Category: School improvement
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If you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it
The title of this blog is often attributed to Lord Kelvin, professor of natural philosophy (physics) at the University of Glasgow for the second half of the 19th century. As with many quotes used in popular culture, there is no evidence he said these words, although the sentiment is the…
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Some thoughts on curriculum development and instructional design: Part 6 – Theory into practice
In the preceding blogs in this series, I have provided my thoughts on some curriculum-making and instructional design theory and processes, with the occasional practical example. In this blog I will look at how such theory can be put to practical use. One observation, and suggestion, I would like to…
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Some thoughts on curriculum development and instructional design: Part 5 – Empirically-based instructional design
So far in this series of blogs, I have discussed some theoretical frameworks and then, using the properties of matter strand of physics looked at how the policy and programmatic curricula in a jurisdiction could be set out to support effective classroom curriculum making by teachers and groups of teachers…
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Some thoughts on curriculum development and instructional design: Part 4 – Matter matters!
In this blog I would like to consider the purpose and content of a properties of matter strand in a science curriculum. It follows on from the previous blogs in the series where I set out some theoretical background, a case study from early in my career, and some observations…
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Some thoughts on curriculum development and instructional design: Part 3 – Learning from elsewhere
In the first two blogs in this series, I have discussed some of the theoretical frameworks that can be used in curriculum and instructional design and then a case study describing the development of a research informed unit on the particle theory of matter. In this blog I would like…
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Some thoughts on curriculum development and instructional design: Part 2 – An early case study
In my previous blog, the first in a short series, I set out some background to the process of curriculum making and instructional design. In this next instalment I will describe a significant piece of research-informed curriculum and instructional design I undertook relatively early in my career in the early…
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Some thoughts on curriculum development and instructional design: Part 1 – Some background
This is the first in a short series of linked blogs where I muse on curriculum making and instructional design. I will provide some theoretical background as an introduction and then in subsequent blogs delve more deeply into some aspects in detail. Reflecting my background, most of the detail will…
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Research-informed improvement in Scottish education?
Anyone reading this and already familiar with my previous series of four blogs from last August https://stuartphysics.co.uk/2024/08/01/improving-education-curriculum-explanations-professionalism-and-more-part-1/ or from the recommendations I made in my PhD thesis https://stax.strath.ac.uk/concern/theses/w66344189 (Farmer, 2024a) will know I would like to see teachers using research and evidence-informed approaches with enquiry-as-stance-based professional learning embedded in their…
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Improving education – curriculum, explanations, professionalism and more – Part 4
In the previous three blogs in this series, I have considered several factors important to curriculum reform, both at a national institutional curriculum level and at the classroom curriculum level of individual teachers. But how might we go about more effective curriculum reform in the future? Complexity and expertise I…
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Improving education – curriculum, explanations, professionalism and more – Part 3
In the previous parts of this series of blogs, I explored the importance of good explanations in teaching and the potential benefits of good-quality textbooks and how good quality curriculum and teaching resources, including textbooks, might be developed. In this blog I will explore aspects of teacher professionalism and how…
