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Curriculum Change and Teachers’

Professional Practice:

Identifying Possibilities and Tensions

Pádraig Hogan, National University of Ireland Maynooth

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Introduction

Where I’m speaking from:

the experience of teaching;

the experience of research.

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Two starting premises:

1. that teaching is a practice in its own

right;

2. that teachers are practitioners, not

just a workforce.

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The Curriculum at Junior Cycle: Brief Retrospect and Prospect

Retrospect: 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s.

Report on the Intermediate Certificate Examination (1974) known

as ICE Report

Humanities and ISCIP Curriculum Projects at CDVEC/TCD and

the Social and Environmental Studies Project at Shannon CDU

(1972-89)

Interim reports of the Public Examinations Evaluation Project: on

history (1974); on maths (1976); Examining in Second Level

Education, John Heywood’s Report for ASTI 1977

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1980s

Final Report of the Public Examinations Evaluation Project (1980)

CEB: Issues and Structures in Irish Education: A Consultative

Document (1984)

CEB: Assessment and Certification : A Consultative Document

(1985)

CEB: In Our Schools: A Framework for Curriculum and

Assessment (1986)

Establishment of NCCA in 1987

Introduction of the Junior Cert Curriculum in 1989 – (first JC

exams in 1992)

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1990s

NCCA: A Programme for Reform: Curriculum and Assessment

Towards the New Century (1993)

NCCA progress report: The Junior Cycle Review: Issues and

Options for Development (1999)

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2000+

DES The Junior Cycle – Issues for Discussion (2000)

ESRI & NCCA: Research on the first three years of Post-

primary schooling:

Moving Up – The Experiences of First-Year Students (2004)

Pathways Through the Junior Cycle: The Experiences of

Second-Year Students (2006)

Gearing Up for the Exam: The Experiences of Junior

Certificate Students (2007)

NCCA: Towards a Framework for Junior Cycle – Innovation &

Identity (Nov. 2011)

DES: A Framework for Junior Cycle (Oct.2012)

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Important possibilities were not taken up, or only poorly taken up

over these four decades:

In the 1970s the Dept. of Education were unreceptive to ICE report, to

PEEP reports and to the insights on in-service education yielded by

Humanities project.

When Junior cycle programme was introduced in 1989 it wasn’t

accompanied by the necessary supports to accomplish its real purposes.

Not until the new century did the DES acknowledge that reform of

curriculum and assessment had to be accompanied by a differentiated

provision for CPD: needs of the system; of the school; of the teacher.

While practitioners’ capabilities in new forms of assessment were

advancing progressively in some other European countries, progress was

more “stop-go” in Ireland.

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Substantial progress has been made, but yet:

Our own studies, since the first phase of the TL21 research (2003-

07), reveal that post-primary teachers, by and large, were happy to

embrace fresh approaches, but also that many were reluctant to

use these approaches with exam classes. The main reason was a

widely-shared perception that the LC and JC exams rewarded a

different set of skills (lower-order ones mainly) than those than

those cultivated by the new approaches. Learning Anew (2008), pp.78-79. available at www.maynoothuniversity.ie/TL21

The reforms proposed in the Junior Cycle Framework contain

many possibilities that might address this mis-match, as

acknowledged by the Joint Statement of 22 May 2015; but some

assessment issues remain unresolved.

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Turning now from retrospect to prospect:

Assessment – an important clarification:

The purposes of assessment for certification are

different from those of assessment for learning.

The purposes of assessment for certification are

beclouded, and may be even ill-served, if teachers

assess their own students.

Such purposes can be properly grasped if it’s clearly

understood that teachers assess the work of their

students and if there are clear safeguards to ensure:

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a) that such work is the student’s own work – i.e.

undertaken under properly supervised conditions;

b) that the completed work is assessed using learning

criteria that are educationally valid and appropriate;

c) that the marked work is placed on record for

objective scrutiny by examiners – internal and

external.

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In this connection, consider:

the potential of electronic learning

environments;

the change of emphasis in assessment

practices internationally;

the defensibility criterion for any

assessment instrument.

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Defensibility Criterion:

What makes any assessment instrument

or approach defensible is its ability to

give a valid account of the inherent and

enduring benefits of learning in the

subject or topic in question.

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The Larger Picture:

Reform of curriculum and assessment at both Junior Cycle

and Senior Cycle is likely to:

(a) remain a central concern in teachers’ working lives in

the years ahead;

(b) be accompanied by, and influenced by, other

developments that are also becoming central initiatives.

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These other developments include:

Literacy and numeracy policies (School & DES)

School Self-Evaluation

Fitness to Practice & review of codes of ethics

Continuing Professional Development

The Changing Nature of Teaching as a Practice

An incomplete list, but just a few comments on the significance of each:

taking ownership of each; mastering the “less is more” approach.

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Concluding Remarks:

1. “New Deal” thinking as distinct from issue-by-issue battles;

2. Taking decisive ownership of initiatives for change that:

strengthen the morale and the professional fulfilment of teachers;

enable students to work actively to their ownmost potentials;

advance the public’s high regard for teachers in Ireland;

enhance the standing of teaching as a profession in Irish society;

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Appendix 1 Comparison of teaching contact time in post-primary schools across OECD Countries (from OECD, via Sahlberg 2011)

The Finnish “less is more” philosophy in relation to contact time works well where learning environments are vibrant and participatory:

where teachers are trusted with high levels of agency and where students take an active and responsible hand in their own learning.

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Appendix 2 Findings of Teaching Council Survey (2010)

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Appendix 3 Findings of Medical Council Surveys (2011 & 2012)