National Curriculum Board

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National Curriculum Board ISQ Curriculum Forum

• Robert Randall, General Manager
• Brisbane, 25 May 2009

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Structure of the session

• Update on national curriculum activities
• Progress with framing papers commencement of
  writing
• Discussion

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Achievements

• The Shape of the Australian Curriculum
• Learning Area Framing Papers
• Now Shape of the Australian Curriculum ltareagt
• Range of consultations
• Curriculum experts
• Expert groups equity, 21st Century skills,
  stages of schooling, achievement standards

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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.

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Curriculum Development Process
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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

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Timeline
Stage Activity Timelines Timelines
Curriculum Framing Confirmation of directions for writing Curriculum (English, mathematics, the sciences, history) April, 2009 April, 2009
Curriculum Development 2 step process for development of curriculum documents Step 1 - broad outline scope and sequence Step 2 completion of detail of curriculum May Dec, 2009 June, 2009 January, 2010
Consultation National consultation and trialing January - April, 2010 March June, 2010
Publication Print and digital publication June July, 2010 July Sep, 2010
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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

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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.

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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.

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Curriculum

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

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Curriculum Content - how
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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).

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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

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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

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Framing Papers

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

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Keeping in touch
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www.ncb.org.au
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www.ncb.org.au/consultation/subscribe/get_involved
.html
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www.ncb.org.au/consultation/subscribe/subscribe.ht
ml
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Discussion

• Questions?