Towards a Better Future

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Chapter Three: Curriculum The Senior Cycle framework strives to produce learners who are ‘resourceful, confident, engaged and active’. It also emphasises the values of human dignity and respect, equality and inclusion, justice and fairness, and freedom and democracy. The National Council is currently reviewing the syllabi for some of the Leaving Certificate subjects for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) and, over the coming years, plans to introduce new syllabi for all Leaving Certificate subjects using the Senior Cycle framework. The NCCA’s process of review and revision of Leaving Certificate subjects involves the preparation of an outline specification of the various syllabi, focusing on topics and learning outcomes. The preparation of the outline specification is overseen by a ‘development group’, which includes representatives of the teacher unions, management bodies, the university sector, IBEC, the SEC; the DES Inspectorate; the relevant subject association and others with relevant expertise. The outline specification for the subject in question is then subject to wide consultation and includes opportunities for written submissions and meetings with subject associations, teacher networks, third-level students etc. Following consultation, the NCCA reconsiders the draft specification and, taking account of comments received, the specification is finalised and submitted to the Minister. PART FOUR: SOME ISSUES OF CONCERN ABOUT THE REVISION OF LEAVING CERTIFICATE SYLLABI Dissatisfaction with the process of reform of Leaving Certificate subjects has been expressed by some members of the development groups. Some of them were not aware that the framework for Senior Cycle, and the format in which the revised syllabi would be presented, were set in stone before the process of review and consultation started. They expressed particular concern about the format of the syllabus specification, consisting as it does only of topics and learning outcomes. Some higher education representatives, who are familiar for many years with a learning outcomes approach to programme planning in higher education, are aware of the limitations (and strengths) of a learning outcomes approach. They are particularly aware that the specification of syllabi solely in terms of learning outcomes could lead to what has been referred to as a ‘dumbing down of standards’, especially if the level and depth of the learning outcomes as well as higher order thinking skills (e.g. the skills of analysis, evaluation and synthesis) are not made explicit. Some representatives felt that they needed greater detail on implementation before they could recommend the draft specifications to their nominating body (e.g. the Irish Universities Association). Their concerns are well exemplified in correspondence between the Irish Science Teachers Association (ISTA) and the NCCA in 2013. In a letter to the Chief Executive of the NCCA in October 2013, the chair of the ISTA stated that ‘the essential problem with the proposed draft syllabi — 49 —
Towards a Better Future: A Review of the Irish School System (for Leaving Certificate science subjects) is that they simply contain a list of learning outcomes with no indication re. depth of treatment and range of subject knowledge associated with these learning outcomes’ (Mullaghy, cited in Hyland, 2014). She stated that ‘even highly-experienced science teachers at the ISTA council meeting found problems with interpreting many of the learning outcomes’. However, in spite of the concerns of the ISTA, the NCCA made it clear at the time that it did not intend to make any changes to the process or to the draft specification for physics, chemistry or biology, stating that ‘in deciding to move to a learning outcomes approach to all primary and postprimary specifications in the future, the Council drew on research in teaching, learning and assessment and on international practice in the articulation of national curriculum’. In a letter to the ISTA dated 25 October 2013, the NCCA stated that ‘We don’t intend to include ‘depth of treatment’ and/or ‘range of subject knowledge’ in the new specification for the sciences or for other subjects in Senior Cycle’. They indicated that they would include ‘some examples of teaching, learning and assessment approaches that will support teachers in classroom planning’. In view of the reference by the NCCA to ‘international practice in the articulation of national curriculum’, this author was asked by the ISTA to analyse the approach to the design of Senior Cycle syllabi in some other countries and to compare their approach to that taken by the NCCA (Hyland, 2014). Among the countries used by the NCCA to benchmark curriculum design were Australia and Scotland. Senior Cycle curriculum and assessment in these countries are similar to the Irish system - the examination system at the end of Senior Cycle is administered centrally (i.e. it is not school-based); the students sit an average of six subjects; and the examinations are high-stakes as they are used by universities to select students. The national curriculum authority in Australia is the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) and in Scotland, it is Education Scotland. Both authorities have recently revised their national curriculum frameworks. However, as indicated earlier in this chapter, in both of those countries, detailed syllabi and examination ‘intermediate’ bodies provide guidelines. In Scotland, detailed and specific examination syllabi for Scottish Highers (the equivalent of the Irish Leaving Certificate) are provided by the Scottish Qualifications Authority. In Australia, the examination syllabi (also detailed and specific) are provided by individual states e.g. in the state of Victoria the relevant body is Victoria’s Curriculum and Assessment Authority. Centrally-administered high-stakes examination syllabi in other Englishspeaking jurisdictions (e.g. India, England and Wales, Canada), and the International Baccalaureate examination, all provide detailed and specific syllabi for their end of Senior Cycle examinations. — 50 —
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