Australian Curriculum
Geography
Consultation draft
16 January 2012
Learning areas
The Melbourne Declaration identifies
eight learning areas including:
Humanities and Social Sciences –
history, geography, economics,
business studies and civics and
citizenship
Curriculum development phases
Phase 1
English
Mathematics
Science
History
Phase 2
Phase 3
Geography
Health and
physical
education
Languages
Information and
Communication
Technology and
design and technology
The arts
Economics,
business, civics
and citizenship
Consultation Timeline
February 2012
October 2011
Draft of
Australian
Curriculum:
Geography F-12
available
Term 4 2011
DEC consultation
on draft
curriculum.
Focus groups
and online
survey.
ACARA
consultation
concludes end of
month
2012 – last
quarter
ACARA
publication of
revised
Australian
Curriculum:
Geography
Development process
Australian curriculum
NSW syllabus development
Implementation
Rationale and aims
Rationale
Aims
•describes the
nature of the
learning area
•provides an
outline of
learning
•identify the
major
learning that
students will
be able to
demonstrate
Organisation of the Australian Curriculum
The Australian Curriculum:
•
•
•
•
is being developed for F-10 and Years 11-12
is described in Years not Stages
has content descriptions not outcomes in F-10
uses outcomes for Years 11 and 12
General capabilities
Critical and creative
thinking
Ethical behaviour
Information and
communication
technology
competence
(ICT)
Literacy
Intercultural
understanding
Numeracy
Personal and social
competence
Cross-curriculum priorities
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
histories and cultures
Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia
Sustainability
Implementation
• The Board of Studies NSW will develop a NSW
Geography syllabus
• The Minister will approve the geography syllabus.
Time allocation
• The time allocation provided for writers of the
Australian Curriculum: Geography is the same as
the time for history.
• Analysis and feedback should be based on how
successfully the curriculum can be taught in the
time allocated to geography for 7-12 or for the
geography component of HSIE K-6.
Content Strand Descriptors
The geography curriculum is organised into two
interrelated strands:
• Geographical Knowledge and Understanding
• Geographical Inquiry and Skills
Concepts for geographical understanding
The curriculum explains key geographical concepts for the
development of geographical understanding:
• place
• space
• environment
• interconnection
• sustainability
• scale
• change.
Geographical knowledge and understanding
This strand includes the investigation of the facts, generalisations,
principles, theories and models developed in geography.
Students apply their geographical knowledge to new situations or to
solve problems by thinking and planning for action.
Geographical Inquiry and Skills
This strand includes skills used in the process of geographical
inquiry:
•
•
•
•
•
observing and questioning
planning, collecting and evaluating
processing, analysing, interpreting and concluding
communicating
reflecting and responding.
Geographical inquiry and skills are in two-year
bands that correspond to NSW stages.
.
Curriculum Structure
Content Descriptions:
The geography curriculum is structured around content
descriptions.
It includes:
• Content descriptions which specify what teachers are
expected to teach (mandatory)
• Elaborations which are examples that illustrate each
content description (non-mandatory).
Curriculum Structure
An example of a Content description (mandatory) and
its Elaborations (non-mandatory) from Year 7.
Why people live where they do (Unit 2)
There are differences and similarities in the way of life of people living in
urban, rural and remote places in Australia.
Elaborations
• Investigate how population density tends to decline with increasing
distance from urban centres
• Explaining ‘remoteness’ and comparing demographic characteristics
of urban, rural and remote places
• Describing the advantages and disadvantages of living in different
kinds of places, for example, regional towns, rural areas and remote
places.
Achievement Standards
Provided at the end of each year and include reference to
both strands.
• An Achievement standard is a statement of the
learning typically expected of students for that year.
(e.g. the depth of their understanding, the extent of their
knowledge and the sophistication of their skills)
• Work samples illustrate achievement of the standard.
Activity (optional)
This activity is based on the Achievement Standard for Year 6.
Read through the achievement standard.
Discuss if this is consistent with the knowledge and
understanding and skills which you would expect for
students at the end of a Year 6 geography course.
Analyse the achievement standards from K-6 or for
Years 7-10 to see if they identify appropriate
progression of achievement.
Curriculum focus
Each stage has an identified curriculum focus:
• Foundation to Year 2: Exploring local and more
distant places
• Years 3-4: Investigating places
• Years 5-6: Analysing and managing places
• Years 7-10: Regional and global places in an
environmental and human geography context.
What students will learn K-6
Geographical knowledge and understanding is
organised according to ‘Place’, ‘Space’ and
‘Environment’ for each school year.
Geographical inquiry and skills is organised in stages.
What students will learn 7-10
Two units of study are identified for each year, one
with a physical geography focus and the other with a
human geography focus.
Geographical Inquiry and skills are organised in
stages.
Year 7
1. Environment Resources – uses water as a case study.
2. Why people live where they do – investigates the
environmental, economic and social and other factors
that might influence decision making.
Year 8
1. Landscapes – the forces, processes and factors
which physically shape landscapes and people
who use them.
2. Personal and community geographies – focuses
on defining and understanding place and space
with scope for fieldwork.
Year 9
1. Biomes and food security - personal and global
patterns of food production and consumption
and impact on the natural environment, including
sustainability.
2. Navigating global connections - the nature of
Australia’s regional and global connections and
their impacts, now and in the future.
Year 10
1. Environmental challenges and geography - the
geographical understanding and management of
environmental challenges and their impacts at a
variety of scales.
2. Global wellbeing – the nature and measurement
of global wellbeing; the inequalities that exist at
a variety of scales and programs that address
these issues.
Key questions for evaluating the
K-10 curriculum
Does the course
cater for the range
of students?
Are the units broad
and deep enough to
engage and
challenge our
students?
Is there evidence of
adequate quality and
rigour in the
curriculum?
Does the content
provide a logical
progression from
F-10?
Can the content be
covered by the
structure and the
time frame?
Does the content
of this course
identify the
learning we
value?
the draft curriculum
Structure of the Senior Curriculum
• Units 1 and 2 are designed to follow on from
learning in Years 7-10 and are a foundation
for the study of geography at a senior level
• Units 3 and 4 require greater rigour in
applying the understandings and skills of
geography.
Organisation of the subject
1. The
changing
biophysical
cover of the
earth
2. Sustaining
places
3.
Environmental
risk
management
4. A world in
the making
Unit 1: The changing biophysical cover
of the earth
• Focuses on the changing biophysical environment
including the processes, effects and management
• Students will undertake an in depth study of one of
the following processes and responses both
globally and through case studies from Australia
and other countries:
• Deforestation
• Agricultural expansion
• Rangeland modification
• Urbanisation
Unit 2: Sustaining places
• Focuses on the economic, social and environmental
sustainability of places and their associated
challenges.
• Students will select one of two contexts to study:
• Metropolitan and regional centres
• Regional centres and rural places.
Unit 3: Environmental risk management
• Focuses on the identification and management of
environmental risks and their relationships to
people.
• Students will undertake an in depth study of one
environmental risk:
• An environment placed at risk as a result of the
use of a natural resource
• An environmental hazard.
Unit 4. A world in the making
• Focuses on the investigation of global
interconnections and their impact on people and
localities.
• Students will undertake studies of:
• People living in an interconnected world
• The material world – including global cities and
globalisation
• Interdependence – including transnational
organisations at a variety of scales and the use
of technology to disseminate perceptions of
places and events.
Key questions for evaluating the
11-12 curriculum
Does the F-10
curriculum prepare
students for this
course?
Does the course
cater for the range
of students?
Are the units broad
and deep enough to
engage and
challenge our
students?
Is there evidence of
adequate quality
and rigour in the
curriculum?
Does the content
provide a logical
progression from
the F-10 curriculum?
Can the content be
covered by the
structure and in the
time frame?
Does the content of
this course identify
the learning we
value?
Department of Education and Communities
consultation
ACARA consultation
Board of Studies NSW
Your feedback is important
After your discussions and analysis of the geography curriculum
your feedback would be appreciated. Send your feedback
directly to:
Anne Southwell
Phone 9886 7156
anne.southwell@det.nsw.edu.au