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RSA Education wants fellows’ views on teacher CPD…

The RSA Education Team is currently researching plans to offer a professional development programme with the aim of training a new generation of curriculum designers, developers and managers, ready to make the most of the emerging opportunities for schools to design their own curriculum.
The proposed programme will blend the learning and principles from two existing and successful RSA programmes - RSA Opening Minds and the Area Based Curriculum - as well as from curriculum design programmes and expertise around the world.
We would very much appreciate the opinions of RSA Fellows on this and would be grateful if you would send your response to the following question to rsaopeningminds@rsa.org.uk.

What role do you think a) the RSA and b) fellows could play in helping teachers to become curriculum designers of the future?

Comment by Tessy Britton on July 17, 2012 at 13:16: Hi Karen - This is a great idea. My experience is that teachers love developing new materials and too much curriculum development is aimed at giving teachers information/knowledge to 'deliver'... rather than making proper use of their imagination and enthusiasm. It is unfortunate also that with the current round of cuts everywhere that professional development of teachers - both practical and academic - is becoming a luxury many schools can't afford any more.

Comment by Bryan Garaventa on July 17, 2012 at 19:02: Hello,
I'm not sure which types of curriculum are being developed, but I would like to make a recommendation for the education of future engineering students if this is applicable.

Accessibility is going to be a critical component within future technologies as a benchmark to achieve equal access for disabled people around the world. This will not simply improve the lives of the disabled and future disabled, but will empower a work force that is relatively untapped.

I would recommend that Accessibility be considered as a core component in the teaching process to lay out groundwork for versatile engineers, which will shape the future.

I've recently written an article that lays out the three fundamental principles that govern the development of interactive web technologies, at
http://lnkd.in/jYnkZq
Which may help illustrate why this is important to understand as early as possible from a development standpoint.

Also, please let me know if there is anything I can do to help.

Sincerely,
Bryan Garaventa

Comment by Heather Sim on July 18, 2012 at 12:07: Hi there Karen. It's great to hear that this is happening. I agree with Tessy about the unintended consequences of yet more knowledge to deliver. We set out 2 years ago to create a new programme for teachers in Scotland - at the time, our goal was to enhance teacher capacity for pupil-centred learning and youth-led creative enquiry. During the R&D phase, we abandoned the idea of a conventional professional development programme and focused instead on live experiences that help teachers and pupils to get better at working (and developing) together (build co-creative capacity). With funding from PHF, we will be collaborating with teachers and pupils at 18 secondaries in Scotland over next 2.5 years - helping them to change teaching, learning and the curriculum together. We'd be delighted to share our experiences and early reflections with you if that's would be useful.

Comment by Karen Raingold on July 19, 2012 at 14:19: Hi Tessy and Heather, we totally agree with your sentiments and are planning to create a programme that is very collaborative and capitalises on teachers' innovation. Heather, your pilot sounds fascinating and is definitely something that we would like to hear more about. Perhaps we could set up a phone conversation?

Comment by Heather Sim on July 19, 2012 at 17:49: Happy to chat on phone Karen. I am around a bit next week but then on holiday from 27 July to 13 August. Why don't you email me and we can find a time that suits. heather@spaceunlimited.org

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