Australian Curriculum: science 7-10
Speaker’s notes to accompany the Australian Curriculum: science 7-10 presentation
Slides
Notes
Australian Curriculum: Science 7-10
Information and briefing for NSWDET schools
A PowerPoint to facilitate discussion of the new draft
curriculum at School Development Day, Monday 19 April 2010
The Australian Curriculum Science:
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is developed for K-10 and Years 11 and 12
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is described in years not stages - identifies
essential content that all students should be
taught, by year of schooling
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is described around content descriptions NOT
outcomes
The Australian Curriculum: Science is organised around
three interrelated strands: Science inquiry skills; Science
as a human endeavour; and Science understanding. Each
strand is of equal importance.
The content strands:
© NSW Department of Education and Training 2010
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Science Inquiry: involves posing questions;
planning; conducting and critiquing investigations;
collecting, analysing and interpreting evidence;
and communicating findings)
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Science as Human Endeavour (involves
examining the impact of science on social and
ethical issues; current and future applications of
science; historical aspects of science and career
paths)
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Science Understanding (involves facts,
concepts, principles, laws, theories and models
that have been established by scientists over time)
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What’s the organisation?
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Curriculum is organised year by year with achievement
standards for each year of schooling.
Content descriptions are supported by content
elaborations to clarify meaning.
Achievement standards are supported with work samples
to clarify standards.
Explore the Australian Curriculum – Science
Content descriptions
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The Australian Curriculum for Science is organised with
explicit descriptions of what is to be taught to students
and what is expected of their learning at every year of
schooling.
The Australian Curriculum identifies essential content that
all students should be taught and ensures that there is
time to pursue deep learning of that content. The
Australian Curriculum also allows flexibility for schools
and teachers to include local and topical content.
The content descriptions provide a well-researched scope
and sequence of teaching, within which teachers will
determine how best to cater for individual student's
learning needs and interests.
Teachers, however, will decide how best to organise
learning, the contexts for learning and the depth of
learning that will be pursued for each child in their class.
Teachers will use the Australian Curriculum to identify the
most appropriate content (possibly from across several
year levels) to teach individual and/or groups of students.
This will take account of the fact that in each class there
will be a range of prior achievement (below, at and above
the year level expectations) and that teachers will plan to
build on current learning.
Exploring the content descriptions
© NSW Department of Education and Training 2010
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Choose a year (and consider a cohort of students). Look
at the strands, content, content elaboration and
achievement standards. Are they in line with your
expectations of this stage of development?
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Choose a strand and then look across year levels. Is
there continuity?
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The content elaborations
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An example of the content descriptions with supporting
elaborations. Note that the content elaborations are not
mandatory content.
Evaluating the content elaborations
Discuss the questions as a faculty. List the benefits and
negative aspects of having the content elaborations.
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How would you use content elaborations?
Do they clarify the content intent without adding new
content?
Are content elaborations valuable?
For programming?
For building a continuum of learning?
For developing an understanding of the Australian
Curriculum: Science?
Achievement standards
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© NSW Department of Education and Training 2010
Teachers can use the achievement standards to assist
them as they plan and review teaching programs, and at
the end of a period of teaching to make judgments about
the quality of learning demonstrated by the students.
The achievement standards will help teachers make
decisions about the content of their teaching programs
and the strategies that they will use. They will guide
teachers on what is expected of students each year and
aid them to think about where their students are ‘at,’
where they need to progress to, and to eventually judge
how well they have achieved.
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Evaluating the achievement standards
Discuss as a faculty the Achievement standards year by year.
Do they resonate with your current students capabilities at the
end of each year of schooling? Would they describe a typical
student who would be awarded a C grade? Is the standard
expected higher, lower or similar to the standards set by you
and the science faculty now for students at that age group?
Discuss:
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How will you use the achievement standards?
Are they of benefit in planning your teaching and learning
programme?
Do these standards reflect the important aspects of a
students learning (content descriptions) in each year?
Are they a useful guide to assist teachers in
understanding the Australian Curriculum Science?
Will they be something that assists teacher judgement of
student performance?
Will they help to build consistency of teacher judgement?
 Across NSW?
 Within the Region?
 Within the school?
 For individuals?
Will the achievement standards aid your capacity to
communicate with parents and the community?
General capabilities and cross curriculum dimensions
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© NSW Department of Education and Training 2010
As a faculty review the 10 general capabilities and their
suggested explicit inclusion in the learning using the filter
capacity of the online draft Australian curriculum: science.
Discuss the appropriateness of the suggested explicit
teaching and learning outlined for the general capabilities.
As a faculty review the explicit inclusion of aspects of the
cross curriculum dimensions in the draft Australian
curriculum: science.
Discuss the appropriateness of the suggested explicit
teaching and learning outlined for the cross curriculum
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dimensions
Achievement standards
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This slide shows an example of achievement standards
for Kindergarten.
CLICK - The achievement standards are organised
according to the modes.
This is similar in design to the K-12 stage statements in
the English 7-10 Syllabus.
What is familiar?
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The content within the strand organisers in the
Australian Curriculum align closely with the content in
the current NSW Science Years 7-10 Syllabus.
The organisation of knowledge and understanding
content in Years will be welcomed by secondary
science teachers in NSW.
The organisation of Science as a Human Endeavour
and Inquiry Skills into two year blocks will also be
greatly welcomed in NSW – removing a great deal of
uncertainty within schools and unnecessary variation
in science programs across schools due to this
uncertainty.
There is more prescription in some Australian Curriculum:
Science K-6 strands and less prescription in 7-10.
The NSWDET consultation
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NSW DET through the “curriculumsupport” website,
offers an opportunity to give your opinions, hear the
opinions of others and inform the NSWDET position in
an online forum environment.
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If an Internet connection is available review the
website. To locate the site Google curriculumsupport
and follow the links to the Australian Curriculum. Use
a NSW DET email to join the forums
Support and feedback at Curriculum K 12 Directorate
© NSW Department of Education and Training 2010
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