SLAC Conference
e-literacy: think differently, act differently, learn differently
16 March 2012
Dr David Howes
General Manager, Curriculum Division
VCAA
Session purpose
1. To clarify the requirements of schools in
Victoria in relation to the implementation of the
Australian Curriculum
2. To explore the opportunities represented by the
introduction of the Australian Curriculum
3. To introduce the new pilot Extended
Investigation VCE study
What is the Australian Curriculum?
LEARNING AREAS/
SUBJECT DISCIPLINES
•English
•Mathematics
•Science
•Health and Physical
Education
•Languages
•Humanities and Social
Sciences
(History, Geography,
Civics and Citizenship,
Business and Economics)
•The Arts
•Technologies (inc ICT)
GENERAL CAPABILITIES
• Critical and creative
thinking
• Personal and social
capability
• Intercultural
understanding
• Ethical behaviour
• Literacy
• Numeracy
• ICT
CROSS-CURRICULUM
PRIORITIES
• Aboriginal histories and
cultures
• Asia and Australia’s
engagement with Asia
• Sustainability
Current status
Australian Curriculum
Another historic milestone towards implementation of Australia’s first
national school curriculum was reached with Ministers endorsing the
achievement standards for Foundation to Year 10 Australian Curriculum
in English, mathematics, science and history. Following Ministers’
endorsement of the curriculum content for these first four learning areas
in December last year, the achievement standards were refined after a
validation process ....
ACARA will provide student work samples that illustrate achievement
against each standard in the four learning areas in 2011 and during
2012 to enable the standards to be consistently interpreted and
assessed across the nation.
MCEEYDYA Communiqué 14 October 2011
Victorian timelines Phase 1
English, Mathematics, History and Science
• Professional development
• school-based planning and trialling
2012
Implementation of English, Mathematics, History and Science F 10
2013
Implementation of English, Mathematics, History and Science Year
2014?
11
Implementation of English, Mathematics, History and Science Year
2015?
12
Why does curriculum debate generate so much heat?
… because curriculum constructs individuals
a particular, historically formed
knowledge that inscribes rules and
standards by which we “reason” about
the world and our “self” as a productive
member of that world … Curriculum is a
disciplining technology that directs how
the individual is to act, feel, talk and
“see” the world and “self’. As such,
curriculum is a form of social regulation.
(Popkewitz,1997 p. 132).
The matter of definitions…
Curriculum …
• All the structures, organisation and activities of
a school
• Intended, enacted, experienced
• Syllabus as the structure, curriculum as the
teaching program
• Imposed vs student-led
A working definition
The curriculum is the defined and mandated set of
knowledge and skills that schools are required to
teach and assess.
 A democratic entitlement rather than individual
determination of what is required for effective,
participatory citizenship.
Does curriculum planning matter?
• Robert Marzano’s analysis of school effectiveness
research (2003):
a guaranteed and viable curriculum as the school level
factor that has the most impact on student achievement.
• Empirical evidence that a characteristic of
underperforming schools is lack of curriculum
documentation
• Empirical evidence that what is not taught is not learnt –
osmosis is not an effective teaching and learning strategy
Compliance requirements 2013
• All sectors
o Assess and report student achievement
against new achievement standards for
English, Mathematics, Science and History in
2013
• Government and Catholic sectors
o Assess and report against remaining VELS
strands
AusVELS
Information about the Victorian curriculum is provided through three
distinct web pages located under a new “F -10 Curriculum”
- tab on the
VCAA home page:
2012
VELS
Curriculum Updates
Planning resources
Support
2013+
AusVELS
AusVELS
•
•
•
•
•
Current VELS structure with Learning Focus and
Standards for English, Mathematics, Science and
History replaced with Australian Curriculum Content
Descriptions and Achievement Standards
Move from six to eleven levels
VELS subjects: “even” number levels “working
towards level X”
Nomenclature as per current VELS
Emphasis on curriculum as developmental
continuum not separate “blocks” of knowledge
AusVELS
• a single, coherent curriculum framework and web portal
for all Victorian schools and teachers;
• a stable curriculum structure to incorporate further
Australian Curriculum subjects (Geography, Languages,
The Arts, Health and Physical Education, ICT and
Design and Technology, and Business and Economics)
• maintains leading features of Victorian approach to
curriculum
• enables inclusion of specific Victorian content/references
in some curriculum areas (Mathematics/Science) and
elaborations
2014 +
• Geography in 2014
• Health/PE, The Arts, Technologies, Languages,
Civics and Citizenship, Business and
Economics in 2014-2015
• General capabilities?
General capabilities
• Literacy
• Numeracy
• ICT
• Personal and social
capability
• Critical and creative
thinking
• Intercultural
understanding
• Ethical behaviour
This matters for literacy
“Students in the lower 50% of their class in reading
achievement who received the AB4L program showed
statistically significant improvement in their reading
comprehension performance”.
“Those students who received the AB4L program and who
showed improvements in their behaviours for learning
demonstrated statistically significant improvements in their
reading comprehension performance”
Report on the “Attitudes and Behaviours for Learning Project” (AB4L)
Professor Michael Bernard, University of Melbourne
Cross-curriculum priorities
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories
and cultures
• Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia
• Sustainability
Cross-curriculum priorities
Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia
Role of school librarians
• New resources on new topics (esp History)
• Resources for bringing topics together to
address cross-curriculum priorities
Victorian approach
• Continuity with/building on key aspects of VELS and
common practice in many independent schools:
 whole-school approaches to curriculum
 opportunity for innovation at school level within overall
standards
 developmental continuum
 student centred
 interdisciplinary skills
• Commitment to implementation of Australian
Curriculum as approved by all States and Territories
Extended investigation
•
•
•
•
New VCE study
Units 3/4
Purpose: “To develop students’ capacity to identify and ask
good questions”
Structure:
- Introduction to critical thinking
- Introduction to research methodogologies
- Question selection refinement
- Oral defence of question and methodology
- Critical thinking test
- 4000 word essay
- Oral defence of essay
Sample questions
Extended investigation proposal summary:: My
study will focus on the rich history of the Gore
Street Church, its influence on the Fitzroy
community and look closely at the Aboriginal
movements which grew out of it.
Proposed research question: What role did the
Gore Street Church play in the Fitzroy
Community with particular regard to the
development of Aboriginal activism in Victoria.
Sample questions
Extended investigation proposal summary::
plants and phototropism
Proposed research question: "How will
different wavelengths of lights affect the growth
of potted plants?"
Role of school librarians
•
•
•
•
•
•
Promotion of individual, independent research
Potential supervision of students
Teaching research skills, including ethics
Teaching self-paced learning skills
Teaching essay-writing skills
Teaching oral presentation techniques
Contact Details
Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority
(VCAA)
Dr David Howes
General Manager, Curriculum Division
email: howes.david.c@edumail.vic.gov.au
ph: (03) 9651 4524
www.vcaa.vic.edu.au