The Australian Curriculum

1. The Australian Curriculum

2. Outline • Context, background and developments • Key Concepts of the Australian curriculum • The Implementation issue

3. acara • Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority • Commonwealth independent statutory authority • Established 1 June 2009 • Policy determined by the Council of state and federal education ministers

4. Why an Australian Curriculum? • Curriculum (what we want young people to learn at school) has become too important and too big a task to not do it nationally • Because we are a very mobile society national consistency is important • We need to pool our talents and resources to ensure the best • Combination of efficiency and effectiveness arguments

5. The vision • Entitlement to a world-class curriculum for all young Australians • Commitment to work together collaboratively to design and deliver it

6. What do we want all young Australians to learn at school?

7. Preparation for life Australian governments commit to working in collaboration with all school sectors to support all young Australians to become: • successful learners • confident and creative individuals • active and informed citizens.

8. Shape of the curriculum • Learning areas • General capabilities • Cross-curriculum priorities

9. The Learning Areas “Do we want each student to learn from these learning areas?”

10. General capabilities • Literacy • Numeracy • ICT • Thinking skills • Creativity • Self management • Teamwork • Intercultural understanding • Ethical behaviour • Social competence “Do we want each student to develop these capabilities?”

11. Cross-curriculum priorities

12. Learning areas … Learning Areas “Year by year curriculum?” K-10

13. Learning areas and general capabilities Learning Areas General capabilities K-10

14. Cross curriculum priorities Indigenous culture Sustainability Asia

15. Elements of the curriculum • Curriculum content • Content elaborations • Achievement standards • Work samples that will be inclusive

16. Curriculum content • A core of knowledge, skills and understandings – what students will be taught • Importance of parsimony and avoiding overcrowding “Do we want all students to learn this content?”

17. Achievement standards • The expected standard or quality of work • World class and thus aspirational, but achievable • Aligned to a ‘C’ in an A-E system of grades

18. Implementation Issues • Degree of specification • Curriculum cultures/history • Relationship to other policies • The state of federalism • Monitoring – evaluation - innovation