It’s been now over a decade since the Australian Curriculum was implemented as the national curriculum in all primary and secondary schools. More specifically, the first draft of the monumental educational system was released in 2010.
After enduring expected early challenges, the curriculum eventually stabilised and became a staple from Foundation to Year 10. Parts of it are also being implemented in senior secondary studies. Having said that, you may be wondering why a localised version of the national curriculum is the one activated for your respective state or territory.
The reason is simple: the Australian Curriculum can be used flexibly by state and territories to make it more relevant to the state’s existing system and jurisdictional policies and requirements as well as other factors.
For example, South Australia’s interpretation foregrounds strong social justice concern, while Queensland strongly accounts for rural students and the need for diversity and devolved approaches.
To learn more about NAPLAN and ATAR, read here.
The Australian Curriculum was designed to ensure that quality curriculum content will be available to every Australian student, regardless of where they live. Notably, its framework is being reviewed and developed by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) to continue to guide its implementation in Australian schools.
The Australian Curriculum focuses on eight learning areas: English, Mathematics, Science, Languages, Health and Physical Education, Humanities and Social Sciences, The Arts and Technologies.
In addition to these core concepts, the curriculum also emphasises the pursuit and development of seven general capabilities, which can be equated to skills and attributes that students are expected to develop throughout their education. These include literacy, numeracy, information and communication technology (ICT) capability, critical and creative thinking, personal and social capability, ethical understanding, and intercultural awareness.
The Foundation to Year 10 Australian Curriculum is described by ACARA as a three-dimensional curriculum that recognises the central importance of disciplinary knowledge, skills and understanding; general capabilities and cross-curriculum priorities.
Disciplinary knowledge is mainly integrated into the aforementioned eight learning areas. Meanwhile, general capabilities contributes greatly to the development of children’s skills and behavior. Finally, at its present iteration (Australian Curriculum, Version 9.0), the curriculum includes three current cross-curriculum priorities that are meant to be developed, where relevant, through the learning areas. These priorities are: Sustainability; Asia and Australia’s Engagement with Asia; and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures.
To put in perspective, students start their formal education at the age of five and enter Kindergarten. This essentially becomes the start of their journey to 13 years of schooling culminating with the awarding of their secondary education certificate at the end of Year 12 (age 18). This qualification can be used to gain entry into institutions all over the world.
On balance, the Australian Curriculum serves as a foundational document and system with the overarching goal of making high-quality, equitable, and globally relevant education available for all students in Australia.
It also aims to establish a consistent and uniform set of learning standards across the country, which ensures students from different territories and states, or walks of life and origin are afforded quality and equitable educational experience.
While it definitely sets a standard nationwide, the curriculum itself acts primarily as a framework that states and territories can flexibly interpret to make it even more relevant to local learners and educators. This flexibility allows local educational authorities to reshape certain aspects of the curriculum in a way that addresses local needs, cultural considerations, and regional priorities.
Aside from establishing consistency across the board, the curriculum was designed and is being developed further with an eye towards the future. For example, it highlights critical and creative thinking, information and communication technology (ICT) capability, and other skills that are most relevant to the contemporary challenges and opportunities in the 21st century.
The curriculum is organized into eight learning areas, each focusing on a specific field of study.
Everyone goes through a phase when science is their favorite subject, right? It’s place in the curriculum offers no surprises. But just to refresh, science education takes on the exploration of the natural and physical world! This includes the study of biological sciences, chemical sciences, physical sciences, and Earth and space sciences.
This learning area helps with the development of language skills and intercultural understanding. Culture is a big part of the curriculum; and language, naturally, makes for a great foundation for a greater understanding of both local and foreign culture. Notably, languages includes the study of languages other than English, as well as the learning of English as an Additional Language or Dialect (EAL/D).
This learning area majorly operates in two sub-studies: digital technologies and design and technologies. Digital technologies is more about computational thinking and digital skills, while the latter is tackles problem-solving and design processes.
Adults tend to have a love-and-hate relationship with mathematics, but the next generation might just be able to see less of that if the Australian Curriculum will have its way! Aside from numbers, space, measurement and fractions (urgh), mathematics is a big proponent for enhancing one’s problem-solving abilities and essential understanding of mathematical concepts.
This area is mostly dedicated to teaching literacy skills, like reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Beyond nouns and verbs, the English subject encompasses the study of language, literature, and literacy.
This focus area includes familiar subjects like History, Geography, Economics, and Civics and Citizenship. In general, it explores the social, economic, political and cultural aspects of human societies.
The Arts encompasses several creative disciplines, especially those in performance arts, visual arts and music. This learning area is designed to initiate and develop a students’ expression, creativity and appreciation of artistic forms.
HPE delves around the importance of physical activity, health, and well-being. Some topics you can expect from this learning area include: personal and community health, as well as physical activity and movement skills.
The three key dimensions of the Australian Curriculum are: learning areas, general capabilities and cross-curriculum priorities.
General capabilities speaks of the essential knowledge, skills and behaviors that young Australians get to learn and apply in basically all their studies. There are seven general capabilities in the curriculum and they are: literacy, numeracy, ethical understanding, personal and social capability, intercultural understanding, ICT capability and critical and creative thinking.
The learning areas are best described as the specific subjects or disciplines that students study. Meanwhile, cross-Curriculum Priorities are more or less overarching themes integrated in the content and achievement standards of each subject area.
Education remains a primary responsibility of each state and territory, which is why the Australian Curriculum is interpreted flexibly in different states. But make no mistake that the national curriculum lays the groundwork in the educational system of each state. For example, essential content such as all eight learning areas are applied across all states from Foundation to Year 10.
Aside from assisting students on their customary homework, parents can play a more active role by familiarising themselves with the Australian curriculum. Having a general understanding of their child’s academic progress and learning stages will allow them to become more confident and effective with their feedback or advice.
Families can also look to school community partnerships to stay engaged and possibly contribute to the overall academic experience of students.
While the curriculum itself only became official in 2010, the initiative had been in the works for much longer between governments and past education ministers. The culmination of that was the 2010 draft, although its evolution is now represented in the Australian Curriculum, Version 9.0, which made its mark at the beginning of 2023.
When talking about the Australian Curriculum or any curriculum for that matter, it might help to think of the system as a map that teachers and curriculum developers are able to use in order to chart a course for their students’ learning progress. The clear benefit of that lies in having a particular destination that will hold all efforts true and valid despite some reroutes along the way.
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