What makes an excellent theme?

Mo is currently the Curriculum Theme Manager at Shireland Collegiate Academy in Sandwell. He has been interested in thematic learning since his early days teaching in a Birmingham primary school. While teaching Year 6, he refused to restrict the curriculum for the benefit of SATs. By applying a thematic approach, he was able to raise standards in Literacy and Numeracy while maintaining breadth in the KS2 curriculum. His current post involves guiding his Year 7 class through Shireland's unique Literacy 4 Life curriculum. A competency-based thematic approach to KS3. Mo is also a firm advocate of technology for the acceleration and deepening of learning.

Follow @MYafaiSCA

Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

How best to capture a student’s interest? Mo Yafai, Shireland Collegiate Academy’s Curriculum Theme Manager, considers themes to be a great way of encouraging curiosity and enjoyment in the classroom.

Themes are contextually diverse vehicles for learning. They provide meaningful contexts in which students have the opportunity to achieve proficiency in a range of competencies. Each theme gives students the opportunities to acquire the skills needed to be successful at Key Stage 4 and promotes social responsibility as well as personal reflection and growth.

To ask what makes an excellent theme, is to ask what are the conditions for excellent learning. The core learning and teaching principles that underpin an excellent theme are as follows:

Learning should:

Be intrinsically linked
Have breadth and depth
Be active
Have differentiation
Be open ended (no ceiling)
Independent and collaborative

Teaching should:

Be stimulating and incite curiosity
Promote higher order thinking
Promote creativity
Be driven by Assessment for Learning (AfL)
Promote independence and collaboration

An excellent theme insists on a dynamic and evolved pedagogy. It should ask the student to think actively in different social contexts. Teachers and learners should work interactively to construct knowledge; and, together, through this interaction, deep and sustained learning is promoted. It is evident that skills taught in isolation are superficial. The hallmark of active learning is stimulus plus debate and reflection. Moreover, through active learning, the student's ideas about society are challenged and developed in a safe and nurturing environment.

Thematic learning is more than a collection of lesson around a theme. It is more helpful to view each theme as a learning journey on which students make discoveries about themselves and the world in which they live. The journey is prompted with an effective driving question and punctuated by flipped and active learning. From the outset, students have a clear idea of the journey they will undertake. It is also vital that the teacher links the student to the context with effective questioning and provocative statements. For example, while discussing recycling in the Going Green theme, my students are confronted with the statement “I don’t need to bother with reducing, reusing or recycling because by the time it becomes a problem I’ll be dead: it is your problem not mine.” Statements like this engage the students on an emotional level, activate their thinking and promote debate.

Further to this, class discussion around the driving question enables the teacher to gauge the level at which the students are able to access the theme. Through a range of AfL techniques, the teacher can ensure that learners of all abilities experience the appropriate level of challenge. Each lesson in a theme is a checkpoint on the learning journey. Flipped Learning engages and prepares students for higher order thinking during lessons. During lessons, the teacher is able to focus and direct learning, and assess primary learning goals (competencies). Underpinning this is the effective use of technology for the acceleration of learning. Innovative use of technology enables teachers to take learning beyond the classroom. Focus is put on sustained learning not sustained teaching. The main aim is that students walk through the classroom door with questions.

“Curiosity is the engine of achievement.” — Sir Ken Robinson

An excellent theme has depth at its core and promotes breadth through independent enquiry. Although it consists of a series of key lessons that ensure competency coverage, this is not fixed. A theme taught to one cohort might promote excellent learning, but to another fall flat. In essence, the difference between good and excellent is flexibility. Outstanding themes allow students to discuss the direction of their learning. As the theme progresses, learning might not necessarily be linear. Incidental learning, or ‘side roads’, may be embarked on through class discussion and independent enquiry. Above all, when learners are truly involved in constructing knowledge for themselves, their motivation is high and both individual and group effort is sustained. Organic growth around a core series of lesson allows an excellent theme to evolve into an outstanding theme.

Finally, there should be explicit links between the themes and competencies across the Key Stage. Themes should initiate or develop thinking around important issues and concepts. For example, the Journeys theme of my school’s Year 7 covers the personal experience of slaves during the Middle Passage. This is developed in our Year 8’s Freedom theme: here students address the wider issue of the Civil Rights Movement. An excellent Year 8 or Year 9 theme seeks to build on and make connections with previous themes. This vertical articulation is key to deep learning. Further to this, it should draw on the expertise of other subject departments and make links with the wider community (locally, nationally and globally). As students progress through Key Stage 3, they need to develop the idea that teachers are resources for learning. After all, the goal of thematic curriculum is to incite the curiosity needed for life-long learning and the skills required to be a successful learner.