Like everything in education, the reality is often complex, but here is a simplified version of the narrative to help explain why we are establishing a Curriculum Improvement Cycle in Scotland.
Background
The origins of the Curriculum Improvement Cycle (CIC) developed from recommendations contained within the 2021 OECD Review of Scottish Education which recognised the strengths of Curriculum for Excellence (CfE), and made a range of suggestions to ensure that this strength would persist into the future.
Included in its twelve recommendations was a specific recommendation on curriculum review. It stated that, Scotland should:
“Develop a systematic approach to curriculum review: Scotland could consider establishing a curriculum review cycle with a planned timeframe and specific review agenda, led by the specialist stand-alone agency.”
The OECD had correctly identified through its study of the Scottish system that Scotland did not have a process in place to regularly review its curriculum. The OECD also observed that due to the prominence of education in political debate changes to curriculum often occurred in response to criticism, controversy or one set of attainment data rather than in a planned and proactive way.
The unintended consequence is that Scotland’s Curriculum often evolved in a reactive and inconsistent way resulting at times in more suggestions of extra things that schools and settings should do. This does not allow for the opportunity to, for example, have an overview of the whole curriculum to address issues such as overload. Over time this has also led to an over-reliance on external independent reviews rather than creating internal capacity for curriculum review within the system. It has also resulted in intense focus on some areas of the curriculum, but very little focus on others.
Nearly two years after the publication of the OECD Report in May 2023 the National Discussion on Scottish Education also made recommendations regarding curriculum review. In its call to action in the section focused on curriculum the conveners of the discussion (Professor Carol Campbell and Professor Alma Harris) concluded,
“A regular curriculum review process should be established to ensure that the curriculum remains fit for purpose, reflects contemporary learner needs, and can be effectively delivered in ways to ensure that all learners in Scotland have high quality curricular-linked learning experiences.
“As part of the review of the curriculum the technical framework of the BGE (including the Experiences and Outcomes) needs to be re-visited to ensure it is still fit for purpose and aligns with emerging recommendations about the Senior Phase from the Independent Review of Assessment and Qualifications.”
This call to action again recognised the need and importance to establish a systematic review cycle for Scottish Education. The Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills announced the establishment of the Curriculum Improvement Cycle (CIC) for Scotland in December 2023. Education Scotland was commissioned by the Scottish Government to lead the work in April 2024.
How do other countries review their curriculum?
That is a good question, and again, it is complex.
In March 2022, the Scottish Government commissioned an independent rapid evidence review of a number of other countries that had developed and implemented a curriculum review cycle. While the comparative examples were useful it also became clear that every country and system is unique and carries out curriculum review in a slightly different way meaning that there is no one size fits all approach.
Out of the countries studied ten years is the most common timeframe used, but there are differing approaches with some countries like Japan having a top-down approach led by the ministry, while others are led by a dedicated Curriculum agency, for example Ireland. Some countries take an integrated focus, looking at all education stages (3-18) at once, with others looking at different stages or subjects at different points. A broad and inclusive evidence gathering process, with stakeholder engagement, underpins most approaches. The most common output is a new national curriculum framework.
Developing Scotland’s Curriculum Improvement Cycle
Building on the recommendations from external reviews and the OECD Rapid Evidence Review of a number of curriculum review cycles from around the world, the Scottish Government established a short-life dedicated co-design group, made up primarily of teachers, which met four times between December 2022 and May 2023. Practitioners from across all local authority areas, curriculum areas and settings were invited to join the group. The purpose of the group was to develop a draft model of curriculum review for Scotland.
As well as the co-design group, additional engagement took place within existing forums between March 2023 to June 2023 including the Teacher Panel, Association of Directors of Education in Scotland (ADES) Curriculum and Qualifications Group, Building Our Curriculum Self Help (BOCSH) Group and the Curriculum and Assessment Board (CAB).
Stakeholders were clear that outputs from a review process must be practical and not simply a ‘layering on’ to an already busy curriculum framework. To support this the co-design group developed a set of draft success criteria which notes the importance of streamlining.
Curriculum review cycle success criteria
This draft set of success criteria was developed by a dedicated Curriculum Review co-design group and was tested with the Curriculum and Assessment Board (CAB) in June 2023.
The success criteria provide parameters for the development of the Curriculum Improvement Cycle to ensure that the work remains focused and realistic.
| Criteria heading | Detail |
|---|---|
| Collaborative and Coherent | The review process itself is broad and collaborative, involving all layers of the system and strengthening/consolidating cohesion between each part. The review process will take account of the initiatives being taken forward at local and regional level, as well as any structural reform work at a national level, supporting a strategic direction and vision at national level that is complementary rather than conflicting. |
| Ambitious | The review process itself is bold and able to be radical as needed, it celebrates what is working well, identifies what needs to be better as well as what specifically needs to be done to improve. |
| Realistic | The review will also need to be proportionate and realistic about what can be delivered by the system, creating changes which are sustainable and specifically consider the potential for streamlining. |
| Engagement | A bottom-up approach, where children and young people themselves are involved in curriculum review, in particular those who experience more challenges in the system – based on evidence – alongside teachers, lecturers, early years practitioners, employers and other key stakeholders in a manageable way and ensuring there is sufficient capacity to allow this to happen. |
| Clarity | The intention and purpose of the curriculum review process is well understood by those directly involved with it and impacted by it. |
| Scope | The review systematically tackles cross cutting themes and issues, individual curriculum and subject areas, as well as the four contexts for learning, transitions and takes account of geographical differences. |
| Approach | The review process is planned and will identify the key steps, but agile enough to be responsive and flexible to allow change if needed. |
| Implementation | Accountability for the output of every review cycle is well articulated and understood by all stakeholders across the education system including how it will be practically implemented. The support infrastructure is appropriate, and time is built into the process to allow the system to implement any improvements. |
| Evaluation | The implementation of the previous cycle is evaluated, ahead of the next cycle, to generate lessons learnt. |
A Working Model for Curriculum Review
The Scottish Model for Curriculum Review (The Curriculum Improvement Cycle) takes around ten years to be completed. It is anticipated that each review cycle starts and ends with an exercise similar to the National Discussion on Scottish Education. This means that the first year of the cycle was 2023 / 2024 and we should expect another National Discussion in 2032/2033.
The National Co-Design Group for Curriculum review which met between December 2022 and May 2023 developed and proposed the following model for reviewing the Scottish Curriculum.
The model consists of four distinct but interlinked stages:
- Analysis – ongoing reviewing of feedback from practice on how the curriculum is working at all levels (ELC, schools, colleges, regional, national), studies on future trends including international evidence (PIRLS, TIMSS, PISA) and research on specific issues. This will help identify areas for closer focus.
- Engagement and co-creation – planning, engagement, collaboration and processing of feedback to test draft workstreams. Importantly in the Scottish model in this stage the implementation strategy is also co-designed.
- Share, Learn and Adopt – local capacity building and professional development; development of support material; monitoring of experiences of teachers and students.
- Mobilise, monitor and evaluate – mobilise the system around the approach and implementation. Once the new approach is mainstream, the cycle begins again in terms of monitoring and evaluation through inspectorate reports, research, feedback.
The last stage (evaluation) is interlinked with stage 1 (analysis), closing the review cycle.
The draft model was presented to the Curriculum and Assessment Board (CAB) in June 2023 and received detailed feedback from a number of CAB members including ADES, EIS, GTCS, NASUWT, SFC, SQA, SSTA and Universities Scotland. Feedback was also received from Professor Louise Hayward and Professor Mark Priestley who are also members of the CAB. This feedback was taken on board and included in the current and working review cycle model.
