A Curriculum for Children
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Our Ehidrei The Future "TJ A CURRICULUM rn FOR j P m CHILDREN O O J-v V I*.;- 11* o HI m 5t* 00 H tn Our Children The Future A Curriculum for Children Department of Education and The Arts Tasmania Acknowledgements Contents The preparation of material for Our Children The Future has been the Our Children The Future -overview iv continued concern for twenty seven working parties drawn from the whole of Tasmania It has involved parents and other members of the community as well as educators from the Department of Education Introduction 1 and The Arts A full list of the convenors and members of the working p irties appears at the end of each booklet in the series Context 3 The great commitment and dedication of all those who took part is acknowledged by those of us who will benefit from their hard work In particular the work of the convenors of the working parties the writing Objectives and expectations 5 team the management group and those who contributed from the Curriculum Services Branch of the Department of Education and The Provision for learning 7 Arts and the Centre for Education of the University of Tasmania is acknowledged with grateful thanks We also acknowledge the con tnbutions of the many groups and individuals who supported the Curriculum issues 12 project with submissions ideas and information Jenni Connor Val Elliott References 17 Members of the writing team Jenni Connor Melvin Freestone Barry Smith Key issues 18 Elizabeth Daly Malcolm Kays Phil Tyson Val Elliott Ann Revie Appendix Working party membership 20 Consultants to the project Penny Andersen Graham Fish Wayne Ransley Garth Boomer Darryl Fisher Jan Webberley Kevin Collis Philip Hughes Bevis Yaxley ASCIS Catalogu ng in publication entry (prepared by TASCIS) A Curr culum for ch Idren vi 21 p (Our children the luture) ISBN 0 7246 18600 1 Educat on Primary 2 Education Curriculums I Tasmania Departme t of Education and The Arts II Seres 372 19 DDC 20 372 19 ADDC 11 Publ cat on Officer Guy Deak n Design and Layout Wendy Partr dge Photography Frank Mclvor Editing Word Wise © Depa tment of Education and The Arts Tasmania 1991 ll in Our Children The Future Overview Our Children The Future is a departmental policy guide con justice excellence quality and equity continuity and coher sisting of five booklets entitled ence in schooling and the national curriculum It also provides an introduction to the issues raised in the other four documents Yesterday Today and Tomorrow Teaching and Learning The second booklet Teaching and Learning encompasses A Curriculum for Children current beliefs and theories about how people learn It de Successful Schools scribes the factors which affect learning success and strongly Monitoring and Assessing Children s Learning stresses the direct interventionist role of the teacher These five statements are intended to guide high quality learn The third booklet A Curriculum for Children clearly defines the ing programs in primary schools in Tasmania essential learnings which should comprise a balanced pro gram for each year of primary education These essential They describe the principles which underpin effective teaching learnings include both the capabilities children should and learning be developing and the fields of inquiry that they should be The statements provide a clear cohesive sense of direction to studying our schools and a framework within which they can develop The fourth booklet Successful Schools brings together issues programs raised in earlier booklets and describes what a school will look Our Children The Future will be linked with policy statements like if all of the previously described conditions are in place It relating to other levels of our education system leading to the discusses the role of schools and the relationship between development of a statement of educational principles for kin them and their communities It also identifies the characteris dergarten to year 12 in Tasmanian schools tics of successful schools and deals with the issues of resourcing self management and accountability The initial readership for these booklets is the teaching profes sion but much that they contain will hold interest for a wider The fifth booklet Monitoring and Assessing Children s Learning audience of parents and other members of the community deals with the relationship between the purposes for which The first booklet Yesterday Today and Tomorrow includes information about children s progress is collected and the statements on the nature and purposes of primary schooling form of its collection and use the characteristics of young children and issues of social IV Introduction The world that children experience both inside and outside school Is continuing to change at an ever increasing rate and the learning program offered by schools must help students to cope with such change This booklet describes the main features of the curriculum in Tasmania from kindergarten to year 12 The term capabilities is used to indicate that young children are continually developing and gain ing control over many skills understandings and attitudes The capabilities described in this state ment are similar to the competencies described in the policy document for secondary schools entitled Secondary Education The Future (1987) Because many people associate the term competencies with end points it has not been used here In A Curncu lum for Children the list of capabilities also includes kinaesthetic capabilities which have a particularly high profile in primary education The description that follows gives direction to the interpretation of national goals for education in a curriculum for Tasmanian children School programs are developed around system guidelines that complement national curriculum statements in each of the major areas of learning The detail of each school s curriculum is determined by the school community based on the needs of the children and the expectations of the parents and the community The whole staff of a school needs to be involved when decisions are being made about the content and processes appropriate for the school s education program A curriculum for children 1 For a school s program to be effectively implemented its teachers require support and professional Context development opportunities These need to be adequately resourced continually monitored and evaluated and they need to include opportunities for parental participation Most children move school at least once as they progress from kindergarten to year 12 Many of them move more frequently during their primary years often from district to district and sometimes between states The curriculum in primary schools must be capable of accommodating the discontinuities and unsettling effects of an increasingly mobile population Children live in a world of expanding horizons Changes in cultural values social aspirations and practices and in environmental and economic cir cumstances often seem bewildering For children and their communities these changes raise both opportunities and dilemmas The children need to be able to deal with the challenges and need to be equipped to affect the course of their own lives and the lives of others in positive ways They must be innovative knowledgeable resourceful and enter prising with a finely developed capacity for working co operatively and compassionately with other people They need to bring these qualities to cultural social environmental and economic issues They also need to gain the personal knowledge that will enable them to take action in everyday life and thus contribute to a just and free society The curriculum in the primary school must take account of recent national and international trends in education Educators are accountable to their local communities totheeducationsystem andtonational priorities Clear statements of purpose are required both to inform the community and to guide the practice of teachers Associated with the current national developments is a shift in the pattern of decision making about some aspects of the curriculum Schools are strongly 2 A curriculum for children A curriculum for children 3 encouraged to be self managing in partnership with f their communities To ensure coherence equity and Objectives and expectations i continuous and comparable provision for all chil ; dren explicit system wide policy statements guide these activities Within these policy frameworks schools and their communities make significant ! decisions about the nature of their curriculum its implementation and the management of resources The expectations that children and parents have of schooling have changed greatly Formal education The curriculum covers all the provisions that schools , is now seen as a shared responsibility between make for childrens learning and development It involves the content of courses the activities involved i teachers parents and school communities This the teaching methods the learning environment the participation involves contributing formally to school values espoused the relationships the way teachers decision making participating in classroom pro . and classes are organised and the appropriate use grams helping with general organisational tasks of resources and giving support for childrens learning in the home by promoting school policies and curriculum The curriculum in primary schools should excite i priorities Participation does not stop there It also children s curiosity fire their imagination and kindle ' entails communicating with teachers about the home lifelong interests It should also