What are we Teaching: Powerful knowledge and a capabilities curriculum - Dr. Richard Bustin
simpsonrd
7 hours ago5 min read
Written by Richard Bustin, What are we Teaching? Powerful knowledge and a capabilities curriculum offers a fresh perspective on curriculum design, arguing that subjects are key to enabling young people to develop the powerful knowledge needed to flourish in a complex modern world. Moving ideas beyond the ‘traditional vs progressive’ debates that have dominated education discourse, Richard Bustin challenges the overarching emphasis on exam performance at the expense of the broader benefits of subject knowledge and capabilities such as critical and creative thinking.
I'm thrilled to have been given the chance to ask some questions to the author, Richard Bustin, by publisher Crown House. Here's what he had to say!
1. How can subject specialists contribute to the effectiveness of curriculum design, and why is their expertise particularly important when it comes to the delivering complex or specialized content required by the national Curriculum?
Subjects remain at the heart of our school system, but I wonder if, perhaps, we have lost sight of exactly why. There are some who will argue that subjects, and therefore subject specialist teachers, are outdated and mode of a bygone era and that what is really important in curriculum design is a focus on a broad range of life skills. Others will argue that our job as teachers is pass on the great canon of subject knowledge to the next generation – knowledge which has been argued over and developed for centuries. This broadly sets out the progressive vs traditional debate in curriculum thinking.
What I argue in What are we Teaching: Powerful knowledge and a capabilities curriculum is that we can move beyond these debates. Subjects are important in a curriculum as they each offer a unique way to see and make sense of the world. Complex thinking and specialised content is at the heart of this curricular vision, but not because it is ‘required by the national Curriculum’ (as is suggested in the question) or needed to be learnt for an exam, but because it is truly inspiring and empowering – hence the idea of ‘powerful’ knowledge. Of course, what makes each subject uniquely empowering for young people is
difficult to define (and this takes up much of the discussion in my book), but subject specialist teachers have to be at the heart of this for it to be a curricular reality.
2. In the context of reflective practice, how can subject specialists ensure that their teaching methods remain relevant and adaptive to the evolving needs of students and changes in their specific field of study? How can schools facilitate this?
One of the challenges of effective teacher CPD is ensuring that it is subject specific. When CPD is planned and delivered centrally in schools (or across groups of schools) this becomes problematic. Hearing all about the latest, shiny new fad then being asked to shoehorn it into your subject won’t really do if we aim to take our responsibility as subject specialist teachers
seriously. Regular and active dialogue between colleagues teaching the same subject within and across schools, often facilitated by online platforms, can help develop subject expertise, but a great source of support for teachers also has to be the various subject associations. Many
of these play a key role in offering targeted, subject specific advice, training and resources and should be the first natural place to look for teacher CPD.
3. What role do subject specialists play in fostering a deeper understanding of content for students, and how could this influence an approach to cross-curricular collaboration and interdisciplinary teaching?
To have effective interdisciplinary teaching, first you need to have effective disciplinary teaching! One of the falsehoods that exists is the idea that the real world is not split into different subjects so neither should the curriculum. In my view this is wrong. Firstly, we can make sense of the world in many different ways -scientifically, culturally, aesthetically- and
that is why we have different subjects. Students learn about different ways in which we can make claims about truth. In my book I talk about visiting a lake with students. As part of this experience students can go pond dipping and analyse different species; they can assess water pH; they can interview people around the lake to identify different land uses; they can create a piece of art or poetry inspired by the water. All of these are valuable educational experiences but in different ways. Teachers with different specialisms are needed to get the best out of all the students in each of these different examples. A good education will allow
students all these different ways of seeing and making sense of the world, and subject specialists are key to this process.
4. How can schools and educational institutions support subject specialists in developing improvement of curriculum and assessment strategies?
I think that subject associations are key to supporting subject specialist teachers. As a geography teacher, the Geographical Association (GA) has been instrumental throughout my career. The GA hosts an annual conference, lots of CPD courses, publish books and journals and host a heap of resources on their website. I know subject associations vary in
how active they are, but they can provide the subject specific input that is so critical. They become especially pertinent when there are only one or two specialists of a particular subject working in any school, as they help link teachers.
Within schools the other thing is of course trust. Not every intervention or whole school policy might be suitable for every subject, so trusting subject specialist teachers and ensuring their expertise is taken into consideration when developing whole school strategies will surely improve outcomes too.
5. What strategies can subject specialists use to balance the need for both a strong subject/knowledge focus and the integration of broader, transferable skills (such as critical thinking and problem-solving) within their subject areas?
The framing of this question around needing to find a ‘balance’ suggests that knowledge and skills are competing ideals which is not really how I see the curriculum. I might even question here the extent to which the two skills identified in the question are actually transferable. For example, ‘critical thinking’ is a different process if you are analysing a painting or if you are developing a science experiment. The sorts of problems that a
mathematician is solving requires a different way of thinking to the problems children encounter in humanities or languages. The key thing about transferable skills is that they should arise naturally through good subject teaching. Of course we can highlight to students where and when these do occur, but they should not drive our curricular thinking.
I much prefer the language of ‘capabilities’. This articulates what a student can ‘be’ or can ‘do’ with the knowledge, skills and values from subject teaching. It is not about looking at what facts a young person can recall, but how the subject enables students to see the world in new ways. It is deliberately broad and ambitious. Subjects play a key role in developing
capabilities. In my subject (geography) there has been a lot of work around the idea of GeoCapabilities – the educational outcomes (framed as capabilities) that derive from a powerful knowledge led geography curriculum. In What are we Teaching? Powerful knowledge and a capabilities curriculum I explore what capabilities might look like across
the school curriculum.
Dr Richard Bustin teaches Geography and leads the department at Lancing College, where he is responsible for staff development and teacher training. Richard’s research on curriculum has resulted in multiple publications, invitations to speak at education conferences and work with trainee teachers around the world.
My thanks to Elen at Crown House for the copy of the book for review and the opportunity to pose the questions. My thanks to Richard for taking the time to read and provide such through answers!
Comentarios