Developing 21 st century competencies through disciplines of knowledge

1. Developing 21st century competencies through disciplines of knowledge Barry McGawVice-Chancellor’s Fellow, University of Melbourne Chair, Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority Muscat, Sultanate of Oman22-24 September 2013 Education and 21st Century CompetenciesNational Symposium

2. Outline of presentation • Simultaneous treatment of disciplines and 21st century skills • Presenting the curriculum electronically • Linking resources to the curriculum for teachers

3. Simultaneous treatment of disciplines and 21st century skills

4. 21st century skills for the 21st century • Cisco/Intel/Microsoft Assessment and Teaching of 21st century skills project • White paper defining 21st century skills • Ways of thinking • Creativity and innovation • Critical thinking, problem solving and decision making • Learning to learn and metacognition • Ways of working • Communication • Collaboration and teamwork • Tools for working • Information literacy • ICT literacy • Living in the world • Citizenship – global and local • Life and career • Personal and social responsibility

5. Australian Curriculum view of 21st century skills • Are they uniquely 21st century? • Most have been important for centuries • The technology-rich environment is new • Nomenclature General capabilities not 21st century skills • Literacy • Numeracy • Information and communication technology capability • Critical and creative thinking • Personal and social capability • Ethical understanding • Intercultural understanding • Key questions • Do we have developmental continua for these capabilities? • What content would be required for their development?

7. Australian Curriculum view of knowledge disciplines • Central place for content • Preserving the disciplines • Disciplines are the result of several millennia of human effort • Research on expertise shows importance of deep, domain-specific knowledge • Attending to some current, cross-curriculum priorities • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures • Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia • Sustainability • Form of curriculum content • Content descriptions setting out learning entitlements • Content elaborations for teachers who would like more details • Achievement standards with annotated samples of student work • Can the same content serve the general capabilities?

8. Many cells will be empty. Structure of the Australian Curriculum Can general capabilities be covered in the cells? Sustainability 3 Cross-curriculum Priorities Asia and Australia’sLinks with Asia Literacy Aboriginal and Torres StraitIslander Histories and Cultures 7 General Capabilities Numeracy ICT Capabiity Critical and Creative Thinking Personal and Social Capability Intercultural Understanding English History Mathematics Economics, Business Civics and Citizenship Languages Science Technologies Health and Physical Education Geography The Arts Ethical Understanding 11 Disciplines/Learning areas

9. Presenting the curriculum electronically

10. F-10 • English, mathematics, science, history, geography available. • Rest due by end of 2013.

11. This button opens curriculum by learning area, general capability, cross-curriculum priority and year (grade) level.

12. Filter by year (grade) levels, strands, general capabilities, cross-curriculum priorities. Icons indicate general capabilities and cross-curriculum priorities for which the content descriptions are relevant.

13. Icons for general capabilities and cross-curriculum priorities

14. Use this view to display content and content elaborations. Foundation year selected. General capability & cross-curriculum priority icons.

15. Display filtered on: General capabilityCritical & creative thinking Grade/year4 StrandScience understanding

17. Organising elements • The Critical and creating thinking learning continuum is organised into four interrelated elements, each detailing differing aspects of thinking. The elements are not a taxonomy of thinking. Rather, each makes its own contribution to learning and needs to be explicitly and simultaneously developed. • Inquiring – identifying, exploring and organising information and ideas • Generating ideas, possibilities and actions • Reflecting on thinking and processes • Analysing, synthesising and evaluating reasoning and procedures.

18. Six levels cover the years F to 10. Level 1 – Foundation Level 2 – Years 1-2 Level 3 – Years 3-4 Level 4 – Years 5-6 Level 5 – Years 7-9Level 6 – Years 9-10 In this display, 3 levels can be seen at a time, either 1-3 or 4-6. Asking why events make people happy or sad. Asking who, when, how and why about a range of situations and events.

19. Linking resources to the curriculum for teachers

20. Website of resources linked by meta-tags to the Australian Curriculum

21. Filtered on:Grade/Year 4Critical & creative thinking Now select:View elaborations and matching resources

22. Resources for students and teachers help with personalisation of learning for students. The resources can be filtered by type. 182 resources listed below.

23. Review and conclusion • Australian Curriculum • Includes 21st century skills as general capabilities • Is also, very importantly, organised by disciplines/learning areas. • Provides developmental continua for both • Electronic presentation • Allows users to filter the curriculum in various ways. • Allows ready connection with a database of electronic resources • Powerful confluence of developments that is supporting a major curriculum change in Australia.

24. Thank you.