Dumbing children down

THE theory behind the Scottish Curriculum for Excellence is so vague and woolly it is said that pinning it down is like trying to nail jelly to the wall. Unlike the 5 - 14 curriculum for which the resources were supplied there is none available for CfE and teachers are encouraged to supply their own; so standards vary from school to school.

The notion of active learning is at the heart of the new curriculum and is about encouraging children to work together. They become very good at working co-operatively but few can now work on their own for more than 10 minutes.

As the children move up the school, we have noticed a lack of thinking skills and a deterioration in written work. They find difficulty transferring what they have learned to the written page. For example, they know a sentence begins with a capital letter and ends in a full stop but, when you put the paper in front of them, they don’t do it.

The new curriculum discourages the use of textbooks in the classroom. Absolutely...Now they want us to download resources from the internet which are not tried and tested and adapt them to lessons.

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/teacher-says-new-curriculum-is-failing-1116543

"What is actually happening with the lowering of standards of children’s literacy and numeracy skills is being hidden by these fixed levels — for example all pupils moving into secondary school are classed as level 3 developing, regardless of ability.

"The new qualifications are a dumbed down version of Standard Grades so don’t stretch more able pupils.

"Only having one school year to complete work means less able pupils can’t keep up with work, or have the chance to improve as they could with Standard Grades."

An SQA examiner agreed with the "dumbing down" notion. He said: "The old system worked well — there were good courses that kids enjoyed. I feel the new exams have been dumbed down."

And an education worker from Aberdeen said: "CfE’s undoubtedly worse than Standard Grades. Activities and examinations are dumbed down. Some pupils will leave school without sitting an exam. Teachers have vague guidlines to work from.

"Employers and universities will be unhappy about the standard of pupil schools are producing."

http://www.sundaypost.com/news-views/scotland/curriculum-for-excellence-is-causing-massive-confusion-all-over-scotland-1.157229

The University of Stirling report found the Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) "does not clearly articulate questions of what should be learned and why" and warned against pupils being taught "skills" instead of academic knowledge.

Many teachers are worried the first pupils experiencing the new system are "guinea pigs" whose education will suffer, it concluded.

More teachers agreed than disagreed the CfE will harm some children’s prospects, according to an accompanying survey, and less than a third of teachers said they were "positive" about the curriculum’s development.

New National exams, replacing Standard Grades and Intermediates, are supposed to start in 2014 to complement the CfE. Both elements are less prescriptive about using traditional academic methods and focus on teaching pupils life skills.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9198231/Scottish-teachers-floundering-over-Curriculum-for-Excellence.html