National Curriculum Board – ISQ Curriculum Forum

National Curriculum Board – ISQ Curriculum Forum Robert Randall, General Manager Brisbane, 25 May 2009

Structure of the session • Update on national curriculum activities • Progress with framing papers; commencement of writing • Discussion

Achievements • The Shape of the Australian Curriculum • Learning Area Framing Papers • Now Shape of the Australian Curriculum: <area> • Range of consultations • Curriculum experts • Expert groups – equity, 21st Century skills, stages of schooling, achievement standards

Recent developments • Induction of writers and advisory group members; writing has commenced • The Arts are now in the 2nd phase with Geography and Languages • The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) will commence operation later this month; it will assume responsibility for national curriculum work.

Curriculum Development Process

Curriculum development process A process of curriculum development in each learning area that: • provides opportunities for consultation • establishes achievable timelines • ensures high quality curriculum documents. The proposed process involves four phases: I. Curriculum framing II. Curriculum writing III. Implementation IV. Curriculum evaluation and review

Timeline

Curriculum A curriculum that will include the following elements: • curriculum content, which details what teachers are expected to teach, and each student is expected to learn • achievement standards, accompanied by annotated student work samples and advice on reporting frameworks

Curriculum Design considerations • The nature of the learner and learning. • The whole curriculum and how national curriculum learning areas relate to it. • Structural matters, including commencement and completion of school and transition points. • Inclusivity and how the national curriculum will provide for the educational needs of every child. • General capabilities, describing how the national curriculum will attend to general capabilities learning. • Cross-curriculum dimensions, describing perspectives that should be included in each learning area.

Curriculum content – general capabilities • The National Declaration … important general capabilities that schools should help students develop, in addition to content of particular learning areas. • … planning and organising, the ability to think flexibly, to communicate well and to work in teams … the capacity to think creatively, innovate, solve problems ... • 10 general capabilities • Each capability will be represented in each learning area in ways appropriate to that area. • Some included because they need to be developed and applied in the particular learning area. • Others can be taught and learned by students in any learning area; their development depends on teachers’ choices of classroom activities.

Curriculum • Rationale • Aims of the learning area • Organisation of the <learning area> curriculum • Content • Achievement standards • General capabilities • Cross-curriculum dimensions • Links to other learning areas

Curriculum Content - how

Achievement Standards • An achievement standard is an expectation of the quality of learning that students should reach by a particular point in their schooling (e.g., the depth of their understanding, the extent of their knowledge and the sophistication of their skills).

Achievement standards Writers will • draft the achievement standard statements concurrently with the writing of curriculum content, although work on achievement standards will be preceded by a draft scope and sequence of curriculum content • identify the aspects (fundamental concepts, skills and understanding) of curriculum content that will aid the description of growth and development across the years of schooling and which will be the focus of achievement standards development

Implementation • From 2011 • Factors that influence • The extent of difference between existing curriculum requirements, in terms of what is to be taught and assessed, in any particular year or over a sequence of years. • The extent of change in how the curriculum is organised, in terms of organisation of the curriculum content (e.g. by years of schooling) and how achievement standards are presented. • The extent to which state and territory credentialing or other arrangements require additional material to be developed and made available to teachers • The extent, and place in the cycle, of curriculum change

Framing Papers • An update on what has emerged from consultation • English • Mathematics • Science • History • Consultation reports and amended framing papers released 6 May

National Curriculum Board – ISQ Curriculum Forum