Delivering Australia’s First National Curriculum – what’s it all about?
In 2008 all Australian governments agreed that a national curriculum would play a key role in delivering quality education and committed to the development of a Kindergarten to Year 12 Australian curriculum. So what benefits are there in having a national curriculum?
A new National Curriculum Board, the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA), was established in April 2008 to oversee the development of a world-class K-12 curriculum for all Australian students.
ACARA is headed by Professor Barry McGaw, a renowned educational expert, and comprises representatives from each state and territory and three representatives from the non-government (Catholic and independent schools) sector.
Why have an Australian Curriculum?
The Minister for Education, Julia Gillard says a national curriculum is a critical step in providing a quality education for all young Australians. ‘The new national curriculum will draw together the best programs from each state and territory to ensure every child has access to a world class curriculum, to lift achievement and drive up school retention rates,’ said Ms Gillard.
‘It's a good thing for those 80,000 students who move interstate each year who have to confront a new curriculum as well as a new school,’ she said. ‘It will also allow teachers the flexibility to shape their classes around the curriculum in a way that is meaningful and engaging for students,’ she said.
‘The national curriculum will also bring benefits to parents,’ said Ms Gillard. ‘It will give them clear and explicit agreement about what it is that young people should know and be able to do.’
Greg Whitby, executive director of schools in the Parramatta diocese, said that while he welcomes the national curriculum because it will provide greater consistency in the content taught across Australian schools, the content is only part of the learning process.
‘Fortunately, we will have a curriculum where the devil is not in its detail,’ said Mr Whitby. ‘This is a broad curriculum mapping the essentials around content and achievement levels for the various key learning areas,’ he said. ‘The detail is in how well teachers deliver the curriculum to today’s learners.’
What does it look like so far?
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has described the national curriculum as a ‘back to basics’ approach to education. The draft curriculum for Mathematics, Science, English and History for K-10 is less repetitive, more traditional and shorter than the current model in most states. There will be a cross-curricular focus on Indigenous history and culture sustainability, Asian history and culture and Australia’s engagement with Asia.
Some critics say, however, the new national curriculum for Year 11 and 12 threatens to water down the content of some Higher School Certificate courses for NSW senior secondary school students.
English
There is a significant emphasis on phonics, the sounding out of letters, in the draft English curriculum for K-10. Kindergarten students will learn to sound out simple words such as ‘cat’, recognising the initial, middle and end sounds; by Year 1, they will have learned two consonant sounds such as ‘st’, ‘br’ and ‘gl’.
Ms Gillard says learning how to read requires a start with phonics. ‘You want students to not only be able to sound out the word cat, you want students to be able to know what a cat is and then you want them to be able to write a sentence using the word cat,’ she said.
Mark Howie, the president of the English Teachers Association of NSW, said the national curriculum was a good idea in principle, but the draft document had raised fears that the NSW syllabus would be watered down. ‘A number of things create the sense that it is a backward step,’ he said. ‘It has an incoherent sense of learning. The NSW curriculum is much easier for teachers to navigate.’
Mr Howie said it appeared greater weight would be given to language and literacy at the expense of literature.
For most students studying English in Year 11 and 12, the focus will shift from literature to language and literacy. But a specialist literature course will be available for higher achieving students.
Mathematics
The draft Mathematics curriculum provides students with essential mathematical skills and knowledge in number and algebra, measurement and geometry, and statistics and probability. It develops the numeracy capabilities that all students need in their personal, work and civic life, and provides the fundamentals required of mathematical specialists and professional users of mathematics.
Mary Coupland, the President of the Mathematical Association of NSW, was positive about the draft Maths curriculum but said there were mixed views among her membership about whether the national approach was an improvement. ‘A lot of work needs to be done to make it anywhere near as good as what we have in NSW,’ said Dr Coupland. ‘I get a sense it is all being rushed.’
Science
In Science, students will be provided with relevant scientific knowledge, understandings and skills to make informed and responsible personal, social, technological and environmental decisions that impact at the local, national and global levels. Students will begin learning about sustainability from Year 4 and the human impact on the Earth's natural resources will also be a focus, alongside lessons on alternative energy sources such as solar, wind and water power. The challenge of Australia's drought will be tackled, as will global warming, genetic engineering and innovation.
Australian Science Teachers Association president, Anna Davis said her members were supportive of many of the aspects of the new curriculum, but were concerned about the time given for its implementation. ‘We can have the best curriculum documents in the world but teachers are the people who bring it to life, and we have to make sure they're properly supported through this implementation,’ she said.
History
The draft History curriculum takes a world history approach that will enable students to appreciate Australia's social, economic and political development, its position in the Asia-Pacific region and global interrelationships that are essential to an informed and active participation in Australia's diverse society.
Aboriginal history will be taught from Year 3, including the significance of Sorry Day and the Aboriginal flag. In Year 4, in addition to learning about early explorers and the arrival of the First Fleet, students will be taught about the beliefs and languages of Aboriginal people and the significance of Dreamtime stories. In high school, key historical events such as World War I and Gallipoli will remain a focal point, but for the first time a strong emphasis on Asian history will be introduced, reflecting Australia's growing ties with the region.
Beatriz Cartlidge, the president of the History Teachers Association of NSW, said the national curriculum contained ‘more rigorous and exciting’ content than the NSW syllabus but was concerned with the amount of content in the curriculum.
‘The challenge will be in getting through it all,’ she said. ‘We currently have 50 hours mandated per year for teaching History from Years 7 to 10. The instruction to the national curriculum writers was to cover 80 hours a year.’
A strong focus on World War I in Year 12 will be replaced with an emphasis on World War II, the Cold War and the modern history of Australia's Asia-Pacific neighbours.
Development and Implementation
The curriculum will be developed in three phases:
Phase 1 – English, Mathematics, Science and History
A three month consultation period on the draft K–10 English, Mathematics, Science and History curriculum finished in May and consultation on the senior secondary curriculum (11-12) will close in July. Feedback from the consultation will help refine the curriculum ahead of the final online publication of the K–12 Australian Curriculum for English, Mathematics, Science and History later in 2010.
Phase 2 – Geography, Languages and the Arts
Initial papers for Geography, Languages and the Arts will be available for public consultation in mid-2010. Feedback will be analysed and shape the final papers for each learning area by the end of 2010. Writing, consultation and publication of the final curriculum in these areas will occur in 2011.
Phase 3 – Other areas of learning
Other areas of learning will be developed subsequently. Timelines for this future work is yet to be announced.
Schools are expected to have implemented the curriculum for K-10 English, Mathematics, Science and History by 2013. Deadlines for the senior secondary curriculum are yet to be announced.
‘Much more work needs to be done on teacher practice and how teachers improve their practice within the new ACARA framework,’ said Greg Whitby. ‘What ACARA does with teacher and community feedback on the draft curriculum is not as critical as what teachers will eventually do with the new curriculum to improve quality of teaching.’
For more information or to participate in the consultation, visit www.australiancurriculum.edu.au
Sources:
Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority: www.acara.edu.au
Education Network Australia: www.edna.edu.au
Curriculum Corporation: www.curriculum.edu.au
Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations: www.deewr.gov.au
‘National curriculum content not up to scratch: critics’, Anna Patty, Sydney Morning Herald, 15 May 2010
‘Teachers give poor marks to national curriculum’, Anna Patty, Sydney Morning Herald, 11 March 2010
‘Teachers too busy for debate’, Justine Ferrari, The Australian, 2 March 2010
‘Draft national curriculum unveiled’, Samantha Hawley and David Mark, ABC News, 1 March 2010
‘New education curriculum to be unveiled’, Bonny Symons-Brown, Sydney Morning Herald, 28 February 2010
‘Back-to-basics approach for Australia’s classrooms’, Michael Bachelard and Jill Stark, The Age, 27 February 2010
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