It’s The Curriculum, Stupid!

• Main Authors: Grayling, Ian, Commons, Kevin, Wise, John
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: University of Huddersfield Press 2012-01-01
• Series: Teaching in Lifelong Learning: A Journal to Inform and Improve Practice
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.5920/till.2012.4121

In this paper we, firstly, explore the importance and positioning of ‘thinking skills’ within the Further Education (FE) curriculum in hard times - for society generally and education in particular. Secondly, we argue that ‘thinking skills’ have been lost from the curriculum over recent years and are now in urgent need of rehabilitation; not as a bolt-on, but at the heart of the curriculum. We then invite readers to consider the Learning and Skills Improvement Service’s (LSIS) endorsed framework for ‘Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural’ education as a powerful means of re-embedding ‘thinking’ within the vocational curriculum in support of both the ‘skills’ and the ‘social cohesion’ agendas. Finally, we consider the implications of this for the development of vocational pedagogy and for teacher education.