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Curriculum reform and inequality: The challenges facing Wales

Wales is in the process of undertaking a major overhaul of its national curriculum. Until recently, the curriculum largely resembled that put in place by the 1988 Education Reform Act. The new...

Re‐educating the nation? The development of a new curriculum for Wales

This series of blogs summarises new research featured in a special issue of the Curriculum Journal  (published simultaneously in English and Welsh), which explores the many issues that arise...

Is there a tension between teaching and assessing critical-thinking skills?

The widely varying quality of responses to the global Coronavirus pandemic presents yet another example of the importance of critical-thinking skills among leaders and the public dealing with...

Social constructivism and participative learning beyond bricks and mortar

Covid-19, education and educational research

As the world grapples with the short-to-longer-term imperative to identify distance- and remote-learning alternatives to previously face-to-face instruction, I am struck that some of the key...

Rethinking the ‘digital’ curriculum: What else should we be aiming for?

After years of excitement and enthusiasm about all things digital, recent times have seen us collectively becoming more sceptical about the relationship between technology and society. We are now...

Tensions in current curriculum reform and the development of teachers’ professional autonomy

Current curriculum reform in Wales offers the chance for teachers to have greater freedom in developing pedagogical approaches that meet the needs of their pupils. The Successful Futures report...

Making post-GCSE decisions during the Covid-19 crisis: The need for action

Covid-19, education and educational research

In the public debate about the impacts of the Covid-19 lockdown on education, much attention has understandably been given to concerns about disadvantaged children falling behind at school, and to...

The art of connecting: How primary and secondary teachers are building a framework for expressive arts

Curriculum reform in Wales is heralding a raft of changes for schools, one of which is the rise in significance of the expressive arts. The new Welsh curriculum for learners aged 3-to-16, which...

Re‐educating the nation? A Curriculum Journal special issue on the new curriculum for Wales

A new special issue of the Curriculum Journal, published simultaneously in English and Welsh, explores the many issues that arise when a country decides to rewrite the school curriculum –...

Tackling the languages ‘crisis’: Supporting multilingualism in the new curriculum for Wales

What can be done to inspire an uplift for modern foreign languages across Wales in the future?

Learning progression in the humanities: Identifying tensions in articulating progression in the humanities in Wales

The current curriculum reforms in Wales (Welsh Government, 2020) represent a significant shift in thinking and organisation. As well as the introduction of the ‘four purposes’ to drive...

The new core maths qualifications: A welcome opportunity, but what is their place in the curriculum?

We are approaching the end of a three-year project, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, investigating the successes and challenges of core maths (CM), a set of post-16 qualifications introduced in...