TM at RGS Session

1. Curriculum Making:
why it matters more
than ever
Alan Parkinson @GeoBlogs
Head of Geog: King’s Ely
Junior & freelance geographer
@KingsElyGeog

2. What have you
taught today?

3. A curriculum can exist at three levels—what is
planned, what is delivered and what is
experienced.
A curriculum must remain responsive to
changing values and expectations if it is to
remain relevant and useful.
A curriculum has at least four important
elements: content; teaching and learning
strategies; assessment processes; and
evaluation processes (Prideaux, 2003)

4. “A curriculum, to be truly
educational, will lead the
students to unanticipated,
rather than predicted,
outcomes”
John McKernan

5. Margaret Roberts
Curriculum as music…
Michael Young: “powerful knowledge”

6. “Music excites when it is performed…”
Benjamin Britten
After Margaret Roberts

7. A challenge from Tim Oates (2011)
“…a curriculum document is, in
itself, neither boring nor
exciting, neither inspirational
nor dull. But teachers can be a
of these things…”

8. Article by Mary
Biddulph on
curriculum
enactment
as a responsibility of
teachers…

9. ….also from Mary…
“Ultimately it is up to
teachers and students
to take what the
discipline has to offer,
work it into
something tangible
and realise the
opportunities it
offers…”

10. Curriculum as process
An active not a technical process –
students engage critically with
geographical ideas and knowledge
All knowledge is socially constructed, but
some knowledge is more reliable than
other knowledge, and has been tested in
social communities called disciplines.
Direct instruction / Scripted lessons??!!
Prof David Lambert
My old boss…

11. GeoCapabilities – ERASMUS funded
http://www.geocapabilities.org

12. Curriculum Making
“the creation of interesting,
engaging and challenging
educational experiences which
draw upon teacher (and
disciplinary) knowledge and
skills, the experiences of students
and the subject resource”

13. The curriculum artefact
• Bigger than a resource
• Smaller than a scheme of work
• Something to ‘hang’ knowledge around, and
act as a way in to a topic… something
tangible perhaps, or with a personal
connection….
@Asperatus07
The classroom… a museum

14. A way in to enquiry
The curriculum artefact becomes yours!
You “invest it with special significance”
You do this as a geography specialist who can see the
potential wrapped up in the artefact. You understanding
it as a source of data and inspiration to think deeply
about a topic or geographical idea. It is highly unlikely
that the artefact will be the only resource used in a
sequence of lessons, but it will be the key or signature
material.
It may become a kind of memorable reference point for
the topic.

15. #edutwitter
• Knowledge is king
• The ‘sage on the stage’ is
back…
• Desks in rows
• Dual coding
• The ‘Michaela’ way…
• Find your own path…

16. What will you
teach tomorrow?

17. References
• “a different view” – the GA Manifesto (produced
during the Action Plan for Geography 2006-11)
• Margaret Roberts seminar at the IoE – critiquing
Powerful Knowledge -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyGwbPmim7o
• David Gardner on textbooks and their use:
https://mediacentral.ucl.ac.uk/Player/2098
• Secondary Geography Handbook – 3rd edition (2017)
• Debates in Geography Education – 2nd edition – David
Lambert and Mark Jones (Ed) (2017)
• Margaret Roberts: ‘Powerful knowledge and geography
education’ – Policy and Practice (March 2014)

18. References
• GeoCapabilities project website:
http://www.geocapabilities.org/ - ERASMUS+
funded project
• Mission:Explore books – available online under CC
license
• http://livinggeography.blogspot.com - blog
• http://geographyteacher2point0.blogspot.com
• ‘Effective innovation in the Secondary Geography
Curriculum – Charles Rawding (2013)
• Claire Kyndt’s GA presentation 2015:
https://www.slideshare.net/misskyndt/curious-
connections-curating-a-geographical-museum