Australian Curriculum:
Technologies
Draft Shape Paper - Consultation
April 2012
Learning Areas
The Melbourne Declaration identifies eight learning areas
including:
• Technologies
Curriculum development phases
Phase 1
Phase 2
English
Geography
Mathematics
Languages
Phase 3
Health and
Physical
Education
Technologies
Science
The Arts
Economics,
Business, Civics
and Citizenship
History
Consultation Timeline
4 May 2012
14 March – 3 June
2012 ACARA National
consultation period
14 March 2012
Draft Shape of Australian
Curriculum: Technologies
available
NSW Department of
Education and
Communities online
survey closes
June 2012 –
December 2013
Curriculum
development
process followed
by consultation on
the curriculum and
final publication.
Australian curriculum
NSW syllabus development
Implementation
Development of the Australian
Curriculum
The Australian Curriculum developed by ACARA:

is being written for F-10 and Years 11-12

is described in Bands

has content descriptions not outcomes
Purpose of the Draft Shape Paper
The draft Shape of the Australian Curriculum: Technologies

provides broad direction on the purpose, structure and
organisation of the Technologies curriculum

will guide the writing of the Australian Curriculum:
Technologies from F-12
Technologies Learning Area
• “Technologies” adopted to reflect the range of technologies
addressed in schools
• Australian Curriculum:
2 strands F-8 and 2 subjects Years 9-12
• Design and Technologies
• Digital Technologies
Background
Design and Technologies – students learn to develop and apply
technologies knowledge, process and production skills
to design, produce and evaluate solutions using
traditional, contemporary and emerging technologies
for real-world needs, opportunities, end users, clients
or consumers in a range of technologies contexts.
Digital Technologies – students learn to develop and apply
technical knowledge, process and computational
thinking skills, including algorithmic logic and
abstraction, to transform data into information solutions
for real-world needs, opportunities, end users, clients
or consumers in a range of technologies contexts.
Aims of Technologies Curriculum
The Australian Curriculum: Technologies will aim to develop students who:
• are creative, innovative and enterprising when using traditional, contemporary
and emerging technologies
• effectively and responsibly select and use appropriate technologies, materials,
information, systems, tools and equipment when designing and creating socially,
economically and environmentally sustainable products, services or
environments
• critique, evaluate and apply thinking skills and technologies processes that
people use to shape their world, and to transfer that learning to other technology
situations
• individually and collaboratively plan, manage, create and produce solutions to
purposeful technology projects for personal, local, national and global settings
• engage confidently with and make informed, ethical decisions about
technologies for personal wellbeing, recreation, everyday life, the world of work
and preferred futures.
Structure of the Australian Curriculum:
Technologies
• The Australian Curriculum: Technologies comprises two strands:
Design and technologies & Digital technologies.
• All students will study both Design and technologies and Digital
technologies from Foundation to the end of Year 8.
•
Schools may choose to integrate the strands in teaching and
learning programs F-8.
• In Years 9–12, students will be able to choose from a range of
subjects developed by ACARA and states and territories. In NSW
this may involve the existing elective subjects in the Technologies
KLA.
Overarching Idea
Engaging in Creating Preferred Futures
• A focus on preferred futures provides the methodology for identifying
and moving towards sustainable patterns of living.
• Students will engage in predicting outcomes and impacts of
technological decisions for current and future generations; considering
probable futures; and identifying the futures they would prefer, taking
into account economic, environmental and social sustainability.
• Over time they will reconstruct and review their visions for preferred
futures through research, experience, dialogue, discussion and the
exchange of ideas.
• This overarching idea is common to Design and technologies and Digital
technologies, as both are concerned with technology, culture and
society; economic, environmental and social sustainability; and
creativity, innovation and enterprise.
Relationship between the sub-strands
Design and technologies
Digital technologies
2 complementary sub-strands
• Knowledge and Understanding
• Processes and Production
Relationship between the sub-strands
Design and technologies:
• Knowledge and understanding:
focuses on materials, information, systems, tools and
equipment; and technologies and society. The content is
dependent on the technologies context.
• Processes and Production:
focuses on designing - identifying, exploring and critiquing a
need or opportunity; generating, researching and developing
ideas; and planning, producing and evaluating solutions that
utilise process and production skills, creativity, innovation and
enterprise to promote the development of sustainable
patterns of living.
Relationship between the sub-strands
Digital technologies:
• Knowledge and understanding:
focuses on digital information, digital systems and
technologies, and digital technologies and society.
• Processes and Production:
focuses on formulating and investigating problems; analysing
and creating digital solutions; representing, constructing and
evaluating solutions; and utilising skills of creativity, innovation
and enterprise for sustainable patterns of living.
General capabilities
Critical and creative
thinking
Ethical behaviour
Literacy
Intercultural
understanding
Personal and social
capability
Information and
communication
technology (ICT)
capability
Numeracy
Cross-curriculum Priorities
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and
cultures
Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia
Sustainability
Organisation of the Australian Curriculum:
Technologies
The technologies curriculum is organised in the following
bands:
• Foundation to Year 2
• Years 3-4
• Years 5-6
• Years 7-8
• Years 9-10
• Senior secondary (Years 11 and 12)
Time Allocation
The time allocation for Design and technologies and Digital
technologies combined are:
• 60 hours across Years F–2
• 80 hours across Years 3–4
• 120 hours across Years 5–6
• 160 hours across Years 7–8
• 80 hours each across Years 9–10
• 200 to 240 hours of learning across Years 11–12 for each of
Design and technologies and Digital technologies.
• Allocation of time for teaching the Technologies learning
area will be a school authority or school-based decision.
Scope and sequence
The proposed knowledge, understanding and skills are cumulative in nature.
They build on the depth of students’ understanding and the sophistication of
their skills in the ways they think about and work with technologies.
3 part breakdown:
• Technologies Curriculum (in general)
• Design and technologies (subject/strand specific outcomes)
• Digital technologies (subject/strand specific outcomes)
Each address the following groupings:
• Foundation – Year 2
• Years 3-6
• Years 7-10
• Senior Secondary
The Technologies curriculum across the
years of schooling
Foundation to Year 2 (typically 5–8 years of age)
• The Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) has a specific focus
on play-based learning and recognises children’s rights to be
active participants in all matters affecting their lives.
• focus on personal forms and use of technologies in children’s
immediate environments that are relevant to them, such as at
home, in the backyard/farmyard, and in the classroom.
The Technologies curriculum across the
years of schooling
Years 3 – 6 (typically 8 -12 years of age)
• Students progressively engage with more abstract ideas.
• Students become more concerned with the social and
environmental use of technologies.
• Students broaden scope of investigations to consider safe and
ethical use of technologies.
The Technologies curriculum across the
years of schooling
Years 7 – 10 (typically 12 - 16 years of age)
• Develop increasing independence in thinking and skill application.
• Appreciate interdependence of technology development, culture,
environment, developer and user.
• Flexibility for students to undertake more specialised learning
pathways in a range of learning areas. (Years 9–10)
The Technologies curriculum across the
years of schooling
Senior secondary (typically 16 - 18 years of age)
• A range of specialised courses with explicit pathways allowing
depth of study, multi-disciplinary approaches, sophistication of
engagement and can lead to tertiary study, vocational training or
employment.
• Australian Curriculum – 2 subjects:
• Design and technologies
• Digital technologies
• Additional subjects as currently offered by the states and
territories.
Design and technologies across the
years of schooling
• Addresses each of the Stages.
• Specific examples of content description
• Continuum of learning:
• exposure to increasingly complex range of tools, materials,
equipment, information and systems
• using increasingly sophisticated range of skills and processes,
recognising risks and adopting safe work practices for
increasingly complex problems
• Addresses specialised technologies contexts such as
agriculture, architecture, manufacturing, media design, digital
design, engineering, food technology, industrial design and
textiles in Years 9-10
Digital technologies across the years of
schooling
• Addresses each of the Stages.
• Specific examples of student outcomes
• Continuum of learning:
• Students will develop increasingly sophisticated knowledge
and understanding, drawn from both contemporary and
historical sources
• Students will develop increasingly sophisticated skills in digital
technologies processes and production through applying
computational thinking to create digital information products,
systems or software instructions to address digital problems.
Key questions for evaluating the Draft Shape of
the Australian Curriculum: Technologies
Does the scope and
sequence provide a
logical progression of
learning from F-12?
Does the Draft Shape
Paper provide sufficient
direction and clarity for
the development of
Technologies curriculum
Does the Draft Shape
Paper cater for future
options for students
and provide
specialisation?
Can the content be
covered within the
structure and the time
frame?
Is the 2 strand/subject
structure appropriate?
Do the two
strands/subjects
provide an appropriate
balance of Technologies
education?
Have your say
NSW Department of Education and Communities
online survey (allow 15 minutes)
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/2012technologies
For further information
ACARA online survey
NSW Board of Studies
http://www.acara.edu.au
/technologies.html
http://www.boardofstudie
s.nsw.edu.au/australiancurriculum/
Technology curriculum
support website
http://www.curriculumsu
pport.education.nsw.gov.
au/secondary/technology
/index.htm
Consultation on the Draft Shape of the
Australian Curriculum: Technologies
Access a printable version of the Draft Shape Paper and the
ACARA online survey:
http://www.acara.edu.au/technologies.html
NSW Department of Education and Communities
online survey:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/2012technologies
Provide feedback via email at: (DEC emails only accepted)
Tanya.Coli@det.nsw.edu.au
Sandra.McKee4@det.nsw.edu.au