“Pedagogy trumps curriculum (content).” So said Dylan Wiliam in his seminal text, Principled Curriculum Design. It is an important point. Whether a pupil learns what they are taught depends largely on the teacher’s ability to create the conditions in the classroom where pupils pay attention, think hard about what they are being taught, and practise applying what they have been taught to new contexts. The curriculum content may well be appropriate for the pupils to learn at this point of their education, it might be of high presentational quality, but if the teacher cannot make it irresistible to the learners through how they teach, then there is little chance the pupils will learn what they have been taught.
Presenting pupils with curriculum content and teaching them are two different things. Knowledge Organisers are only worth creating and giving to pupils if teachers show them what to do with them to help them learn. Otherwise they just end up looking neat, or otherwise, when they’re stuck into exercise books.
And, of course, the teacher needs to check for understanding, to discern whether their pupils have learnt what they have taught them. If not, they need to go back and teach the curriculum content in a different way until everyone has learned what it was they intended them to learn. Oh, and teachers also have to be sure that the pupils are taught in a way that ensures the pupils remember the stuff they’ve learnt, and can recall it weeks and months later. They need to assess whether there has been a change to the pupils’ long-term memories. It’s a complex job!
We have spent the last 8 years sorting out curriculum content. It’s time to focus on the other two elements of the curriculum triumvirate, pedagogy and assessment. So… it was a delight to see the release of Steplab’s extraordinary series of films on teaching this week. They are incredibly useful, and focus upon pedagogy and the golden thread from what teachers do through to what pupils learn. Do watch them. And if you are grappling with assessment issues, tune into Mary Myatt’s live seminars on the subject, beginning on 6 February and accessible here.