How could Cross-curricular potentially impact primary education?

The new curriculum is an exciting, yet daunting time for all teachers and leaders. It will enable freedom, flexibility and opportunities for creativity while necessarily shaping the future of progress for pupils in the 21^st century. This volume of freedom that has not been seen in education since the inception of the national curriculum almost 30 years ago (Education reform act 1988) presents challenges for all stakeholders within education. The following blog will outline some of the main positive and areas of challenge with particular reference to primary education. 

Positives

• ·      Flexibility
• ·      Freedom
• ·      Opportunities for creativity

Challenges

• ·      Limited structure
• ·      Continuing Professional Development (CPD)
• ·      Development time for full implementation
• ·      Changing accountability measures

The Donaldson report underpins the changes that will constitute the revised curriculum. Successful Futures states that “While breadth and balance are widely valued, there is a trend towards developing a curriculum that is more than a specified range of subjects or courses” (Donaldson, 2015, p.18). It is essential that children are able to learn outside the core subjects and develop transferrable skills that allow them to make contextual links between the areas of learning. These skills help produce metacognitive learners that are able to adapt as they progress in their education. Cooper and Rowley (2009) also agree that a cross-curricular approach suggests that pupils are also able to use discrete skills they learn in a more practical context, which in turn make it more integrated and relevant to learners. The flexibility and freedom this creates will ultimately have a positive impact on primary education as teachers will not be tied to the rigidity that the national curriculum has imposed. The ability to design topic or thematic local curriculum that meets the needs of all learners to rapidly extend progress, embed skills and promote deeper thinking and creative application. This will present teachers with luxurious choices and extensive opportunities to create educational experiences that inspire, engage and excite. One of the implications that need to be considered by teachers is to ensure any chosen theme or topic allows for development and progress for Literacy, numeracy DCF that are tangible and can be measures to demonstrate the impact of progress and challenge.

One of the many benefits of a cross-curricular approach is the ability for creative teaching. Cross-curricular provides children with the opportunity to apply their knowledge to different areas of learning in order to develop their skills across the curriculum. When talking about Cross-curricular learning, Barnes (2011) suggested it to be “when the skills, knowledge and attitudes of a number of different disciplines are applied to a single theme, problem or experience” (p.54). It can be useful making connections between areas of the curriculum as it enables children to develop transferrable skills. If children develop skills that allow them to adapt in their early years learning it will have an impact on their further education and then later in life when they enter the world of work. Professor Graham Donaldson states in the review that the new cross-curricular approach should help each individual grow as “well-rounded” individuals “who can thrive in the face of unknown future challenges.”

Whilst using a variety of skills, cross-curricular has the ability to stimulate an individuals learning. It also provides a mechanism for teachers to adapt their lesson plans to ensure that all pupils can make good progression in their education. For example, if a child struggles to concentrate in literacy lessons, a teacher can adapt the lesson using a cross-curricular approach to ensure that the lesson is motivating; particularly for that child. It allows teachers to take lessons out of context ensuring that it engages and meets the needs of their learners. If the cross-curricular approach is fostered by teachers, it will allow them to adapt the learning to each child’s abilities and interest. Spooner (2014) highlighted that ‘Teaching in a cross-curricular context makes the place of the learner central, rather than the place of content.’ This creates a relevant focus for each individual learner.

Following the Donaldson review, it has been highlighted that Digital Competency will now have equal cross-curricular responsibilities to Literacy and Numeracy. It was a key recommendation due to the increase of technological innovations in education; and it is important that children are continuously adapting their skills to keep up to date with the digitally changing world around them. “For the first time, today’s parents and teachers have little, if any, experience with the tools that children are going to use everyday in their adult lives” (OECD, 2015).  This emphasises the importance of the Digital Competency Framework (DCF) and proves that without the cross-curricular approach, individuals will be disadvantaged compared to their digitally native peers.

In addition to Digital Competency, both Literacy and Numeracy skills can be used across the curriculum. Literacy can be embedded easily into most lessons as children are able to use oracy, reading and writing in all subject areas. These skills can be reinforced, extended and applied in all areas of learning having a positive impact on learning as learners are re visiting skills across the curriculum and not just in a literacy lesson (Government, 2017). Children should also be given the opportunity to explain themselves in each area of learning in order to aid their progression in the skill. Using Numeracy across the curriculum has a positive impact as it enables children to see how maths is used in a real world context. Similarly, teaching numeracy using a cross curricular approach allows children to frequently practice their skills and encouraged children to use their knowledge of numeracy outside the subject area. This beneficially impacts on education and the development of skills, as employing understanding of numeracy in different contexts across the curriculum displays the relevancy in what is being taught in that particular area.

Cross-Curricular learning provides children with the opportunity to obtain transferable skills that puts them in a better position for their future lives. John Dewey said “If we teach today’s students as we taught yesterday’s, we rob them of tomorrow.” This suggests that The curriculum should stay up to date in order to produce the most adaptable individuals.

Although cross-curricular has many advantages, it also has its down falls. The main weakness for this particular argument is that; many teachers may have limited knowledge and experience of cross-curricular work so may be at a disadvantage when teaching a class (Barnes and Shirley, 2007). Older teachers that have become used to structured lessons from the old curriculum may suffer when the new curriculum is in place as they are not used to the freedom. This may have implications and could have a potential negative impact on a child’s education.

Concentration is key

A further limitation with cross-curricular learning is that subject progression is difficult to achieve when working across the curriculum (Barnes,2012). CPD is also difficult to achieve as well as tracking accountability measures.

With these challenges in mind, it could be argued that the positives of teaching using a cross-curricular approach outweigh the negatives due to the benefits children will gain.

Creating the set

Within an AOLE session I have gained skills that I will now be able to develop and reinforce with a group of children. I have recently created an animation that has cross-curricular links. Creating animations within education is a way in which the cross-curricular approach could be implemented into a lesson. Whilst making ‘The OCD Bear’ digital skills were used in order to create a series of images that made an animation. Green Screen and iMovie were also used which displayed the use of digital skills. Cross – curricular links can be made between DCF and literacy if children use their digital skills to create animations relating to their literacy content.

Bibliography

Barnes, J. (2015). Cross-curricular learning 3-14. Sage.

Barnes, J., & Shirley, I. (2007). Strangely familiar: cross-curricular and creative thinking in teacher education. Improving Schools, 10(2), 162-179.

Donaldson, G. (2015). Successful futures: independent review of curriculum and assessment arrangements in Wales: February 2015.

Government, W. (2017). Learning Wales. [online] Learning.gov.wales. Available at: http://learning.gov.wales/resources/browse-all/nlnf/framework?lang=en [Accessed 19 Nov. 2017].

Lawton, D. (1998). Values and Education: A Curriculum for the 21st Century, lecture. Institute of Education, University of London.

OECD (2015), Students, computers and learning: making the connection, PISA, OECD Publishing. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264239555-en. Accessed 22nd November 2017

Rowley, C. and Cooper, H. eds., 2009. Cross-curricular approaches to teaching and learning. Sage.

Spooner, k. (2014) ‘Leading change from a subject-based to an integrated approach to curriculum management: and examination of Andes View School’s readiness for curriculum change’. Leicester: University of Leicester MSc dissertation.