Towards a Better Future

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.
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