controlled by the local council and not influenced by business or religious  groups
• foundation schools, with more freedom to change the way they do things than community schools
• academies, run by a governing body, independent from the local council - they can follow a different curriculum (although they still maybe guided by the national curriculum)

Quoted on the https://www.gov.uk/types-of-school/overview website.

Academies are also required to offer a broad and balanced curriculum, in accordance with the section 1 of the 2010 Academies Act. 

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/32/section/1

 My current school, is a primary school Academy so the act applies to my school.

                   
Inclusion ...national curriculum.... page 9

• Setting suitable challenges 
• Responding to pupils needs and overcoming potential barriers for individuals or groups of pupils.

The curriculum is organised into twelve subjects, split into core and foundation subjects. Schools can choose how they organise their day.

In my opinion it is important to understand the structure of a product or the rules of the game in order to allow for further creativity within the structure and to utilizes the strengths within the creativity.
                                                                                                                                      

Numeracy and mathematics 'every relevant subject to develop pupils' mathematical fluency numeracy and mathematical reasoning in all subjects Language and literacy spoken language, reading, writing and vocabulary as integral aspects of the teaching of every subject Science Science has changed our lives and is vital to the world's future prosperity, and all pupils should be taught essential aspects of knowledge, methods, processes and of science. Pupils should be encouraged to recognise the power of rational explanation and develop a sense of excitement and curiosity about natural phenomena. Aims   develops scientific knowledge and conceptual understanding through the specific disciplines of biology, chemistry and physics develop understanding of the nature, processes and methods of science through different types of science enquires that help them to answer scientific questions about the world around them are equipped with the scientific knowledge required to understand the uses and implications of science, today and for the future

Art & Design Aims creative work, exploring their ideas proficient in drawing, painting, sculpture and other art, craft and design techniques evaluate and analyse creative works using a language of art, craft and design know about great artists, craft makers and designers, and understand the historical and culture development of their art forms. Computing Computational thinking and creativity to understand and change the word. linked to science, mathematics and design an technology. provides insights into both natural and artificial systems principles of information and computation to create programs active participants in a digital world Aims can understand and apply the fundamentals principles and concepts of computer science, including abstraction, logic, algorithms and data representation. can analyse problems in computational terms, and have repeated practical experience of writing computer programs in order to solve such problems can evaluate and apply information technology, including new or unfamiliar technologies, analytically to solve problems are responsible, competent, confident and creative users of information and communication technology. By the end of each key stage, pupils are expected to know, apply and understand the matters, skills and processes specified in the relevant programme study, as quoted in the National Curriculum Design & Technology : is an inspiring, rigorous and practical subject. Creative and imagination : requires a broad range subject knowledge, and draw on disciplines such as mathematics, science, engineering, computing and art. Aims develop the creative technical and practical expertise needed to perform everyday tasks confidently and to participate successfully in an increasingly technological world build and apply a repertoire of knowledge, understanding and skills in order to design and make high-equality prototypes and products for a wide range of users critique, evaluate and test their ideas products and the work of others. understand and apply the principles of nutrition and learn how to cook Attainment targets By the end of each key stage, pupils are expected to know, apply and understand the matters, skills and relevant programme study.

Other subjects

At KS1 and KS2 children are also taught the following subjects.

Geography, History, Languages, Music, Physical Education and Religious Education. 

As a teacher a abroad range of knowledge is often required, but more importantly in my opinion maybe a need to learn, adapt or research when required, the ability to develop the use of questioning and some understanding of how we learn. You are always at some point during your time teaching in a primary school, going to be teaching area that you maybe unfamiliar with, and it is your job as a teacher to know your strength and weaknesses, to know when you need to research or get the support to a learn a topic if needed. The curriculum often changes, schools and year groups are different.


Review

The National Curriculum is a framework, as previously mentioned. The statutory requirements, that includes inclusion and development of pupils, a curriculum that is balanced and broadly based. 'Preparing pupils at school for the opportunities, responsibilities and experience of later life, and promotes spiritual, moral and cultural etc...' This in theory is the ethos and ethics of the curriculum, which gives the curriculum foundation and room for growth and development.

However many people may argue what is considered to be preparing pupils for later life or what is a positive attitude towards spiritual, moral and cultural etc... Then you need to consider what in real terms is practical or affordable as this could impact on teachers and their wellbeing, which may lead to teachers striking or problems in schools.

The National Curriculum also only forms 'one part' of the school curriculum as quoted in the curriculum. It also states as previously said above, there is time in school day, in each week and year to go beyond the national curriculum specifications, which I do believe in many primary schools is true. However what is not considered is the extra time preparing for the other activities and some lessons which goes beyond the school day.  But what it does says is, schools can 'choose' how they organise their day, so there is room for flexibility but this depends on a schools budget and time.

Numeracy/Maths and Literacy/English should be integrated across all subjects. Creativity is important within the National Curriculum and there is room to be creative within it, developing thinking skills, exploring ideas and giving learning a sense of purpose at a primary level. However training maybe needed within some schools to implement parts of the new computer curriculum, which would have some impact on budgets.

The curriculum gives a foundation to learning, to which one can build on at a primary level, but this depends on circumstances how it is perceived.

Inquiry Tools and research, brief update

Both after school projects have started well and I have started to send out Questionnaires to Head Teacher's.

Below is a blank Observation grid that I am currently using for the after school projects. The grid is focusing on my delivery and planning, so I am indirectly observing myself, making me the main participant. (update - link analysis) I am also using my reflection journal. I will have 12 of these completed by the end of the after school projects. Six for each project.

 

The questionnaire is a little creative so I have taken an element of risk. At the moment I have sent it out with a formal cover letter, introducing myself, explaining about my inquiry, ethics and where the information would be going. I am currently focusing on my borough, but may extended to other boroughs or schools that run IPC depending on response. I also may send a less formal follow up or even as direct mail. The biggest problem I feel I may have to begin with is getting pass the admin staff and getting the Head Teacher to read it. However it is early days, and I have already received some responses.  I would like about 20 to 25 respond responds make to give me a good sample of data, so I am prepared to expand the focus group to teachers if needed.

(add example of questionnaire)

In addition, I have started to focus my literature reviews in line with my development and the area I would like to specialise in Primary Education. These will also support my inquiry/projects and primary research.

Having looked at the new National Curriculum more and IPC (projects), I realised my project/inquiry will be a platform to which I will continue to build on and develop. I personally like the new National curriculum and the IPC Projects, I think the creativity within it is suits my skills and creativity. But as a result of flicking through some of the IPC projects, I think some of the IPC projects may need updating to meet the demands of the new computer curriculum. However I will have to have better look at the IPC projects.  I think my skills are nearly there to meet the computer curriculum, however it has made me aware of what computer skills I may need to develop and learn.

Inquiry summary - to be updated

Inquiry Summary

Title -  The Nature of Creativity within a Structure of Learning

Creativity is about developing thinking skills, across all subjects, is a lifelong learning skill that is also needed for business and personal development. Creativity gives purpose to learning which is often needed in and outside school. Applying creativity to next steps at an early age could also provide the tools needed to help the youth find their first job, develop a career  or be part of a community. Structure is important because it provides routine, gives security to people and children, helps to organize and plan, can provide a scaffolding for learning and give guidance. Projects and cross-curricular learning is also increasing within Primary Education and so my inquiry is also building on my art form 'Graphic Design'.

The inquiry will optimally as previously said in my proposal, develop my professional practice in my delivery of teaching to arrange of needs and variety of lessons that applies the core subjects It will be a stepping stone that will lead on for me to do a PGCE in Primary Education. So it will also need to demonstrate broadness.  It will see how  nature of creativity can be improved within a structure of a lesson and learning environment, to help the learning, the natural talent of a child and a school move forward.

How does the nature of creativity affect the learning within a structure of learning in Primary Education?

What is the difference between structured and non-structured creativity? What happens if the creativity is pupil led or teacher led? What would be the affect on behaviour, attitude and learning?  How can the use of creativity and cross-curricular projects develop learning in children with different learning needs and backgrounds?  

How has the nature of creativity revolved and how has this affected learning?

Does Professionalism and the need for results limit creativity, halter thinking skills that are needed for long-term learning development? How does creativity or cross-curricular learning get demonstrated or recorded to show improvement in a primary school?

A few of the above questions I have begun to answer through experience, knowledge, afterschool projects and pilots and from covering classes and group work. Although I plan to continue to learn and build on this, developing my knowledge on cross-curricular learning and creativity within a structure, my next afterschool pilots are going to be more guided yet still allowing creativity thinking to naturally flow and develop, aiming to improve the quality of the learning.

The inquiry will develop my understanding of how creativity is perceived within learning knowing when creativity is needed in a structure as previously said in my inquiry proposal, taking in a variety learning needs; additionally developing my teaching of cross-curricular subjects leading to my specialism that I will pursue whiles doing a PGCE and extending extra-curricular activities.  

Inquiry tools

I changed the projects that I had planned to use, because I felt although I had permission to run them from the gate keeper.  I felt I needed to run these projects within the 12 weeks and waited for any additional ethical permission I may have needed from the University. In addition I also needed allow time to analysis the observation grid and field journal further, that I would be using, as a result I have decided to run two projects during the next six weeks

Projects
 

Product Design

Designing a creating a board game within a defined area of space.

Main Objective 

•  develop ideas and thinking skills
• to use Art & Design/Design & Technology
•  apply Literacy and Maths

  Digital Media

Creating a 1 to 3 minutes silent movie/trailer

Main Objective 

•  develop ideas and thinking skills
• to use Digital Media/ICT - filming, cutting and editing video/film
•  apply Literacy and Maths

In addition, I want to see if I can get a natural creative atmosphere in both projects, which would lead to children to automatically start to plan their next steps.

Questionnaire to Head Teachers + Teachers

(Add info)

Ethics

Keep my employer/professional mentor informed and up to date about my inquiry and ethics involved to stop unnecessary repercussions.  Gatekeeper/employer to check any letters sent out to parents. Parents to sign permission slips for children attending afterschool club. The letter and permission slips to be kept in the office at work, no names of children to be recorded other than for a register for Health & safety reasons, which is to be kept at school. The questionnaire to be checked by the gatekeeper and a covering letter to be sent to Head Teacher or Teacher where needed, to inform them of the inquiry and that it will be anonymous. Any documents or literature used will either be added to a Bibliography or quoted using Harvard referencing. No need to access or use confidential records As I am an insider researcher and participate, I will aim to be impartial and unbiased and give a critical reflection.

Literature

• Extracts from National curriculum (English, Maths, Art, ICT, Science - Design & Technology)
• Extracts from IPC
• Extracts from Robinson – (creativity and the way we learn)
• Possibly extracts from policy
• Thinking Hats - Thinking Schools
• Structures (Graphic Design +(module 1 blog – note to me))
• Extracts from Current jobs and skills,
• The creative process and how we learn (pull elements from module one)
• Creative History
• Next steps

Ideas for Professional Artefact

Book, audio/CD Rom,  or learning resources

Getting into Module 3 to be continued

Starting to get into module 3, my senses are starting to come alive and my intuition is kicking in and giving me some guidance. I feel things are going to come together. My confidence has grown somewhat throughout the last couple of modules and I am starting to believe in myself more.

My reflection journal has become my soul mate as well as allowing me to take control of my emotions, helping me move forward it has also helped me to break things down and see things from a different perspective.  I feel I have learnt a lot of life skills throughout the last two modules.

(reflect on previous modules)

I have started to organize my afterschool projects for my inquiry and have sent out parent letters, which have also been checked by the gate keeper. The projects will start after half-term. I have arranged the resources needed for one of the projects and am currently sorting the software I will use for the other project. I plan to create the observation grids I will use for the projects either later today or tomorrow and code my journal ready for analysing. These projects are more guided than my previous projects, the reason for this, is because I hope to improve the quality of the learning and creativity used as well as the engagement. The projects will last for 6 weeks, one hour per week and will end just before the Easter Holidays, allowing time for deeper analysis. (reference and explain inquiry and some reference from Alan - note to me)

I also would like to be able create a bounce effect of my delivery/planning of the lesson of controlled answers and questions, although the questioning will naturally come for the student. This could help open a discussion if needed when ideas and engagement is limited. (reference Teacher - note to me)

Understanding the complexity of the structure within Graphic Design and how this relates to teaching, learning and education. (understanding the flexibility within a grid - note to me) What are structures of education? Where are the structures? E.G the 'National Curriculum' is a structure, The school day is a structure etc... Policy is a structure etc...

I am also in the process of developing my questionnaire for Head Teachers and plan to send it out during next week. I will write up my summary and send it to Alan over the next few days.

Module 3 - Getting Started

Feeling like I lost some of my stride because we haven't actually got our results back. I keep feeling there is something missing or that I haven't finished something, although the feedback from Alan has been helpful. I think I was probably a little hyped up for the 3rd Feb and ready to go, but then the batteries went flat and needed changing. Although I am starting to move forward now in this module and have a sense of direction. I still feel like I am in Limo Land floating in the air at times and won't actually come back down to earth fully until 25th February 2014.  I know, having the results back late shouldn't make a difference, but it does a little bit. But! On a much more positive note I now have two things to look forward too, because the school I am a Governor at was Ofsted and I have to wait for the result of that too, so the 25th February now feels like 25th December, although the results of Ofsted inspection maybe a little later.

I am currently in the process of organising my primary research and getting it running, E.G, club projects and questionnaire etc... I will reflect more on module 2 and feedback etc...and blog my inquiry.
In addition I am starting to become more conscious of my inquiry/project whenever I am teaching a group or covering a class, although I haven't directly linked this with my inquiry.  I also feel my reflection in-action is starting to increase naturally. I also realised, as I am the main participant within my inquiry (as it is about improving my practice), I could have used many elements of my job for my primary research. When I think of creating an Artefact, I get a couple goosebumps down my arm, I am not sure 'why?' Because the task does involve writing a few thousands words, perhaps its the word 'Artefact' that makes me think I am going to be creating something special. I don't know! I am looking forward to all coming together though.

A Critical Reflection on Professional Practitioner Inquiry

A Critical Reflection on Professional Practitioner Inquiry

At the beginning of this module I reflected the last module more, thinking about what I had learnt in regards to networking, critical thinking and reflection. I also gave some thought to the feedback of my last module, about getting deep within my practice. So I decided to become a Governor at a different school to where I work to develop my network, critical thinking as well as get a better picture and understanding of the environment in which I work.  (Appendix A)I also started the afterschool club that I had briefly mentioned in the last module that I wanted to do. Becoming a Governor and starting the afterschool club gave module 2 the foundation and direction I wanted to go and explore within my inquiry.

During Task 4, I started to blog questions that perhaps I already knew the answers too or thought. (Appendix B)  I also learnt during some of the governor training I had, that asking questions you think you already know the answers too or naïve questions can develop critical thinking as the questions lead to further questions and discussion. This is also demonstrated in (Appendix C) because Alan analysed, started to develop my questions, raised questions and developed a discussion. From this I did start to think about the questions more and the literature.

I found creating a SIG was a bit of a problem at first because my Art form is different from my fellow students, I then decided to compare and contrast other things I may have in common with them, using Bubble Maps (Appendix D) and found the strongest connection I had was teaching, this lead me to Hannah Shepard’s blog who is also a Teacher Assistant. After some discussion via her blog (Appendix E) I joined the Facebook SIG. I found the SIG useful for progressing through the course and my Professional and Personal Networks for developing my inquiry.

Ethics is something I found interesting, and at first a lot to take in, although I have some understanding of ethics in the work place (Appendix F), have my own personal Ethics and I analyse Codes of Practice (Appendix G). Reader 5 is what made me stop and think! Thinking of ethics from different angles and perspectives, questioning what is right or wrong; when personal ethics clash against professional ethics and ethics within different laws or cultures. (Appendix H) It also made me think about how personal ethics can impact on society – the ethical butterfly effect. This section was a thought-provoking learning curve.

Whiles reading ‘Reader 6’ I started to think about the Data Collection Tools I would use, weighing up the pros and cons (Appendix I). This led me to piloting an Observation Grid and planning a questionnaire for my inquiry. I also reflected on two other pilots’ I had run during my afterschool club for my inquiry (Appendix J) as well as reflecting on the tools (Appendix K).

This module has engaged my thinking in many ways to help me develop my inquiry, helping me raise questions and improved my analysis.  As well looking at and exploring the different types of literature that gives my inquiry some foundation (Appendix M)( Appendix N)( Appendix O). The ethics has given me room for thought and the ethics I need to beware of for my inquiry. 

6c Award Title

Ba Professional Practice in Learning and Teaching, in Primary Education

As I have written on the Award Title form

At first I started to build and debate my award title based upon Graphic Design, which my High National Diploma is in. I started to think about Design & Technology, in which Graphic Design comes under and my ‘inquiry’ which does have some connection to Design & Technology. Design & Technology is also more understood as a name or term within in a primary school. I have also done an Access course in Art & Design, which I also engage with, in a primary school. I also run an afterschool Creativity Club, which is project based and cross-curricular, however the club also develops learning and the delivery of my teaching.  Furthermore I also teach and support a variety of needs and subjects, including Mathematics and Literacy. In addition to this I have worked in a primary school for the last 7 years as Teacher Assistant, this also includes some supply work in different primary schools. I also want to go on to do a PGCE in Primary Education 

This then started me to think more of the term ‘Creativity’ in a Primary Education, because I felt this reflected my inquiry and what I wanted to do. However I wasn’t sure, so I bounced the idea of Alan and he suggested. Learning and Teaching in Primary Education, as he felt ‘creativity’ was too focused on my overall studies. On reflection I would have to agree with him, which also made me think of what BA stands ‘Bachelor of Arts’ and with this in mind I think ‘Ba Professional Practice in Learning and Teaching, in Primary Education’ is suited to me. (Bernadette Howlett (2013)

Bernadette Howlett (2013) Award Title Form 02/001/2014