THE CHANGING SECONDARY CURRICULUM IN ENGLAND

Abstract

The writer  engages  with the debate around the balancing act in the development of curricula between knowledge and skills. There is an advocacy of the idea that content should be given greater prominence. The recent developments in the English curriculum are used to illustrate the dichotomy between skills and knowledge. The author argues that this is in fact a false dichotomy and that higher order skills become undermined if they are not developed alongside a significant knowledge base. Writers such as Bloom and Hirsch are deployed to substantiate the presented arguments. A cogent critique is offered to support subject based, knowledge dominant curricula. Evidence is marshalled to imply that many recent moves to develop vocational curricula by emphasising skills has diluted their value and function as a progressional root to further education and employment.