New Subjects

Bazinga_N

The other day in English our teacher wanted us to have a creative discussion.. in which it lead to Education.. We really spoke about new subjects that should be taught and others that should be changed.. It got me wondering about this.. What do ye think? Heres the subjects that were thought of in class

Media Studies
ICT
Astrology
Earth Science
Psychology
Better Art Course
Law
Politics & Society - CSPE that is not viewed as a doss! And in LC.
Sociology
Photography

Any Other Ideas?

Geo10

Geology
Ancient History
Philosophy

Mr. Rager

Programming.

MathsManiac

Bazinga_N wrote: »

...
Astrology
...

You've got to be kidding. Your class really thinks you should be spending your school time on your horoscopes?

Bazinga_N

Geo10 wrote: »

Ancient History

I reckon myself that the LC History course should change... And have many different aspects..

Bazinga_N

MathsManiac wrote: »

You've got to be kidding. Your class really thinks you should be spending your school time on your horoscopes?

:O :O I meant Astronomy! :P Oh the madness of a typo! :L

Superbus

Chinese.

bain_triail_as

Drama, Acting, Dance and Performance Studies

J_E

I always felt the music course should have more coverage of jazz and contemporary music. It's awfully weighted on Irish music.

Bazinga_N

Superbus wrote: »

Chinese.

Oh Good One! I feel the languages for LC could be greatly improved.

Bazinga_N

Or Maybe a Theatre Subject that contains all those aspects!

silversky

Bazinga_N wrote: »

The other day in English our teacher wanted us to have a creative discussion.. in which it lead to Education.. We really spoke about new subjects that should be taught and others that should be changed.. It got me wondering about this.. What do ye think? Heres the subjects that were thought of in class

Media Studies
ICT
Astrology
Earth Science
Psychology
Better Art Course
Law
Politics & Society - CSPE that is not viewed as a doss! And in LC.
Sociology
Photography

Any Other Ideas?

Definitely. I would love to have creative writing and film studies too. You'd have more of an interest in the subject and it would give you a better idea of what you want to do in college.

spurious

A great deal of what has been described is already available in the LCA. If people were less resistant to changes in assessment methods, it could be in the Established LC too.

Neeson

Sociology?

Once you start learning that nonsense you'll wonder why you ever wished you'd started.

sganyfx

Further Maths, for those who find the maths taught in 5th and 6th year in this country a joke compared to that of others.

Jolly Red Giant

The 'Politics and Society' Syllabus has already been drafted and is ready to be added to the LC - the government have simply not made the decision to include it. Research has shown that it would be very popular with students.

As regards Philosophy and Sociology - they actually form part of the 'Politics and Society' Syllabus.

spurious

Jolly Red Giant wrote: »

The 'Politics and Society' Syllabus has already been drafted and is ready to be added to the LC - the government have simply not made the decision to include it. Research has shown that it would be very popular with students.

As regards Philosophy and Sociology - they actually form part of the 'Politics and Society' Syllabus.

Here's some information on it.
Other proposed (and presumably now shelved) subjects were Enterprise and Psychology.


As someone who has been involved in syllabus review over the years, it is really sickening that the DES just sweep all the (free) extra work of a large number of committees away for penny-pinching cuts to make sure they can pay their 'special advisors'.

PictureFrame

I always thought a Law & Society based Subject would be fantastic in the Leaving.

Bazinga_N

PictureFrame wrote: »

I always thought a Law & Society based Subject would be fantastic in the Leaving.

Agreed!!

spurious wrote: »

Other proposed (and presumably now shelved) subjects were Enterprise and Psychology.

Enterprise and Psychology would be fantastic subjects!! Politics and Society would be a great subject for the LC too!

Jolly Red Giant wrote: »

As regards Philosophy and Sociology - they actually form part of the 'Politics and Society' Syllabus.

Oh really? I've heard many a time that Sociology is very popular in the UK.

Bazinga_N

silversky wrote: »

Definitely. I would love to have creative writing and film studies too. You'd have more of an interest in the subject and it would give you a better idea of what you want to do in college.

Me too.. I think the English course should really get a reform.. I love English but feel the course sometimes buts a cap on what you could do with it!

Film studies would be brilliant. Only trouble is alot of students would take it thinking they could just watch movies!

spurious wrote: »

A great deal of what has been described is already available in the LCA. If people were less resistant to changes in assessment methods, it could be in the Established LC too.

Your dead right, the assessment methods in the LC and JC are a bit of a joke. More subjects should really have project exams, or something were students could keep a portfolio of work throughout course and then get judged at the end of course!

Neeson wrote: »

Sociology? Once you start learning that nonsense you'll wonder why you ever wished you'd started.

I've heard Sociology is meant to be very popular in the UK?

sganyfx wrote: »

Further Maths, for those who find the maths taught in 5th and 6th year in this country a joke compared to that of others.

Would that be like Applied Maths or what? Is it like more advanced maths or practical maths? Explain please

plein de force

Chinese/Portuguese being added

spurious

plein de force wrote: »

Chinese/Portuguese being added

Portuguese has been available a few years now.

plein de force

spurious wrote: »

Portuguese has been available a few years now.

but isn't it just for native speakers like with some of the eastern european languages. if it's available in the way french/german is then that's great.

spurious

plein de force wrote: »

but isn't it just for native speakers like with some of the eastern european languages. if it's available in the way french/german is then that's great.

It's supposed to be, but nowhere do they ask you are you a native speaker.

Remember the guy last year who sat some crazy number of LC subjects to raise money for the school he runs? He sat a number of the non-curricular languages.

randylonghorn

Jolly Red Giant wrote: »

The 'Politics and Society' Syllabus has already been drafted and is ready to be added to the LC - the government have simply not made the decision to include it. Research has shown that it would be very popular with students.

I suspect, given the current cutbacks in teacher allocation etc., that it will be long-fingered for a few years at least.

A real shame imho; not alone would it be an excellent foundation for those going into the social sciences generally at third level, and politics, sociology and law in particular, but we might get young people coming out of school with some sense of how politics and political institutions work (or don't, a lot of the time!).

On second thoughts, maybe that's another reason why the political will to implement it seems to be lacking! :pac:

plein de force

spurious wrote: »

It's supposed to be, but nowhere do they ask you are you a native speaker.

Remember the guy last year who sat some crazy number of LC subjects to raise money for the school he runs? He sat a number of the non-curricular languages.

yes, true, but i'd like to see it being taught as a language in schools

finality

plein de force wrote: »

yes, true, but i'd like to see it being taught as a language in schools

I don't know would it really be viable. Spanish used to be available in my school but it was cut a few years ago because there wasn't enough interest in it. I think schools offer what are seen as the most useful languages, as French and German are quite widely spoken/France and Germany are some of the 'larger' countries in Europe.

During the summer I was thinking about taking Dutch for the LC. I sort of wish I had, you can pretty much read it if you speak English and German.

Isn't sociology already part of home ec? And there's a lot of philosophy in religion? I would definitely like to see psychology as subject.

spurious

I never understood how Spanish wasn't more popular considering it is the first language of many countries in the world and effectively of large parts of the US too.

MegGustaa

spurious wrote: »

I never understood how Spanish wasn't more popular considering it is the first language of many countries in the world and effectively of large parts of the US too.

You have to have the teachers and resources in the first place for a language to be popular - a lot of schools don't offer it. Some only offer French! I could be wrong, but apparently some time (way back) the French government invested in French language education in Ireland, which is why there's a disproportionately large emphasis on French compared to Spanish and German. More people studying a language in secondary schools means more people who'll go on to teach it, so it becomes a cycle. I reckon Spanish will continue to grow, though, as more and more students who got to study it at second level trickle into university and into modern language teaching.

rainbowtrout

Geo10 wrote: »

Geology
Ancient History
Philosophy

The syllabus that existed before the current one (about 6 or 7 years ago) had this option. It was Ancient History or Modern History.

Now it's Early Modern (1400s - 1800s) or Late Modern (1800s - present). Pity really.

MegGustaa

sganyfx wrote: »

Further Maths, for those who find the maths taught in 5th and 6th year in this country a joke compared to that of others.

I think Maths should be restructured altogether, to recognise the very varied Mathematical abilities that exist among students; three levels aren't enough. The gap between OL and HL in the Leaving is huge; I know many girls in my class who aren't doing so well in HL Maths, but don't want to drop because the standard is much lower in the OL classes, they've covered a lot of what's on the OL LC course already (in the Junior Cert!) and would lose out big time on points. There should be more tiers to Maths; they could make the top tier more challenging than it is now ("Further Maths?"), a middle tier that's not as hard as the present HL Maths (but still a high standard, and more points than OL), followed by a lower tier that's roughly what we call OL, and then Foundation.

There are some students who struggle with Ordinary Level, but then again there are plenty of students (like myself) who love Maths, do really well in Higher Level and wish that Maths could be even more challenging. I do Applied Maths, and it's very different (in a good way) to "regular Maths", but I'd also love to see more advanced Calculus, Trigonometry, Algebra etc available to Leaving Cert students too.