A study has recommended that right as the United States is hunkering down and testing in the old-fashioned disciplines, the UK needs to toss them and revise its primary education (ages 5-11) curriculum to increase the "depth" of students learning. To increase that depth, recommendations suggest overhauling the curriculum by replacing the 13 discrete disciplines currently in the curriculum with six areas of understanding. Those areas--understanding English, communication and languages; mathematical understanding; science and technological understanding; human, social and environmental understanding; understanding physical education and wellbeing and understanding the arts and design--would be taught through interdisciplinary projects. For example,
"Instead of discrete lessons in history, design and engineering skills, pupils in York might do a project about the city's architecture encompassing all those skills."
As a teacher and a mother, I have to admit this sounds wonderful to me. Such a shift in curriculum would allow not only for deeper understanding, but for multiple areas of entry to a subject. If a student isn't great at one skill set, she might be better at another and be able to break through the barrier of understanding that way.
I'm such a non-fan of No Child Left Behind and its narrow, 3-R's, teach-to-the-test curricular shifts that I am keeping my kids out of school until 4th grade. If only the U.S. cared about children's "depth" of knowledge! Maybe I'd send mine down to the corner school after all.
Image: York Architecture, bubog.com
