The Future of Curriculum Improvement: Co-Design and Real-Time, Teacher-Led Evaluation

Did you know that the average Curriculum Improvement Cycle takes a full 10 years to complete?

How much do you think education will have changed 10 years from now? Will there be teacher-robots patrolling the playground on lunch duty or will we still be huddled up in our coats with younger students dangling off our arms?

A number of education systems around the world are in the process of reviewing or are just starting to review their curriculum (Bangladesh, New Zealand, Wales). In Scotland, a Curriculum Improvement Cycle (CIC) was commissioned in April 2024. The aim is to offer a structured approach to ensure curricula remain relevant and effective. This model comprises four interconnected stages:

1. Analysis: This initial phase involves continuous evaluation of feedback from educational practices across all levels—early learning centers, schools, colleges, regional, and national. It includes studies on future trends, international evidence (such as PIRLS, TIMSS, PISA), and research on specific issues.
2. Engagement and Co-Creation: In this stage, planning, engagement, collaboration, and processing of feedback are conducted to test draft workstreams. Importantly, the implementation, adoption, or realization strategy is also co-designed during this phase.
3. Sharing, Learning, and Adopting: This phase focuses on local capacity building and professional development, development of support material, and monitoring of experiences of teachers and students.
4. Mobilizing, Monitoring, and Evaluating: The final stage involves monitoring and evaluating the impact and effect of changes as they are being made. Feedback is gathered to support improvement as part of the ongoing cycle, which then begins anew.

By systematically implementing these stages, educational institutions can foster a culture of continuous improvement, ensuring that curricula not only keep pace with societal changes but also proactively address emerging educational challenges.

This thoughtful process ensures careful planning, implementation, and review — but this decade-long cycle makes educational improvement less agile. While the 10-year cycle promotes stability, what if there was a quicker way to adopt what’s working—and what’s not—in real time?

At WhatWorked Education we believe in living, automated reviews of 'live' teacher-led interventions to continually evaluate which strategies are improving student outcomes. Our online platform offers:

• Tools to assess what works in classrooms - right now
• Immediate impact reports to evidence student progress
• Empowerment for educators to conduct rapid evaluation of interventions.

This last point is particularly important. At WhatWorked Education, we were thrilled to read of the Scottish Government's commitment to co-design in shaping the Curriculum Improvement Cycle (CIC). This work exemplifies the value of involving those closest to the students - teachers and practitioners - in crafting policies that genuinely reflect their needs.

We propose that educators should be engaged in this cyclical process through providing tools and insights that empower them to participate across every stage of the CIC. By giving educators the opportunity to conduct their own evaluations, we avoid top-down approaches where 'there will be no sense of belonging or ownership and people will simply not feel part of the process' as identified by Ollie Bray, Strategic Director at Education Scotland, in 'What do we actually mean by co-design in the development of education policy?'.

In conclusion, while the traditional 10-year Curriculum Improvement Cycle offers a structured and comprehensive approach to educational reform, it also raises questions about agility and adaptability in rapidly evolving educational landscapes. The involvement of educators in co-design processes is a critical step forward, ensuring that policies and practices resonate with those on the frontlines of education.

At WhatWorked Education, we advocate for a complementary approach: integrating live, teacher-led evaluations with innovative tools that provide real-time insights into what works best for students. By empowering educators to take an active role throughout the CIC, we can foster a dynamic system that balances stability with flexibility, ultimately ensuring that education keeps pace with the needs of both society and learners.

Education’s future may not include playground-patrolling robots, but it can certainly be smarter, more responsive, and truly collaborative - if we embrace the voices of educators and the power of real-time data in shaping our curricula.