Primary curriculum time for a change

The atmosphere at last week's launch of the revised primary curriculum was euphoric. Hundreds of educators and representatives of the social partners (including parents organisations), who had been involved in various ways for a decade or more in the curriculum's development, were out in force to cheer. Described as "evolutionary rather than revolutionary" by Department officials, the revised curriculum gives an overview of the primary education sector and highlights the ideals and vision which inspire it. For the first time, the curriculum includes extensive teacher guidelines in every subject.

"I would encourage everyone to read the introduction to the revised curriculum," advises Dr John Coolahan, professor of education at NUI Maynooth. "It's important for people to get a grasp on why we should be changing and what's going to be different."

Coolahan points out that this curriculum differs from previous ones in two significant ways, First, it is the first curriculum to build on its predecessor (the 1971 curriculum), rather than introducing a radical change. Second, it has been developed as a result of widespread consultation among the partners in education. Teachers, rather than department inspectors, have played the central role in its development. "We have drawn heavily on the expertise of practising teachers," confirms John Dennehy, who is secretary of the Department of Education and Science. "The documents they have produced will be of enormous benefit. They will make teachers' jobs much easier, more pleasant and interesting. "We have drawn very heavily on the very best practice in Irish primary schools and have looked closely at curriculum developments in other countries. There's been a huge amount of curricular change in other countries in recent years. Had we not changed, we would have been lagging behind."

"The revised curriculum is very well pitched," comments Coolahan. "A lot of thought and work has gone into the manifestation of a child's development at different stages. They have included a lot of very recent educational thinking." All subjects in the curriculum have undergone a revision, the Irish course has been completely revamped and new subjects - science, drama and social, personal and health education (SPHE) - have been introduced.

The introduction, too, of modern languages is on the cards following the completion of a pilot programme, currently running in 300 schools. Fears of curriculum overload have been expressed. There's concern, too, that the planned six days' in-service training for teachers will be insufficient - particularly for the science programme, which will be almost completely new for most teachers. NCCA education officers say that such worries are unnecessary. The central innovation in the revised curriculum is the introduction of new teaching methodologies. "Good teachers can teach any subject," one educator argues. The focus of the curriculum is the child as learner. "One of its essential features is a recognition of the principle that there are different kinds of learning and that individual children learn in different ways," the introduction to the revised curriculum states. "The curriculum articulates, therefore, not only the content to be learned and the outcomes to be achieved, but a wide range of approaches to learning." "The curriculum doesn't just set out course content, but lists the skills to be acquired by the children," explains Lucy Fallon-Byrne, assistant chief executive of the NCCA.

"A lot of skills are common across a lot of subjects. They mustn't be developed in isolation. It is a feature of primary education that subjects aren't compartmentalised. Children learn in an holistic way." Active learning is a vital component of the revised curriculum. Classroom noise levels are set to soar. "The curriculum promotes collaborative learning, talking and discussion. Language will be used as a learning strategy," Fallon-Byrne says. "When children are actively involved in what they learn, both physically and emotionally, they learn at a deeper level and retain their knowledge." Valerie O'Dowd, NCCA education officer, notes that the curriculum contains "a very strong emphasis on higher-order skills". In maths for example, problem solving, hypothesising and predicting are key areas. Children will, however, still learn their tables and calculators will be introduced in fourth class. "There will be open-ended problem solving and we will encourage children to develop their own benchmarks, so that when they begin to use calculators, they will be able to gauge whether their answers are likely to be correct."

FOR THE FUTURE, textbooks are going to play a far less central role than they have done in the past. "They will still have an important role but will be used in a different way, as a resource to support particular projects," explains NCCA education officer Paul Brennan. The revised curriculum, argue NCCA education officers, gives teachers the opportunity to be more creative and experimental in their teaching methods. It will mean, however, that they will have to engage in a lot of extra planning. "An essential ingredient of the curriculum is that it is introduced side by side with the school plan," Dennehy says. "It will be necessary for schools to plan far more carefully than heretofore.

"In the main, teachers will become familiar and comfortable with the revised curriculum quickly. Schools will introduce it at their own pace."

Many of the methodologies are already in place in many schools. "When I started out in teaching, the really good teachers were doing these things with bigger numbers and far fewer resources." It will be a lot easier for today's teachers, Dennehy says. "In the main, our primary teachers are excellent. The revised curriculum will enable them to become even more professional and effective."

Ultimately, though, it's the pupils who are set to benefit from the new curriculum. "The curriculum emphasises a range of skills including the ability to learn autonomously and independently, good communication and inter-personal skills and increased motivation and self-confidence," Dennehy says.

Promoting high self-esteem among pupils is top of the agenda. "There wasn't enough emphasis on that in the past," he observes.

"If we bring it off," adds Coolahan, "we will have achieved a great landmark."