Ok, so it wasn’t an outright ringing endorsement for IDL by the Cabinet Secretary for Education when she gave the Scottish Government’s response to the Scottish Parliament on the independent review of qualifications and assessment [the Hayward report] on 18th September 2024. However, at least her statement gave some hope that the door was still open for IDL to play a much greater role as a valuable and valued approach to learning, as envisaged in Curriculum for Excellence.
The Cabinet Secretary stated that
“With regard to interdisciplinary learning, or IDL as it is known, I recognise the desire, including from some young people themselves, for IDL opportunities to be more consistently available. It is that consistency—that parity of opportunity— that is important. I am therefore of the view that more work is required if IDL is to become a required part of the senior phase.”
The Cabinet Secretary then went on to indicate that:
“A refreshed national working group, which will be chaired by a senior secondary school leader, will bring together all relevant parties that are already active in this space. The group will lead a new phase of work, with the objective of better determining the place of IDL in secondary schools, while ensuring that an equitable, high-quality offer is available for all young people. In addition, the exercise will help to expand our shared knowledge of the ways in which IDL could be embedded in a school’s curriculum, including in respect of timetabling. Consideration will also be given to accreditation.”
In making her statement, the Cabinet Secretary referenced the report by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education (HMIE) on Curriculum Design in Scotland [Evaluation of curriculum design in Scotland – May 2024], in which it said:
“There remains lack of clarity regarding high-quality IDL and how it is distinct from other approaches to organising learning”.
However, it is also worth noting that the same report also recognises the value of IDL.
“Interdisciplinary learning remains an underutilised element of curriculum design across all sectors.”
The HMIE report goes on to recommend that national and local efforts are needed to provide staff with a better understanding of the principles and benefits of IDL. It also states that enhancing this understanding among staff will better equip them to facilitate rich learning contexts where children and young people learn and apply knowledge and skills.
Analysing the Cabinet Secretary’s statement, there are some important messages that emerge.
recognising the potential value of IDL
Firstly, the statement on IDL has already been interpreted by some practitioners of yet another example of the Scottish Government “kicking the can” down the road, akin to what they see as further delaying any meaningful reform. However, the Hayward proposal for “Project Learning” [an unhelpful phrase] to be part of the proposed Scottish Diploma of Achievement has at least prompted the Scottish Government into recognising the potential value of IDL with the commitment to establish a working group to consider the place of IDL. That should be seen as a major step forward. Critical to the success of this working group will be who sits on that group and it will be important that bodies such as RSE and those currently articulating, exemplifying and delivering IDL successfully are included.
One such group is the Falkirk-based Powering Futures team. Their 80-hour, SCQF Level 6 accredited challenge programme is currently being taken by students in almost one-third of secondary schools in Scotland. This genuinely interdisciplinary challenge programme provides students with the opportunity to take on real-life sustainability challenges set by business and industry, and to collaborate to create solutions that are presented to a panel of industry judges as part of their assessment. Such is the interest in this IDL programme that interest is already being shown by other parts of the UK and Ireland who are keen to embrace it.
Secondly and understandably, the focus of the Cabinet Secretary’s statement was in the context of Hayward’s proposals for the reform of assessment and qualifications, which relate to the senior phase of secondary education. Although what she said appeared to limit the consideration of IDL to the Senior Phase, or at most the secondary sector, it will be important that the proposed IDL working group remit embraces ELC, primary and special sectors as well. Again, there are already strong examples of IDL approaches being used in these sectors. One such example is the Vardy Foundation’s Gen+ programme which is designed to build leadership and meta skills (communication, creativity, collaboration, organisation, resilience, initiative and critical thinking) in primary and S1 to S3 learners.
A third message lies in the Cabinet Secretary’s statement that IDL opportunities need to be more consistently available and that it is that consistency—that parity of opportunity— that is important. This has been seen by some practitioners as a further “delaying tactic” by the Scottish Government to avoid the increased adoption of IDL approaches. However, it does make some sense in the context of Finland’s experiences of reforming its national core curriculum for primary and lower secondary (basic) education (roughly equivalent to primary and BGE in Scotland), which was introduced for grades 1–6 in all schools beginning on 1 August 2016.
a reform of school culture and school pedagogy
The purpose of reforming Finland’s school curriculum, which was seen by many outsiders in particular as already a highly successful school system, as reflected in PISA scores, was to enable a reform of school culture and school pedagogy designed to improve the quality of the learning process and enhance learning outcomes. The reform required every school to have at least one clearly-defined IDL theme, project or course that combined the content of different subjects and which dealt with the selected theme from the perspective of several subjects. The expectation was that schools planned and implemented these IDL modules with the topics and duration expected to vary according to local needs and interests. It was also expected that leaners would play a role in planning these IDL modules.
Although there have been some successes with these IDL modules, researchers at the University of Helsinki have begun to identify (sadly, only in Finnish and not translated into English at the moment) a number of areas that need to be addressed to ensure the full success of these modules. The main ones are:
the need for clearer guidance for teachers and learners, especially to address the need for student equity and the different staffing and resources that exist in a country where teachers have a high level of autonomy in how they teach
the need for teachers to have time to collaborate in planning the IDL modules
a greater level of CPD for teachers on how to plan, introduce and assess the modules.
There are, therefore, clearly lessons that can be gleaned from Finland’s experiences of these modules over the past eight years which should be taken into account when enhancing IDL in our schools, particularly if it is to be part of recognising wider achievement as part of any leaving certificate such as the proposed Scottish Diploma of Achievement (SDA).
Finally, the Cabinet Secretary indicated that the Scottish Government is supportive of the development of a leaving certificate, possibly based on the SDA proposed by Hayward, as a shared longer-term goal for Scottish education. Again, this is being seen by some as “jam tomorrow” since the Cabinet Secretary stated that more work is needed to determine the exact content of such a certificate and how it would operate. The positive news, however, is that the Cabinet Secretary stated that the Scottish Government will work with schools to consider how IDL as well as programmes of learning and wider achievement could be combined in a more holistic illustration of a pupil’s achievements.
The recognition of IDL by the Cabinet Secretary in her recent statements and what appears to be at least a tacit acknowledgement of the important role it can play in supporting learning, albeit subject to deeper consideration, should give some hope that IDL’s time might finally have come.
Ken Muir is an Honorary Professor at the University of the West of Scotland. He has served in several leadership roles in Scottish education, including HM Chief Inspector of Education and CEO of the General Teaching Council for Scotland. He was commissioned by Scottish Government to provide an independent report of a future vision for Scottish education (the ‘Muir Report’) and was awarded a CBE for services to Scottish education in 2021.
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