2023-11-26 18:55:08
Scotland’s competency-based educational model, promoted for decades in the country, is in its lowest hours. The launch of the Curriculum for Excellence in 2010, focused on the acquisition of skills to the detriment of the accumulation of knowledge – a philosophy from which the Spanish education law draws Lomloehas turned out to be less effective than expected in improving the student performance. So much so that the Scottish Government has initiated a consultation process with the aim of implement modifications in the evaluation model in schools and with the purpose of giving teachers the necessary guidelines to implement the curriculum effectively.
The Government announces measures to improve teacher training when implementing the model
The Scottish curriculum was designed to give a greater freedom to teachers and schools when teaching skills such as critical thinking, teamwork or good communication skills to students. The purpose of this model is that schools can adapt the content of the classes to the needs of each student without adhering to strict guidelines that, in many cases, leave aside the particularities and social context of each student. However, this led to the development of a much-needed instruction manual. less detailed than there is in England, which has become a problem for the majority of teachers and students.
Absence of content
Daisy Christodoulou, a former English teacher and member of the educational startup No More Marking, points out the problems that the competency model poses for teachers. “Even experienced teachers they have difficulties to put it into practice. This model is based on the premise that there is no need to worry about the content, because children can search for it: it is enough to directly teach the skill.” Something that Christodoulou believes is a mistake. “Every time a teacher tries to fill content gaps and attempts to teach a lesson focused on historical chronology or the meaning of new words is reprimanded by inspectors, who insist that this is not the purpose of this model.
“We need a middle layer of leadership to support teachers. But that won’t happen because it’s too expensive”
Most experts agree that the skills model and competencies, defended by organizations such as the OECD or UNESCO, can be positive for students, but they warn that leaving aside the teaching of knowledge can be counterproductive. Mark Priestley, professor of education at the University of Stirling and advisor to the Scottish Government on curriculum implementation, points in that direction. “A good curriculum should specify not only the skills to be learned, but also set educational objectives and then develop knowledgeskills and attributes that are needed to achieve them.
One of the main problems, explains Priestley, is that schools do not have specifications on the content they must offer in their classes and lack references. “This curriculum gives experienced teachers a lot of flexibility to develop the curriculum as they wish, but does not provide the scaffolding and support for less experienced teachers to do so. Scotland lacks a middle layer of leadership that allows expert teachers to support your colleagues in the schools”.
The limited collaboration between centers due to the fear that the models will be copied – which goes against the philosophy of this curriculum – prevents the establishment of networks that can facilitate the effective implementation of this system in all centers.
The Government has announced the elimination of the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA), the body in charge of managing student evaluations, as well as Education Scotland, the entity that offers support to schools and inspects their educational performance. The objective is to replace them with three new organizations that help teachers to implement the competency model more efficiently and reverse the trend towards decline in performance of Scottish students in language or mathematics which is reflected in the PISA reports.
But Priestley warns that these changes may not be enough. “New education agencies are likely to end up looking like those that already exist. What we need in Scotland is the development of this middle layer of leadership to support teachers,” he insists. “But that won’t happen because it’s too expensive.”
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