A child-centred curriculum and pedagogy

Conference notes

that the curriculum in both primary and secondary schools has undergone huge changes
over recent years

former Education Secretary Michael Gove introduced more a far more rigid and restrictive
curriculum in to primary schools.

Secondary schools have seen the new GCSE and A Levels and a drive towards a narrow focus
on core subjects at the expense of a broad and balanced curriculum.

This has hit subjects such as art, drama, music and others especially hard denying children
their right to these areas of learning.

That schools have become increasingly pressured as a result to become more and more
exam factories in the way the excellent NUT backed report of that name detailed.

That the current government are now going even further with an openly ideological assault
on what education should be about.

In particular, led by schools standards minister Nick Gibb, they have declared war on what
they term a skills based curriculum and notions of child centred learning and instead are
pushing for what they label a knowledge based curriculum, which in essence amounts to a
necessarily authoritarian vision in which knowledge determined by those in authority is
simply transmitted to children.

Gibb and his allies have heavily criticised the Finnish curriculum where learning takes places
in broad areas rather than in rigid subjects, Instead holding up education systems such as
Shanghai and Singapore as models, supposedly based on the results of the OECDs PISA
tests.

That many respected educators have argued that the PISA tests are utterly flawed and
invalid

Similarly, Gibb and his allies have criticised the findings of both the Cambridge Primary
Review and the Rose review, both of which discussed the need to make primary education
more centred around the development of skills, creativity and enjoyment,

that ASCL and the Parents and Teachers for Excellence organisation have produced A
Question of Knowledge, a pamphlet with articles by a number of Head Teachers who argue
that we need a return to a more traditional, knowledge based education system.

that Gibb draws on the idea from people such as E.D Hirsch, that certain types of knowledge
are superior to other types and in general, these are the types of knowledge that were
taught in the Grammar Schools of the past.

that Gibb has argued that there is a strong social justice case for teaching a core body of
knowledge.

that the pedagogy currently being promoted by Gibb et al is one based on knowledge
transmission from teacher to pupil and that this is necessarily and deliberately an
authoritarian model.
 Conference believes

that both skills and knowledge both play an important role in good pedagogy,

that the idea of knowledge is however contested for example, who decides which
knowledge is important, what social and political agenda lies behind such choices?

that in reality, teaching is and must be a far more complex and dialogic process than simple
knowledge transmission,

that the current curricula in primary and secondary schools is alienating large numbers of
children, in particular working class children, girls, LGBT+ and BME pupils,

that a broad and balanced curriculum should be the right of every child,

that children have the right to a curriculum that reflects their lives and the modern world,

that multi-culturalism is something to celebrate and that this should be reflected in the
school curriculum.

that education should help to foster in children a genuine love of learning, a capacity for
deep thinking, confidence and self-belief. These ideas are not simply dismissible as the
romantic notions of left-wing teachers. Rather they are the bedrock on which good learning
can take place,

That education should and must be child centred, and that giving children opportunities to
explore, construct meaning, discover concepts and ideas and to critically evaluate these as
well as what constitutes knowledge- is crucial in any genuine education.

That the PISA model of tests used to justify the international models preferred by the
government is fundamentally flawed, worthless and should be vigorously challenged.

That PISA and the OECD are not some independent educational bodies but are organisation
committed to the marketisation of society and the imposition of what have been dubbed
neo-liberal policies globally, including in education

That discussion of education in China and Singapore cannot ignore that these societies and
their education systems are fundamentally undemocratic and authoritarian and not models
which anyone should be promoting when we are supposed as teacher to be promoting
values such as democracy, tolerance, respect and individual freedom.

that the union has a centrally important role to play in the debate around what teaching and
learning should look like in our schools.

Conference calls upon the Joint Executive Council of the NEU to

Work with all interested parties to build as soon as practicable, a major conference on the
curriculum, pedagogy and what kind of education and schools we want as part of
challenging the governments vision of education and also as part of shaping the
educational vision of any changed government.