Curriculum.nu: 'The criticism will be about our support'
Curriculum.nu today presents the building blocks for the new core objectives of primary education and the final attainment levels of secondary education. Hundreds of teachers collaborated on the proposals, directly and indirectly. Is that enough? “Support will have to grow in the schools,” says chairman Theo Douma.
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What should pupils in primary education and in the lower years of secondary education know and be able to do? And that is divided into nine learning areas, from Dutch, English & modern foreign languages, arithmetic & mathematics to digital literacy, people & nature and exercise & sports. This is described in the proposals that Curriculum.nu presents today.
On the basis of this report, the national SLO expertise center will, after approval by the House of Representatives, develop new core objectives for primary education and final attainment levels for secondary education. Due to a lack of time, the report is currently limited to lower secondary education. The advice on the superstructure will follow later.
It was urgent to re-examine the content of the education, says chairman Douma. “The previous major revision dates from thirteen years ago. And then we had been thinking about it for a few years, so the previous revision actually dates back to fifteen years ago. ” And the world looks quite different now than in 2004. "It was time to see if we are still doing the right things in education."
Vague
Current core goals are vague, says Douma. And the goals for primary and secondary education have been developed independently of each other, which means that there is no continuous learning path. “Because those current goals are so vague, it is the teaching methods that determine what is learned. We wanted to make explicit again what students should know and be able to do, so that teachers and teachers can make their own choices. We want to return education to those who teach. "
We want to return education to those who teach
The building blocks that are now presented have a 70/30 structure: 70 percent of the material is intended for all students throughout the country. Schools and teams can make their own choices from the remaining 30 percent, depending on, for example, their student population.
New learning areas
The report presents two new learning areas: digital literacy and citizenship. “Schools don't have to make separate subjects out of it,” says Douma. Although that is allowed. "But the advice is to have these subjects, as soon as they have been worked out in final attainment levels or core objectives, mainly discussed in other subjects." After all, digital literacy is not an isolated topic, but relates to all kinds of things. Like when looking for information on the internet, and that is what students do in almost all subjects.
The revision of the attainment targets and final attainment levels has been underway for several years, because Curriculum.nu is a restart of the previous Education 2032. This initiative was not successful because hardly any teachers were involved.
The people who wanted to be involved are involved. Directly, as a developer, or indirectly during the various consultation rounds
Support and criticism
The latter is different now. 125 teachers and 18 school leaders themselves worked on the proposals. The interim results have been presented to hundreds to thousands of people in several rounds.
Nevertheless, chairman Douma foresees criticism. In a word: 'support'. “The people who wanted to be involved are involved. Directly, as a developer, or indirectly during the various consultation rounds. That's hundreds to thousands of teachers and lecturers. But yes, they are not all. Anyway: the schools will soon be able to get started with the new attainment targets and learning outcomes, and support will have to grow further. The real work is only starting now. ”
