Monitoring the Effectiveness of the Foundation – Year 10 Australian Curriculum 2019
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
OFFICIAL MONITORING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE FOUNDATION – YEAR 10 AUSTRALIAN CURRICULUM 2019 1 OFFICIAL © Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) 2020 The copyright material published in this work is subject to the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth) and is owned by ACARA or, where indicated, by a party other than ACARA. ACARA’s Copyright and terms of use apply (see www.acara.edu.au/contact-us/copyright). The text in this work (excluding logos and any photographs) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY) licence. See (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). This licence allows you to share (copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format) and adapt (remix, transform and build upon) these materials for any purpose, even commercially, provided you attribute ACARA. In the attribution notice, you must state whether or not you have modified this work. See attribution notice under our Copyright and terms of use (www.acara.edu.au/contactus/copyright). Photographs are licensed more restrictively. See our Copyright and terms of use for more information. 2 OFFICIAL TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .................................................................................................. 5 2. BACKGROUND ................................................................................................................ 9 3. METHODOLOGY ........................................................................................................... 10 4. RESPONSES TO MONITORING REPORT 2017–18 ..................................................... 11 a. Findings from the 2017–18 monitoring of the Australian Curriculum ......................... 11 b. Responses to the 2017–18 monitoring of the Australian Curriculum ......................... 11 5. JURISDICTIONAL IMPLEMENTATION OF THE AC F–10: 2018–19 ............................. 12 6. STAKEHOLDER FEEDBACK ......................................................................................... 15 a. Submissions ............................................................................................................... 15 b. Key findings from the 2018–19 monitoring of the Australian Curriculum ..................... 15 c. Theme: Essential content ........................................................................................... 17 d. Theme: Place of general capabilities .......................................................................... 19 e. Theme: Recognition of First Peoples .......................................................................... 21 f. Theme: Support for implementation ............................................................................ 23 7. THE AUSTRALIAN CURRICULUM WEBSITE 2018–19 ................................................ 33 a. Overview .................................................................................................................. 33 b. Analysis of website usage ........................................................................................ 33 General demographics...................................................................................................... 33 Website structure .............................................................................................................. 34 Website usage .................................................................................................................. 35 F–10 curriculum ................................................................................................................ 42 Parent information ............................................................................................................ 46 Student diversity ............................................................................................................... 47 Resources and publications .............................................................................................. 48 8. ENQUIRIES, MEDIA AND DATA ANALYSIS ................................................................. 61 a. Learning areas ......................................................................................................... 61 English .............................................................................................................................. 61 Mathematics ..................................................................................................................... 64 Science ............................................................................................................................. 67 Humanities and Social Sciences ....................................................................................... 69 3 OFFICIAL The Arts ............................................................................................................................ 72 Health and Physical Education ......................................................................................... 74 Technologies .................................................................................................................... 77 Languages ........................................................................................................................ 81 b. General capabilities .................................................................................................. 84 c. Cross-curriculum priorities ........................................................................................ 86 d. Student diversity ....................................................................................................... 89 9. LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................ 92 10. LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................... 92 11. LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ...................................................................................... 93 12. APPENDIX A: LIST OF RESPONSES ..................................................................... 96 4 OFFICIAL 1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) summarises stakeholder feedback on the implementation of the Australian Curriculum (AC) in a report titled Monitoring the Effectiveness of the Foundation – Year 10 Australian Curriculum. This report reflects an annual process of collecting and synthesising information that will inform future curriculum renewal. The report for the 2018–19 monitoring cycle is provided here. Since 2009, the staged release of the three-dimensional AC has brought new opportunities and challenges to all who have an interest in school education in the 21st century. In 2016 the first generation of the national curriculum for students in Foundation – Year 10 was completed, labelled version 8.3. Updates to this version have resulted in the current Version 8.4. The 2018–19 year continued the progression from the development and publication of the curriculum to the development and publication of resource materials and supporting documentation. In addition, it continued a program of national and international research to inform future iterations of the AC. The 2019 monitoring report contains feedback collected between 1 July 2018 and 30 June 2019. Responses were received from departmental, school and curriculum authorities in all Australian states and territories. Feedback was also collected from ACARA’s advisory and reference groups. Respondents were asked to place a particular emphasis on key themes emerging from the previous four monitoring reports and the program of research being undertaken. These themes were: the nature and scope of essential content; the place of general capabilities (GCs); the recognition of Australia’s First Peoples within the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures cross-curriculum priority (CCP); and support for curriculum implementation. The key findings from this process of monitoring suggest a desire for refinement of the AC within its existing structure and design, rather than any wide-ranging revision. Submissions confirm support for the existing overarching structure of the AC – that is, the three- dimensional design; the organisation into content descriptions and achievement standards; the presentation in years/stages F–10; and the online publication of the curriculum, with improved and different functionality to support connections and interrelationships. Submissions argue for refining the AC to focus on prioritising depth and rigour over breadth of content, with particular emphasis on strengthening connections across content in F–6 and a clearer alignment between learning area content and GCs. There is wide support for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures CCP, with the suggestion that this priority be further resourced to assist implementation. There is also an indication that further support materials would benefit some jurisdictions in their implementation of the AC as a whole. The findings from this monitoring report will contribute to informing ACARA’s advice to education ministers on the scope of refinement of the AC by mid-2020. Specifically, the key 5 OFFICIAL findings arising from the 2019 monitoring process against the four themes include: Essential content a. Strong desire to refine current learning area content to ensure consistency and coherence across learning areas and subjects at strand and sub-strand levels, as well as some consideration