Approaching Curriculum Design in the new Curriculum for Wales

Today, we’re gatecrashing one of the lecture theatres at Cardiff Metropolitan University to join our student teachers as they grapple with some of the big issues in education today. In a special (very) extended edition of the podcast, recorded live in front of an audience of PGCE primary and secondary students, we’ve gathered together a panel of speakers who represent school senior leadership, government, the regional consortia and academia to present and discuss on the topic of curriculum design.

Speaking just three days after the publication of the final version of the Curriculum for Wales, due to be implemented in schools from 2022, our panellists are generous with their thoughts and advice to the next generation of the profession, making it clear that we need to become curriculum designers as well as classroom practitioners.

Our panel consists of:

• Dr. Kevin Smith from Cardiff University
• Gareth Rein from St Joseph’s Roman Catholic Primary School in Penarth
• Barry Crompton from Stanwell School in Penarth
• Nicky Hagendyk from the Education Achievement Service regional consortium
• Sonny Singh from the Welsh Government

 

Following their presentations, the panel answer questions posed by the audience.

This event took place twice (as we have a lot of student teachers!), and you can hear the audience Q&A from the other session (featuring a slightly different lineup of panellists) in a bonus episode also released today.

If you’ve been inspired to ‘read, read, read’, the book recommendations from Kevin and Gareth are listed below to get you started.

 

Dr. Kevin Smith

Dewey, J. (1938) Experience and Education. New York, Macmillan.

Eisner, E. W. (1979) The educational imagination: on the design and evaluation of school programs. New York: Macmillan

Freire, P. (2014). Pedagogy of the Oppressed: 30th Anniversary Edition. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing.

Hooks, B. (1994) Teaching to transgress : education as the practice of freedom. New York/London: Routledge.

Illich, I.D. (1996) Deschooling society. London: Marion Boyars

March, C. J., & Willis, G. (2007) Curriculum: alternative approaches, ongoing issues. Upper Saddle River, NJ: University of Rhode Island

Tyler, R.W. (1949) Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction. London: The University of Chicago Press.

 

Gareth Rein

Hirsch, E. D. (1989). Cultural literacy. Melbourne: Schwartz

Willingham, D.T. (2009) Why don't students like school? a cognitive scientist answers questions about how the mind works and what it means for your classroom. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass

Christodoulou, D. (2014) Seven myths about education. London: Routledge

 

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This episode was recorded live at Cardiff Metropolitan University's Cyncoed campus on 31st January 2020.