American educationist William Doll has described some of the features of a fit-for-purpose 21st century curriculum. He playfully describes such a curriculum as being characterised by the “4Rs”: richness, recursion, relations and rigour. Richness implies curricular depth with multiple possibilities beyond the simple transmission of information. Recursion implies an open, transformative looping back to review what one has already done and seeing it anew. Relations refer to the multiple links within learners, between learners and between the classroom and the outside world. Rigour refers not to the static “rigor mortis” of the traditional disciplines but to a vibrant curriculum which allows pupils to critically review their own beliefs as well as the central assumptions of a subject.
Of course we want pupils to be literate and numerate. But this is not a case of either/or; we need both a 3Rs and a 4Rs curriculum. All academic and practical subjects require repetitive practice so that the basics become automatic. But these basics need then to be transplanted into fertile spaces which nurture creative, collaborative and critical skills.
The new SQA Higher Media qualification seems to me to show all the characteristics of Doll’s 4Rs. It builds on the basic skills of earlier years as well as giving pupils a lifelong framework for appreciating, creating and critiquing the media.
The course has two units: Analysing Media Content and Creating Media Content. The course assessment is an assignment which focuses on researching, planning and developing media content, and a question paper that focuses on analysing media content and contexts. A welcome change of emphasis is that pupils will have to consider the role of media within society. This takes the Media course closer to academic media studies than the previous Higher which had, to me, an over-emphasis on textual analysis.
Cumnock Media Class
