Curriculum designers should develop a curriculum that supports and develops the required understanding, knowledge, and skills to achieve the envisioned learning results. Traditionally, teachers are individuals who have expertise and knowledge in a certain field. They use various methods to impart knowledge to students. Teachers are responsible for the learning environment when they enter the classroom. Moreover, the study shows that innovative ideas are developed through collaborative feedback and brainstorming. To this extent, teachers in this modern era are envisioned more as curriculum deliverers in the classroom than innovators. Compared to deliverers in classroom curriculum delivery, the experimentation for innovators can be dated back approximately fifteen years, with positive outcomes experienced in different institutions. Therefore, this study’s main aim is to discuss why teachers today act more as curriculum deliverers than innovators in the classroom.
In every education system, teachers are curriculum enablers through their delivery techniques that encourage learning with content delivery in creative and impactful ways. The education system in the United Kingdom is one of the best education systems in the world. The studies conducted in 2019 ranked it as the best country with the top education system. However, education in the United Kingdom has yet to embrace innovative curricula; instead, it uses a delivery-based curriculum (Martin et al., 2019, p.39). Teaching techniques are the strategies and methods teachers use to teach learners in an education system guided by the national curriculum. The national curriculum shows what every learner should be taught every year of their course (Martin et al., 2019, p.39). Teachers in the United Kingdom plan their lessons with the guidance of the national curriculum. However, when teaching, they can use any strategy that suits their needs, interest and class ability.
From the student-curriculum relationship view, teachers function more as deliverers regarding the use of knowledge as students gain more competencies in the curriculum. For instance, teachers lead almost all learning activities, like peer teaching and turn-to-talk, which are becoming more popular among learners. Peer teaching and turn-to-talk are student-led learning strategies (Kumar et al., 2019, p.179). One of the learning strategies employed is direct instruction. Explicit or direct instruction is a teacher-led method whereby a teacher gives instructions to the learners directly. It is the most common strategy that is employed in the united by almost every teacher. It is beneficial because a teacher delivers for the whole class at once and ensures they have understood by taking questions directly. Teachers can assist students in determining how the content applies to them personally as part of a curriculum. Activities can be created to encourage inquiry and revelation of connections between course material and a student’s career interests, personal development, and transdisciplinary goals.
Additionally, teachers can plan and decide which learning techniques would work best for future content delivery. According to Wu et al. (2014, p.12), learners learn differently regardless of their ability. This prompts teachers to be more agile in their curriculum delivery by foreshadowing the content and facilitating its delivery to meet each student’s needs effectively. Therefore, this has offered differential learning to various schools in the United Kingdom. Students are grouped according to their preferred learning style and put the table and struggling students in a group for group activities. Moreover, group work or collaborative learning is very common in the United Kingdom, with almost every teacher building collaborative assignments in their lesson plan to reinforce learning and encourage discussion (Kumar et al., 2019, p.179). Creating a group presentation enables learners to relate to the skills and knowledge they already have and explore more ideas. Teachers deprive learners of involvement in their education when they dictate the curriculum rather than encouraging them to design and innovate their own (Kim, 201, p.54). Another strategy of teaching used in schools is blended learning, whereby the teachers have the authority to offer synthesised learning to learners who cannot attend their lessons. Blended learning is a method of teaching that combines in-person teaching and online. Teachers usually use Zoom or Google Classroom applications to monitor students’ progress.
Teachers are crucial to adopting or disapproving of any school curriculum and its implementation. Education in learning institutions goes beyond the traditional standards such as training learning, tests and lectures. In the United Kingdom, most schools have embraced delivery-based curricula with the aid of teachers. According to the study, a delivery-based curriculum is a model of education that targets to show what students can do and what they know. The emphasis on the delivery mode of education is not measured on outcomes; rather, it is measured on inputs such as what knowledge they have gained, what textbooks they have used and the hours that student has spent in class (Fernandez and Shaw, 2020, p.45). The results of this mode of the curriculum include a range of knowledge and skills. Moreover, before organising the delivery-based curriculum, instructions and assessment, individuals begin with a clear picture of what students can do. The four basics of this type of curriculum include expanded opportunities, high expectations, designing down and clarity of focus.
Teachers must always strive to give every learner an expanded opportunity by following the fact that only some students can learn the same way others learn at the same time. However, when the students are given appropriate time, they can achieve high academic standards. Furthermore, teachers usually create challenging and high-performance standards to engage the learners deeply in their coursework (Fernandez and Shaw, 2020, p.47). Helping learners perform is linked with the idea that successful learning leads to improved performance, which supports the idea of having teachers as deliverers instead of classroom innovators. The curriculum design should begin with a clear definition of the learner’s objectives by the program’s end. Further, instructional decisions are made to help the students attain the desired outcomes. To that extent, for every activity carried out in a classroom, the teacher must have a clear vision of what they need learners to do, understand and know, a skill mastered by many teachers who are seen as deliverers and not classroom innovators. Therefore, teachers help learners to develop personalities, skills and knowledge that can help them to attain the intended objectives, which can be stated as a form of curriculum delivery.
Teaching and Learning in Delivery-Based Learning
In a delivery-based curriculum, learning is measured by the results students can achieve and whatever the teacher’s strategy, the aim focuses on learning instead of teaching. Teachers are discouraged from searching out and utilising educational chances and teachable moments that are not included in a prefabricated curriculum when they view teaching as delivery (Kim, 2011, p.56). Therefore, in a delivery-based curriculum, a teacher has the role of helping learners to be aware of what they learned, providing them with opportunities to practice the skills and knowledge they have gained, and using various teaching strategies to ensure every learner gets the content delivered in the classroom. Additionally, teachers aid learners in understanding how they will know what they have been taught and how they should learn it, create a positive environment for learning and prepare students adequately (Akhmetshin et al., 2019, p.5). Moreover, assessments delivered by teachers guide learners to ensure that they learn the important things and measure students’ performance. The assessment should demonstrate the students’ important skills and knowledge (Akhmetshin et al., 2019, p.5). Consequentially, the teachers should set a fair assessment whereby factors such as cultural background should not affect the assessment procedure. The results from the assessment should be consistent, and the procedure used during the assessment should be reliable. Tools and procedures used during the assessment should test what it intends to assess, and the procedure should also be valid.
The delivery-based curriculum supports effective learning, and this supports the notion that most teachers act as curriculum deliverers that innovators in the classroom. On the contrary, since innovative learning was introduced, traditional teaching has been in competition with virtual learning. Online courses are an alternative for learners who want to obtain their degrees faster and cheaply. For instance, in less than two years, learners enrolled in innovative learning usually earn their degrees or diplomas without knowing their colleagues and teachers (Meyer and Norman, 2020, p.33). Therefore, various students consider curriculum delivery a more efficient way of improving social skills and learning. Additionally, several learners consider a delivery-based curriculum beneficial for their studies because they relate directly with their classmates and teachers. For students who learn through group work and cooperative activities, the delivery-based curriculum suits them well because they ask questions and get answers immediately. Again, students usually prefer direct interaction with their peers to technologically intermediated conversations. Some learners need to be reassured that they are going in the right direction and that what they do is correct, and therefore the delivery-based curriculum is suitable for them.
Additionally, the delivery-based curriculum motivates learners to continue with their learning activities. Before learners enter university and college, they are used to learning in classrooms where they interact with their peers daily (Meyer and Norman, 2020, p.33). Even though it is optional to attend lessons physically in universities or colleges, the environment at home may interrupt them when engaging in an innovative curriculum. Therefore, the environment enhanced by a delivery-based curriculum and traditional teaching methods keeps the students more motivated and focused. The delivery-based curriculum enhances accessibility to all students. The innovative curriculum is out of the question in the United Kingdom because some learners need help to afford or access technological devices. In delivery-based learning, teachers share knowledge with learners directly and proceed with direct discussion with students (Meyer and Norman, 2020, p.35). For learners who have not specialised in courses that concern innovation and technology, printed books and courses from the library are enough for their coursework. Another advantage of delivery-based learning is that it gives learners specific periods and fixed schedules dedicated exclusively to learning.
Innovative Learning
In the United Kingdom, teachers have begun embracing innovative-based curricula. Moreover, it is a new product, idea and method of learning and teaching, giving students openness and a sense of adventure while promoting critical thinking (Longhurst et al., 2020, p.303). Additionally, innovations help students deal with any challenges they may experience in their future careers. Many teachers can be considered classroom innovators with their innovative teaching approaches, producing versatile and successful graduates. Moreover, in the United Kingdom, teaching and learning may be influenced by different classroom layouts, which affects the ability of teachers to be effective deliverers. Additionally, the different classroom layouts may influence students’ academic outcomes, motivation, engagement and learning experience, which is quite challenging for deliverers in the classroom (Longhurst et al., 2020, p.309). On the other hand, innovative learning makes learning technology infused and flexible as opposed to traditional learning methods. Compared to the students learning in traditional classroom layout, the learners have active learning experiences in innovative classrooms. Further, the innovative curriculum equips students with skills and knowledge they can use in the future. An innovative curriculum enhances various learning modalities and removes the rigid sitting barriers. On the other hand, the delivery curriculum does not include this since learners have to be in one place to be taught.
Free Schools and Academies
Classroom learning conjures up the idea of a one-way transfer of knowledge when teaching is used to impart curriculum. According to Bloom et al. (2019, p.168), several free schools in the United Kingdom have embraced innovative strategies as they target to raise educational standards. Additionally, free schools are not involved in past academic activities as in academies, therefore offering pupils and parents different opportunities. However, free schools are criticised because they operate as if isolated from other schools. This is not true, as most free schools cooperate with other schools to help students improve themselves. Headteachers in free schools across the United Kingdom have a clear belief that their institutions are having a positive impact on other surrounding schools through collaboration and competition. Additionally, free schools have been criticised for hiring unqualified personnel even though studies show that even if they hire unqualified personnel, they recruit them for specific skills. Again, the study shows that head teachers in free schools feel the ability of their schools to innovate and adopt the innovative curriculum.
Conclusion
Teachers are more classroom innovators, and innovative learning should be encouraged in the United Kingdom since it alters the institutional framework and fosters innovation. Learners are inspired to be more creative and innovative by engaging in various novel learning activities. A creative and innovative curriculum also encourages instructors to impart knowledge in a way that will help the future generation transform the world. Additionally, it is the event that teachers diversify their knowledge bases, evaluation methods, and thinking styles to create an innovative curriculum. Hence teachers must have a clear vision and be aware of the important competencies to engage in innovative teaching. The innovative curriculum has become a problem since innovative learning capabilities and characteristics have yet to be appropriately developed in the United Kingdom. For innovative learning to occur, meaningful human interactions must be developed through effective communication. While developing an original curriculum requires many guts, it is less successful than developing a curriculum for instruction where students interact and communicate by asking questions. As a result, the delivery-based curriculum has gained popularity among teachers in the United Kingdom because it is practical, encourages bravery, and allows for direct student involvement.
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