Empathise

Conduct research to develop an understanding of your users

What does the design thinking model say?

The goal of this phase is to gather enough observations that you can truly begin to understand your users, their perspectives and their needs.

What does this mean for curriculum design?

- Understanding your learners, your school context, your parent and wider community experiences, aspirations and ideas.

- Understanding your current curriculum offer:

• what, why, how
• intended, enacted, experienced - implementation gap?

- Understanding your staff knowledge, skills, experiences of:

• Managing change
• Child development
• Cognitive science – perception, attention & memory
• Subject/discipline specialism
• Curriculum theory
• Pedagogy, including assessment

- Understanding your staff motivation, confidence, attitudes

- Understanding your staff knowledge of the Curriculum for Wales framework:

• Requirements (legislative)
• Guidance

What does Welsh Government's Curriculum for Wales: the journey to curriculum roll-out say?

'An understanding of learner’s needs, and where they are in their learning, should inform the purpose of learning. By understanding the progress learners have made, assessment enables practitioners to identify learners’ needs both as individuals and as a group and to plan future learning. Learners themselves will be an important source of information in understanding these needs, alongside the Curriculum for Wales guidance.'

'Develop understanding of the range of needs, capacities, identifies and values of learners to help establish what the four purposes mean for them and the school context.'

'Develop a vision for the curriculum and the learning and teaching that supports it as well as priorities for developing teaching in the school.'

'Schools should ensure that they have a deep understanding of its philosophy, its key design features and how it is different. Without this, practitioners are likely to use Curriculum for Wales as if it were the national curriculum and not make the necessary changes to curriculum planning and teaching.'

'Leaders should recognise the importance of developing this understanding across the school, supporting all staff to engage from the earliest stages of the process. Developing deep understanding will take time and should be an ongoing process.'

Key questions from Curriculum for Wales: the journey to curriculum roll-out to support next steps

• What do the four purposes mean for our learners in our context? How should these drive our school priorities and practice?
• How do the statements of what matters inform curriculum design? How do they relate to what our learners need?
• How has COVID-19 changed the needs of our learners? How has our curriculum and practice changed? What is working well? Why?
• What is the purpose of our learning and teaching currently? What aspects of our current approach could be built on? Where is the purpose unclear?

What CSC professional learning is available to support this phase?

• Leading Change - CSC module from national programme

Other professional learning / reading to support you:

• Curriculum for Wales: the journey to curriculum roll-out
• National CfW PL programme – CSC overview
• CSC Curriculum for Wales Professional Learning Offer
• CSC Curriculum for Wales Knowledge Bank
• CSC Curriculum for Wales community area
• CSC Central South Wales Challenge booklet

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