Understanding Curriculum for Wales

Introduction

This section explores the nature of Curriculum for Wales. Building a shared understanding of these principles is important for the curriculum, including approaches to progression and assessment, to be understood and realised consistently across Wales.

Key ideas

There are two videos in this section that explore key ideas about curriculum theory and practice, and how these relate to Curriculum for Wales.

How do we understand Curriculum for Wales?

This video introduces two contexts that help create shared understanding of Curriculum for Wales:

• the international trend towards creating ‘21^st century curricula’
• curriculum models: particularly the process approach to curriculum design

The key ideas introduced in this video provides a basis for thinking about Curriculum for Wales as aligning most fully with a process approach.

Seminar 1: The process approach to curriculum and learning

This seminar was created to support the thinking and work of the co-construction group. It explores in more depth what a process approach means for creating a curriculum, what it means for place of knowledge in the curriculum and what it means for the teacher’s role.

Questions for discussion are included at the end of the video that focus on what the process approach might mean for your learners.

A printable handout of the slides used to create this video can also be downloaded alongside a full transcript.

Exploring further

This overview explores curriculum coherence further, and contains questions to support schools and settings to reflect on coherence in curriculum design.

Thinking into practice

The materials here were created to support the thinking of the co-construction group on curriculum models and what each of these models means for creating curriculum in practice.

Understanding this thinking helps practitioners to align curriculum, assessment and pedagogy with the models that underpin the curriculum framework they are working with.

Questions are included for individuals and groups of practitioners to reflect upon their own approaches to teaching in relation to the curriculum models.