New Curriculum for Excellence 'will harm teaching of history'

The move towards "active learning" in the new Curriculum for Excellence could pose problems in the teaching of history, according to a report by the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

Teachers are also having difficulties in feeding the key concepts of the new curriculum into lessons, it claims.

But the concerns have been dismissed by the Scottish Government, which says the report "misunderstands" the changes.

A working group chaired by Dundee University vice-principal Professor Christopher Whatley warns in a report that history is in danger of being "diluted" by the new curriculum.

"Whilst we welcome the active learning of CfE, we do fear that this is at the expense of the acquisition of discipline-based knowledge and the skills that the discipline of history imparts," it finds.

The proposed "experiences and outcomes" set out in the vision of the new curriculum are also dismissed in the report.

"They are often meaningless because of the excessive generalisation and the lack of historical context," the report adds.

"It is not clear what minimum knowledge of the chronology of historical development needs to be grasped before a learner might be said to have any meaningful historical understanding."

The society has previously welcomed aspects of the new curriculum, including the opportunities for teachers to use more initiative in the classroom.

The report warns: "The RSE has, however, seriously questioned the lack of attention to knowledge, the lack of proper regard to disciplines, which have developed as the bases of understanding in recent centuries, the lack of clarity in curricular proposals and the inadequate attention to assessment."

Uncertainty over the introduction of the new exams in 2013/2014 are also raised, along with concerns over a possible "narrowing of the curriculum" in the later years of secondary.

It calls for a review of the current teaching and learning resources for history to maintain standards.

But a spokesman for the Scottish Government played down the issues raised by the society.

He said "This report misunderstands the exciting changes that are taking place in Scotland's schools.

"Far from diluting the importance of history, Curriculum for Excellence will strengthen history's place as a discrete and prominent discipline in classrooms.

Tory education spokeswoman Liz Smith said history's status as a subject in schools has been under threat for some time.

She added: "There are worries that the approach to the subject is not sufficiently rigorous when it comes to presenting pupils with a wide range of knowledge of the chronology of historical events."