Developing 21st century competencies
through disciplines of knowledge
Barry McGaw
Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow, University of Melbourne
Chair, Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority
Education and 21st Century Competencies
National Symposium
Muscat, Sultanate of Oman
22-24 September 2013
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Outline of presentation
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Simultaneous treatment of disciplines and 21st century skills
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Presenting the curriculum electronically
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Linking resources to the curriculum for teachers
Simultaneous treatment of disciplines
and 21st century skills
21st century skills for the 21st century
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Cisco/Intel/Microsoft Assessment and Teaching of 21st century
skills project
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White paper defining 21st century skills
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ABN 34 117 491 228
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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
Australian Curriculum view of 21st century skills
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Are they uniquely 21st century?
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Nomenclature General capabilities not 21st century skills
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Literacy
Numeracy
Information and communication technology capability
Critical and creative thinking
Personal and social capability
Ethical understanding
Intercultural understanding
Key questions
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ABN 34 117 491 228
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Most have been important for centuries
The technology-rich environment is new
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Do we have developmental continua for these capabilities?
What content would be required for their development?
ATC21S
Australian Curriculum
Ways of thinking
Creativity and innovation
Critical thinking, problem solving & decision making
Learning to learn and metacognition
Critical and creative thinking
Personal capability
Ways of working
Communication
Literacy
Collaboration and teamwork
Social capability
Tools for working
Information literacy
ICT literacy
ICT capability
Living in the world
ABN 34 117 491 228
mcgaw group pty ltd
Numeracy
Citizenship – global and local
Intercultural understanding
Life and career
Ethical understanding
Personal and social responsibility
Personal and social capability
Australian Curriculum view of knowledge disciplines
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Central place for content
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Preserving the disciplines
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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
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Disciplines are the result of several millennia of human effort
Research on expertise shows importance of deep, domain-specific
knowledge
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?
Structure of the Australian Curriculum
Many cells will be
empty.
Can general capabilities be
covered in the cells?
Sustainability
3 Cross-curriculum
Priorities
Asia and Australia’s
Links with Asia
Technologies
Languages
The Arts
Civics and Citizenship
Economics, Business
Geography
History
Mathematics
Science
11 Disciplines/Learning areas
Health and Physical Education
ABN 34 117 491 228
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English
Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander Histories and Cultures
7 General
Capabilities
Presenting the curriculum electronically
F-10
• English, mathematics,
science, history,
geography available.
• Rest due by end of
2013.
This button opens
curriculum by learning
area, general capability,
cross-curriculum priority
and year (grade) level.
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.
Icons for general capabilities and cross-curriculum priorities
Use this view to display content and content elaborations.
Foundation year selected.
General capability & crosscurriculum priority icons.
Display filtered on:
General capability
Grade/year
Strand
4
Science understanding Critical & creative thinking
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.
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 7-9
Level 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.
Linking resources to the curriculum
for teachers
Website of resources linked by meta-tags to the Australian Curriculum
Filtered on:
Grade/Year 4
Critical & creative thinking
Now select:
View elaborations and matching resources
Resources for students and teachers help with
personalisation of learning for students.
The resources can be filtered by type.
182 resources listed below.
Review and conclusion
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Australian Curriculum
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Electronic presentation
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ABN 34 117 491 228
mcgaw group pty ltd
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Includes 21st century skills as general capabilities
Is also, very importantly, organised by disciplines/learning areas.
Provides developmental continua for both
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.
Thank you.