Curricular Progression and Pupil Learning: Towards a Method for Understanding how Pupils Progress in Learning Over Time

Morrison-Love, D. , Makara Fuller, K. and Borquez Sanchez, E. (2023) Curricular Progression and Pupil Learning: Towards a Method for Understanding how Pupils Progress in Learning Over Time. ECER2023, Glasgow, United Kingdom, 22-25 Aug 2023.

Abstract

Over recent years, several countries in Europe and elsewhere have seen a resurgent interest in the concept of learning progression and what it means to progress in learning. Learning progressions, or ‘progression frameworks’, are typically thought about as optimised pathways along which pupils might be expected to progress towards greater sophistication in knowledge and skills. They can be informed by or be the product of research and classroom evidence, and can be used to support effective teaching, learning and formative assessment. They have also been critiqued for imposing a sense of linearity and predictability in learning as well as artificial ceilings that can be narrowing and reductive. While many studies of learning progression are concerned with single concepts or ideas (e.g., progression in understanding the concept of matter), the notion that learning becomes more sophisticated is variously reflected in different country’s curricula. Here, we present a study funded by the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland (RIG009335) that was undertaken to design a methodological approach for developing a rich understanding pupils’ progression in learning. It is set within the context of Welsh Educational reform and is designed to form part of a future and larger-scale longitudinal study that will follow individual pupils through several years and stages of a national education system in which learning progression is foregrounded. We positioned this study by first exploring, challenging and making explicit our own understandings and assumptions about the nature of learning, its acquisitional and participatory natures and the socio-cultural context of classrooms. Making progress in learning was seen as different to making progress in performance and we distinguish between ‘learning progressions’ as symbolic representations of possible ways learning might evolve, and the substantive learning of pupils which may or may not reflect these.

• Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item
• Keywords: Learning progression, curriculum, research methodology.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Borquez Sanchez, Dr Estelia and Morrison-Love, Dr David and Makara Fuller, Dr Kara
• Authors: Morrison-Love, D., Makara Fuller, K., and Borquez Sanchez, E.
• Subjects: L Education > L Education (General); L Education > LB Theory and practice of education > LB2361 Curriculum
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Education > Robert Owen Centre
• Research Group: University of Glasgow Educational Assessment Network
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2023 The Authors
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced with the permission of the authors

Project Code	Award No	Project Name	Principal Investigator	Funder's Name	Funder Ref	Lead Dept
309133		Carnegie	David Morrison-Love	The Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland (CARNEGTR)	RIG009335	ED - Education