School curriculum reform and the Scottish War of Independence: a collaboration between Education Scotland and the University of Glasgow

苏格兰教育是苏格兰政府机构，负责支持和监督苏格兰学校的教学。这次合作的目的是改变苏格兰教育的教材，让教师和学习者了解苏格兰历史上的一个关键时期，从1296年英格兰的爱德华一世征服苏格兰到1314年罗伯特·布鲁斯在班诺克本战役中的胜利。超过90%的苏格兰学生在15岁之前学习这一主题。苏格兰教育局热衷于开发一种方法，以推进苏格兰2010年引入的课程改革。灵活性是这一改革的核心，允许教师选择与他们所关心的学生最相关的材料。只有在各级学校提供适当的资源，才能充分发挥这种新方法的潜力。目前在苏格兰独立战争中没有这样的东西。苏格兰教育部已经认识到，“中世纪苏格兰人”数据库（www.poms.ac.uk）是最近一个由人权委员会资助的项目的主要成果（见下文），有潜力用于创造足够规模的资源，将苏格兰独立战争的教学从早期转变为15岁。因此，全国各地的学习者和教师将能够通过一系列的角度来看待这个话题，而不是局限于华莱士和布鲁斯以及他们的战斗的陈腐叙述。其目的是让学习者和教师获得战争期间许多个人或团体的信息。这将使他们能够通过自己的当地视角来探索战争，并通过来自不同行业的个人和团体的不同经历来接近战争。通过这种方式，后续项目将把“中世纪苏格兰人”（PoMS）数据库研究的新见解和工具带入课堂。这只能通过研究人员和教师的合作来实现。其目的是由研究管理员支持的研究助理将提供大量的基于资源的材料，然后根据教师在复习日的反馈对这些材料进行改编，以供课堂使用。然后，教师将在研讨会上使用这些材料，为15岁以下的所有年龄段创建“学习之旅”。“学习之旅”比课程计划更广泛、更灵活。它们提供问题和提示，使学习者能够以适合他们特定水平的方式探索材料体。这给老师留下了足够的灵活性来决定如何最好地在自己的课堂上部署资源。学习者和教师可以在苏格兰教育部的免费学校内部网（GLOW）上访问学习旅程和相关的原始材料。该项目最终在GLOW上建立了一个专业学习社区，致力于在课堂上维持和发展这些材料。该项目的直接受益者是学习者和教师，他们将拥有专门为其使用而设计的广泛而灵活的材料，这些材料基于经过验证的创新研究。苏格兰教育也将受益于拥有一个能够充分展示改革后课程潜力的资源，以满足个别学校和地方的需求和兴趣。从长远来看，该项目有可能挑战以《勇敢的心》为代表的苏格兰独立战争的简单方法的文化霸权。通过向90%的学生提供对苏格兰历史上这一关键时期的各种经历的更广泛的了解，该项目有可能减少对独立战争的粗糙看法的影响，并从长远来看改变战争对苏格兰人意义的本质。

Education Scotland is the Scottish Government agency responsible for supporting and monitoring teaching in Scottish schools. This collaboration aims to transform Education Scotland's material for teachers and learners on a pivotal period of Scottish History, between Edward I of England's conquest of Scotland in 1296 and Robert Bruce's victory at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314. Over 90 % of schoolchildren in Scotland study this topic by age 15. Education Scotland is keen to develop an approach that will advance the reform of the curriculum introduced in Scotland in 2010. Flexibility is at the heart of this reform, allowing teachers to choose material that is most relevant to the learners in their care. The full potential of this new approach can only be achieved by providing appropriate resources across all levels of schooling. Nothing like this is currently available for the Scottish War of Independence. Education Scotland has recognised that the 'People of Medieval Scotland' database (www.poms.ac.uk), a major outcome of a recent AHRC-funded project (see below), has the potential to be used to create resources on a sufficient scale to transform the teaching of the Scottish War of Independence from early years to age 15. As a result, learners and teachers across the country will be able to view the topic through a range of perspectives, rather than being restricted to the well worn narrative of Wallace and Bruce and their battles. The aim is to give learners and teachers access to information on scores of individuals or groups during the War. This will allow them to explore the War through their own local perspective, and to approach the War through the varied experiences of individuals and groups from different walks of life. In this way, the Follow-On project will bring new insights and tools from the research of the 'People of Medieval Scotland' (PoMS) database into the classroom. This can only be achieved through the collaboration of researchers and teachers. The aim is that the Research Associate, supported by the Research Administrator, will provide a mass of source-based material that can then by adapted for the classroom on the basis of feedback from teachers in Review Days. Teachers will then use this material in Workshops to create 'learning journeys' for all levels up to age 15. 'Learning journeys' are broader and more flexible than lesson plans. They provide questions and prompts that enable learners to explore a body of material in a way that is appropriate for their particular level. This leaves enough flexibility for the teacher to decide how best to deploy the resource in their own classroom. The learning journeys and accompanying source-based material will be accessed by learners and teachers on Education Scotland's free intranet for schools ('GLOW').The project culminates in the creation of a Professional Learning Community of teachers on GLOW committed to sustaining and developing this material in the classroom.The immediate beneficiaries of the project are learners and teachers, who will have a wideranging and flexible body of material designed specifically for their use, and based on innovative research of proven quality. Education Scotland will also benefit from having a resource that demonstrates the full potential of the reformed curriculum to meet the needs and interests of individual schools and localities. In the longer term the project has the potential to challenge the cultural hegemony of the simple approach to the Scottish War of Independence typified by 'Braveheart'. By offering a broader understanding of the varied experience of this pivotal period of Scottish history to 90% of schoolchildren, the project has the potential to reduce the impact of the cruder views of the War of Independence, and change the nature of the War's significance for Scots in the longer term.