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Looking at CfE from a different angle
Award winning journalists from Coatbridge High School explore CfE from a number of perspectives (Robyn Duffy, Emma Cunningham, Keely Ormond and Rachael Kane).
When we won the Scottish School Magazine Competition, part of our prize was the opportunity to write about Curriculum for Excellence (CfE). We chose this topic because we felt that insufficient steps had been taken to inform parents, teachers, employers and pupils about the change.
We decided to focus on employers, as we envisaged that they would be the group least informed about the changes, given the Government's priority to inform pupils, parents and teachers.
In addition to employers, we felt that pupils and teachers were fundamental to the process and we sought to include them in our research. The results of our research showed that only 32 per cent of parents had heard of the term CfE and 100 per cent of teachers thought that more steps would have to be taken to inform everyone who will be affected by the new curriculum.
We were delighted to be given the opportunity to interview various people, including Mike Russell MSP and we spent a day at the Learning Teaching Scotland (LTS) offices. Moreover, we carried out our very own independent research via surveys and questionnaires.
The results were clear; that a significant amount of work had already gone into CfE and that, like any new initiative, only time would tell.
To find out more about CfE we decided to interview Mr Russell (Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning). If anyone knew more information about CfE, it would be him. The aim of the interview was to discover what he felt the aims of the new curriculum were and the impact this would have on all that were involved in curricular change.
Mr Russell declared CfE was "to make sure Scotland has the best educational system for every pupil". He explained to us the numerous problems regarding the current curriculum. He highlighted the fact that, at present, there are too many exams. Also he feels it does not adequately prepare all pupils for the real world. He stated that, according to research conducted in 2002, the general consensus was that there was a need for change. He announced: "The change is a reaction to what was not good."
We also met with Dr Joyce Henderson (CfE Co-ordinator for Support for Staff and Senior Phase) at the LTS offices and she shared more in-depth details.
When asked why the current curriculum was changing, Dr Henderson used the analogy of Rip Van Winkle waking up in the 21st century after having been asleep for 100 years. She explained how he would be unable to recognise anything around him with the exception of the classroom. If he were present in a classroom, he would be well aware of his location because it still looks very much the same as it did years ago except, nowadays, the boards are white and not traditionally black. From this illustration, we understood her point- schools have been much the same since 1908 and now we are at a stage, in society, where technology is constantly advancing and becoming more high-tech than ever. Therefore, an innovative curriculum would be needed to prepare children for jobs that do not exist yet, using technology that has not yet been invented. Thus CfE was born.
As we, personally, will not be involved in the new curriculum, we were curious to know whether employers would be informed about the changes to the qualification system and whether our qualifications would still be recognised and looked upon with equal validity. Mr Russell revealed that he was "not impressed with the naming of the new qualifications" and there were still requirements for more changes before actually informing employers. He seemed fairly relaxed about our question, and he stated: "We have four years to plan for informing employers."
When we expressed worry about our qualifications being inferior to the new qualification he responded: "I give absolute assurance of equal standards for qualifications." However, we were not quite convinced about this and we decided to further our research on this area.
Parents are obviously concerned about the education of their children. We, therefore, realised it was important to find out what steps had been taken to notify parents about CfE. When we questioned whether Mr Russell felt parents were well informed, he replied: "Not yet, but they will be." He clarified that the "Toolkit for Parents", which is available on the LTS website, will help make parents more aware of the changes in store. The online "Toolkit" is also planned to be showcased at meetings in schools along with materials which will be sent home to parents. However, we are worried that if parents do not have access to the internet and do not attend school meetings due to other commitments or if they fail to read materials sent home then they will remain ill-informed. Mr Russell remarked: "There does come a moment when no more can be done."
We felt that his was an issue worthy of concern and that greater steps could be taken to inform parents.
Arguably, the first focus to be informed about CfE are teachers. All teachers have heard of CfE and LTS explained that teachers are currently attending workshops to help them develop the skills they need. Teachers also have access to the "Toolkit" online.
A number of pupils have still not heard of CfE and, some of those who have heard, are unsure about the changeover. When questioned about his knowledge of CfE, a first-year boy replied: "Oh, aye! There was a wall about that in my Primary school." This shows that pupils are not seeing the curriculum as something which is being implemented in August and fundamental to their learning, but as a separate entity. We are aware that this will not affect our current first-years and above, but we feel it would be beneficial for them to know about CfE as it will help continuity.
Ultimately, what we learned from Mr Russell was that the creators of CfE still have four years until the first exams take place and that, during this time, they will endeavour to make arrangements to inform everyone.
We just hope that this is enough time for them to follow through on their plans.
What do potential employers know about CfE?
A number of issues appeared unanswered which spurred us to devise and implement our own research.
We wanted to find out if employers are well informed about changes to qualifications. To do this we interviewed a careers adviser.
The general results were that the CfE will be beneficial due to its relevance to the world of work. However, SQA is in charge of letting employers know about the changes to the qualifications and it is difficult and challenging to tell all employers. It was admitted that employers still don't understand present qualifications, which were implemented about a decade ago.
In short, more steps need to be taken to inform employers.
Our recommendations
From our research we have an understanding of how difficult it is to inform everyone of the changes to the curriculum.
We recommend:
- Informing parents about the change (primary and secondary)
- To have more media coverage e.g. papers, television
- To have meetings for parents.
When we looked at the parent toolkit it looked very interesting and full of information. When we tried it out it seemed helpful and well explained.
We thought it was informative and planned well, and our recommendations would be:
- To have an option to leave comments
- To have an option for families to ask questions.
The "All Kinds of Minds" site, linked to the toolkit, is also useful for finding out information, but one important thing is how parents are being informed about CfE. Our recommendations on how to inform them more are:
- To have more resources in school
- To have links on the school website
- To send information via e-mail etc.