Developing their teaching to raise standards is a fundamental requirement of
every teacher and depends on the repeated use of a planning cycle, often presented
as the 'plan-do-review' cycle.
Given that almost all schools have established schemes of work, the appropriate
place to start in this cycle is with a review.
This applies at all levels, from the individual teacher planning each lesson
through departmental revision of units and schemes of work to whole school planning
of the overall curriculum.
Reviewing existing approaches leads to planning for change.
First, targets should be identified. Focusing on these targets, teachers plan
what they will do to hit their targets. After a period implementing these plans,
teachers again review, replan and implement their new plans (do again) and so
on.
The replanning approach
Four key questions can be used in the review and plan process.
- Why? Consider learning purposes, progression factors, prior experience,
planned future experiences.
- What? Which unit to use? Which materials and other resources? What theme
or design needs to be addressed? What context for the topic?
- How? Which DMAs, product evaluation activities and FPTs to use, how to link
learning and differentiate expectations?
- What alternatives? (variations on QCA units). Consider school factors,
such as facilities, staffing expertise, pupils' prior experience. How else
could the same learning outcomes be achieved that would be appropriate to
the school/pupils?
Review
In reviewing established teaching approaches and learning outcomes, the four
key questions above can be used to determine (a) where the department is now,
and (b) new expectations/requirements. A department can review its current
scheme of work in different ways:
- to remedy identified weaknesses in pupils' current achievements;
- by unit, and by sets of units across a year;
- by patterns of pupil experience, comparing one year with those before and
after (including previous schools);
- to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) and
mismatches to the demands of the new national curriculum.
The department's current achievements should be considered on the basis
of learning objectives. This would be in relation to prior experiences and
planned future experiences to determine each unit's fit in the pupils sequence
of learning. If the same unit is placed at different points in this sequence
for different pupils, for example as part of a rotational course, the learning
objectives must match the pupils' stage of their learning.
Factors to be considered include:
- the range of materials experienced;
- whether DMAs are dedicated to a single material;
- whether a choice of materials is offered or if more than one material
is expected to be used;
- whether the units expect individual or team work;
- the type of context which the design need comes from, for example personal,
home, school, commercial, environmental;
- the potential values that will come into play.
Planning for change
As with reviewing, planning for change on the basis of 'Why?' - identifying
the learning objectives being aimed for - strengthens the teaching team's
resolve. It establishes the reason for change and keeps a clear focus on
choosing what activity to use as a vehicle for the learning and how to address
it. Examination of the units will show learning outcomes being achieved
through different units, based perhaps in different materials areas, for
example unit 7A(iii) 'Understanding materials (textiles)', unit 8B(ii)
'Designing for clients (resistant materials)' and unit 9C 'Using ICT to
link with the world outside school'. This avoids the trap that results from
planning being led by the 'What?' - that is, by the tasks - when plans are
likely to be based exclusively on a sequence of developing skills.
Using this approach, the key planning factors for any one unit can be reviewed
as well as the relationship to preceding and subsequent units. When a set
of units has been established, this approach can be used to consider the
complete year or key stage set of units, their sequence and the progression
that this sequence builds in.
Two reviewing examples are given below.
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