Could do better: Using international comparisons to refine the National Curriculum in England

Tim Oates, via a kind reader's email:

Recent reviews of the National Curriculum have failed to harness the insights emerging from high quality transnational comparisons, according to a top academic.

In a Cambridge Assessment paper out today (Thursday 18 November 2010), Tim Oates, Group Director of Assessment Research and Development, said: "We should appraise carefully both international and national research in order to drive an evidence-based review of the National Curriculum and make changes only where justified, in order to avoid unnecessary disruption to the education system.

"However, simply importing another country's classroom practices would be a gross error. A country's national curriculum - both its form and content - cannot be considered in isolation from the state of development of these vital 'Control Factors'*. They interact. Adjust one without considering development of the others, and the system may be in line for trouble."

The paper - Could do better: using international comparisons to refine the National Curriculum in England - acknowledges that any revision of the Curriculum is a sophisticated undertaking and yet it is not the sole instrument of educational success.

In a foreword to Tim's paper, the Rt Hon Michael Gove MP, Secretary of State for Education, supported the call for international evidence to be at the heart of curriculum reform and said:

Posted by Jim Zellmer at January 13, 2011 4:46 AM
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