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Opening Minds Framework

What are competences?

The Opening Minds curriculum features five categories of competences: learning, citizenship, relating

to people, managing situations and managing information. Focusing on competences means thatOpening Minds teaching emphasises the ability to understand and to do, rather than just the

transmission of knowledge.

These competences are broad areas of capability, developed in classrooms through a mixture ofinstruction and practical experience: children plan their work, organise their own time and exploretheir own ways of learning.

Subject boundaries are less defined than in traditional curriculum teaching, with schools oftenintegrating the teaching of several subjects together into modules or topics, where competences canbe developed through the exploration of common themes. Crucially, the input of teachers and the

individual needs of schools are central to the planning of each Opening Minds project.

Five key competences

Each competence category contains a number of individual competences, which are expressed in

terms of what a school student could achieve having progressed through the curriculum:

Learning

Students would have:

understood how to learn, taking into account their preferred learning styles, and understoodthe need to, and how to, manage their own learning throughout life

learned, systematically, to think explored and reached an understanding of their own creative talents, and how best to make

use of them

learned to enjoy and love learning for its own sake and as part of understanding themselves

achieved high standards in literacy, numeracy, and spatial understanding

achieved high standards of competence in handling information and communications

technology and understood the underlying processes.

Citizenship

Students would have:

an understanding of ethics and values, how personal behaviour should be informed by these,and how to contribute to society

understood how society, government and business work, and the importance of activecitizenship

understood cultural and social diversity, in both national and global contexts, and why theseshould be respected and valued

understood the social implications of technology

understood how to manage aspects of their own lives, and the techniques they might use to

do so including managing their own financial affairs

Relating to People

Students would have:

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understood how to relate to other people in varying contexts, including those where theymanage, or are managed by, others, and how to get things done

understood how to operate in teams, and their own capacities for filling different team roles

understood how to develop other people, whether as peer or teacher

developed a range of techniques for communicating by different means, and understood howand when to use them

developed competence in managing personal and emotional relationships understood, and be able to use, varying means of managing stress and conflict.

Managing Situations

Students would have:

understood the importance of managing their own time, and developing techniques for doingso

understood what is meant by managing change, and have developed a range of techniquesfor use in varying situations

understood the importance both of celebrating success and managing disappointment, and

ways of handling these understood what is meant by being entrepreneurial and initiative-taking, and how to develop

capacities for these

understood how to manage risk and uncertainty, the wide range of contexts in which these

will be encountered, and techniques for managing them.

Managing Information

Students would have:

developed a range of techniques for accessing, evaluating and differentiating information andhave learned how to analyse, synthesise and apply them

understood the importance of reflecting and applying critical judgement, and have learnedhow to do so