The aim of this module is to explore curriculum making methodology.

Curriculum making underpins curriculum leadership.

Curriculum leadership exists within teachers’ own classrooms. Some teachers may become curriculum developers. For example, they may write a text book. This important function (development and/or design) can take place away from the geography classroom.

GeoCapabilities is concerned with teachers as curriculum makers. This underpins their curriculum leadership.

Intended Outcomes

For participants, the intended outcomes of this module are:

Realise the significance of ‘curriculum’ and its conceptual difference from (and relationship to) ‘pedagogy’.
Understand the creative and practical task of curriculum making.
Appreciate the significance of well chosen ‘curriculum artefacts’.
Understand the role of curriculum making in achieving a Future 3 geography curriculum.

Main Outputs

Participants should produce their own exemplars or case studies of curriculum making in action. This means creating and sharing curriculum artefacts.

Curriculum making is a deliberative activity, not a technical process. It is more than just sharing teaching materials and lesson plans. For example, curriculum making is explicit about:

educational aims and purposes;

what geographical ideas (concepts) we seek to develop;

how to engage students with the ideas;

how to sequence the material, and

how to interpret what pupils do with the materials and experiences we provide – that is, how they respond.

It is possible to show all the above using a well-chosen artefact as the main focus. This module provides examples of how to do this.