© Curriculum Foundation Countries around the world build some sort of competences into their National Curriculum. The competencies vary in detail – but there is a common element. How good are you at recognising flags?

Singapore 21 st Century Competencies Decision making Critical and media skills Information and communication skills © Curriculum Foundation

South Korea © Curriculum Foundation Student Competencies Critical thinking and problem solving Communication Innovation and creativity Investigation Co-operation

New Zealand Key Competencies Critical thinking and problem solving Using languages, symbols and texts Managing self Relating to others © Curriculum Foundation

Do you notice anything about this set of countries? Yes – they all do well on international comparisons such as PISA

This is Andreas Schleicher who is the head of the ‘PISA’ international educational comparisons. He points out that: “PISA tests students’ ability to: apply their learning think critically solve problems make judgements” These are what are called “competencies” 6 You can find more from Andreas at: So it is maybe not so surprising that the three countries do so well. The odd thing is that the new English national curriculum was developed in response to our alleged poor performance in PISA tests – but does not seem to include the competencies! So what are the competencies? Who is this?

KnowledgeAttitudeSkillCompetence UNESCO defines competencies as a combination of knowledge, skills and attitudes. They are acquired through the application of knowledge in meaningful situations. They help deepen learning and turn knowledge into understanding. They require the development of the right attitudes to apply the knowledge.

KnowledgeAttitudeSkillCompetence Subjects Application of subjects Teaching and learning approach Competence The subjects provide the knowledge context. It is the application of that knowledge that develops the skills. Attitudes are developed though the teaching and learning approaches. Some approaches will develop positive attitudes! Go back to Unit 2 of the first programme for more on this.

The new National Curriculum does not specify any competencies – but what about the old one? © Curriculum Foundation Which do you think? YES? NO?

© Curriculum Foundation YES ✔ In the former Primary National Curriculum, there were six “Key Skills” and five “Thinking Skills” that were intended to be developed through all of the subjects. They included: Problem-solving, Communication, Co-operation, Creative thinking and Reasoning. They were very similar to the Korean competencies In the former Primary National Curriculum, there were six “Key Skills” and five “Thinking Skills” that were intended to be developed through all of the subjects. They included: Problem-solving, Communication, Co-operation, Creative thinking and Reasoning. They were very similar to the Korean competencies In the former Secondary National Curriculum, there were the six “Personal, Learning and Thinking Skills” (PLTS). These were also intended to be developed through all of the subjects. Like the primary “Key Skills”, they were very similar to the Korean competencies In the former Secondary National Curriculum, there were the six “Personal, Learning and Thinking Skills” (PLTS). These were also intended to be developed through all of the subjects. Like the primary “Key Skills”, they were very similar to the Korean competencies

© Curriculum Foundation In the first programme, it was suggested that because the competencies are so important, yet are no longer part of the National Curriculum, schools might like to ensure that they are part of the school curriculum. This does not mean additional subjects or lessons, but approaching the existing subjects in different ways. This is where the tree comes in!

If you think of the curriculum as a tree, above the ground you have the ‘branches of learning’: Science, Humanities, the Arts, etc. If you follow one of these branches, it will divide into smaller ones, or twigs. These are the subjects. So Science divides in Physics, Chemistry and Biology; the Humanities into History, Geography and Citizenship. Do you get the idea? At the end of these smaller branches are the leaves. These are the individual bits of learning that we find in Programmes of Study or in syllabuses.

Magnetism

So this is a model, a way of thinking about how the various subjects fit together and how learning is arranged around them. But what is missing from the model? Yes, of course. A tree has roots. And you can guess what the roots are !

Yes, the roots are the competencies. There is not just one “right” set of competencies. Different countries and different schools compile lists that suit their needs and circumstances. We have seen the lists from some other countries, and the former English National Curriculum. UNESCO has a list of 21 st Century Competencies: Critical thinking and problem solving Communication Co-operation Creativity Whatever list you choose, the competencies form the roots of the curriculum

Critical thinking and problem- solving Communication Co-operation Creativity Magnetism

Of course, within this botanical model, a tree can’t grow roots unless it has some leaves to carry out photosynthesis. And it can’t grow leaves without roots taking in moisture and nutrients. It is not an “either- or” situation. It needs both. And our argument within Curriculum Design is that skills need the knowledge contexts of subjects in order to be developed. This was the argument put forward by ED Hirsch that we explored in Unit 2 of Programme 1. We also quoted Brian Male in that Unit: “You can’t learn to solve a problem unless you have a problem to solve. You can’t learn to think critically unless you have something to think about. You can’t learn to work in a team unless the team has some activity to engage in. The curriculum subjects provide a rich source of problems, things to think about and activities.”.

So skills need the knowledge contexts that are provided by subjects. Of course, subjects are important in their own right, and not just as providers of contexts for skills. They are the distillations of human thought and understanding. And as skills need subjects, so the learning of subjects is enhanced when they are approached through the development of competencies. When learners start to think critically about a subject, investigate it, communicate about it, solve problems within it, they start to build deeper understanding of the subject. This was pointed out some time ago by the next writer about education. Do you recognise him?

It’s Benjamin Bloom, the man whose analysis of the increasing depths of learning gave us “Bloom’s Taxonomy”. Do you remember Blooms’ Taxonomy from your training? We all learned about it at some stage. He wrote it a long time ago! It is always represented as a triangle, with the lowest (or shallowest) level of learning being ‘memorisation’ or “knowing”, and moving up through comprehension, application, analysis and synthesis to creativity. If you are familiar with Bloom’s Taxonomy, you might be objecting that his highest level was “evaluation”, and you would be right. However, his pupil, Lorin Anderson, amended the taxonomy later with Bloom’s approval – and this is the amended version

Synthesising Memorising Comprehending Analysing Applying Creating Bloom’s Taxonomy When we look at Bloom’s levels, we can see how they fit with the ‘tree’ model. Memorising and comprehending are the leaves. Analysing, applying, synthesising and creating are all aspects of the competencies and form the roots. By applying the competencies, we push learning to the higher levels You can check this out in: Bloom B (1956) “A Taxonomy of Educational Objectives” Or at: f You can check this out in: Bloom B (1956) “A Taxonomy of Educational Objectives” Or at: f

Creating Synthesising Analysing Applying Remembering Comprehending