An aims-based curriculum illustrated by the teaching of science in schools

Abstract

We begin by arguing that curriculum development should start with aims rather than, as is typically the case, with subjects. We, therefore, ask what might be the fundamental aims of school education. We conclude that they are twofold, namely, to enable each learner to lead a life that is personally flourishing and to help others to do so too. These high level aims can be translated into more specific ones by considering how human flourishing requires, for most people, such things as the acquisition of a broad background understanding, moral education, a life of imagination and reflection, and preparation for work. To illustrate our argument more specifically we then turn to the teaching of science. We show how our position relates to and simplifies present writing about the aims of science education and conclude that our proposals would result in a school science education that had similarities with much current school education, which is desirable as it suggests that our proposals are not completely unrealistic, but some non-trivial differences too, which is encouraging as it suggests that our approach has practical worth rather than simply replicating existing approaches.

Keywords:

• aims of education
• curriculum design
• school science
• subject knowledge

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Michael J. Reiss

Michael Reiss is Pro-Director: Research and Development and Professor of Science Education at the Institute of Education, University of London, Vice President and Honorary Fellow of the British Science Association, Honorary Visiting Professor at the Universities of Leeds and York and the Royal Veterinary College, Director of the Salters-Nuffield Advanced Biology Project and an Academician of the Academy of Social Sciences. The former Director of Education at the Royal Society, he has written extensively about curricula, pedagogy and assessment in science education and has directed a very large number of research, evaluation and consultancy projects over the past 20 years funded by Research Councils, Government Departments, charities and international agencies. For further information see www.reiss.tc.

John White

John White is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy of Education at the Institute of Education, University of London, where he has worked since 1965, before which time he taught in secondary schools and colleges in Britain and France. His interests are in the mind of the learner and in interrelationships among educational aims and applications to school curricula. Recent books include the following: Education and the end of work (1997); Do Howard Gardner's multiple intelligences add up? (1998); Will the new national curriculum live up to its aims? (with Steve Bramall) (2000); The child's mind (2002); Rethinking the school curriculum (ed.) (2004); The curriculum and the child (2005); Intelligence, destiny and education: the ideological origins of intelligence testing (2006); What schools are for and why (2007); Exploring well-being in schools (2011) and The invention of the secondary curriculum (2011).