The All-Party Parliamentary Group for Education have just launched their Loss of Love of Learning Report. This has been made available on the link as well as 188 pages of evidence, which included people talking to the group.
A research project on the loss of the love of learning.
There are several modules, which include one I'm particularly interested in on curriculum design and engagement.
This includes plenty of statements that are fairly consistent.
I wonder what the Currriculum and Assessment Review will do to solve these issues?
A dominant theme in the evidence is that the design of the curriculum itself has a profound impact on student engagement. Currently, many feel it is for worse. Numerous submissions described England's curriculum as overstuffed with content and overly rigid, leaving insufficient room for the kind of deep, exploratory learning that fosters a love of the subject.
Flexibility is mentioned:
Teachers do appreciate not having to "reinvent the wheel" for every lesson, particularly in core subjects. However, multiple submissions warned of downsides. The NEU's recent report "Are You on Slide 8 Yet?" documents a creeping "Taylorisation" of teaching - a factory-style model where teachers are reduced to delivering someone else's script.
This refers to the Learning Objectives Movement (LOM)
However it also says that this is not necessarily a bad thing, depending on how standardisation is done.
and this response from Primary:
During the inquiry's roundtable discussions, a headteacher from a small primary school in Devon shared their aim to make school "unmissable" with a "very creative curriculum" that "brings learning to life every day". Importantly, this school deliberately offers its teachers "a little bit of wiggle room to take risks, to have fun," allowing them to "go a little bit off piece" and adapt the curriculum to their own teaching style.
There's also a comment on reading:
The National Literacy Trust has documented a decline not only in children's enjoyment of reading, but in their frequency of reading for pleasure
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