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Yesterday I attended the NSW Geography Teachers Association Annual Professional Development Day. The big focus of the day was on Australian Curriculum. We were lucky enough to have two speakers from ACARA Susan Caldis and Tracey McAskill. Susan has been a bit of a one-woman show over the past couple of years doing all the Geography teachers events and keeping everyone up to date. This blog post is a summary of the information from ACARA. As we know, all states in Australia but NSW are using the curriculum documents as written by ACARA and have begun implementation already. ACARA is calling the next 18 months "implementation mode" for the rest of Australia in relation to geography. Reviewing the curriculum ACARA undertook a detailed consultation process in the development of the Geography curriculum. From within NSW, the BOS collected submissions, organisations within the DEC held video conferences, detailed submissions were written by DEC officers, HSIE and Social Science faculties and teachers made submissions, and online surveys were completed. Expert groups were gathered in each of the states and territories. Existing syllabus documents were examined and compared from around Australia. Similarities and differences were mapped. International geography experts have had a role in critiquing the curriculum including Professor Catling, Professor David Lambert and Dr Rita Gardner. After a series of reviews, the new Geography curriculum for Foundation (Kindergarten) to Year 10 has now been finalised. The Senior Geography curriculum has just been released but is not finalised. It is anticipated that during the first phases of implementation an assessment and review of ACARA's curriculum will take place to determine successes and weaknesses and any further tweaks required. Structure and rationale In ACARA's Geography curriculum each year is organised under the following headings: a year level description, key inquiry questions, content descriptions and achievement standards. The Content for each year has 2 main strands: "enquiry and skills" and "knowledge and understanding". These strands help to organise the curriculum. In each 7-10 year group there are 2 units of work. In addition there are 7 key concepts that weave through the geography curriculum (place, space, environment, interconnection, sustainability, scale and change). View more detail about the seven concepts. View the Australian Curriculum for Geography. One of the big issues for discussion amongst teachers has been the balance between physical and human geography in the new curriculum. Many have stated that there is an over-emphasis on human geography. While the understanding of physical geography is implied, it does not appear to be explicitly taught in the secondary years (at least not much). The new curriculum does not have a division of human and physical geography topics. Rather the human and physical geography are intertwined throughout the topics. Units of work can be done in any order within a Year and content can be chunked or rearranged to enable teachers to ensure the best understanding of the topic. The elaborations in the curriculum are not mandatory, but rather just ideas about how to cover content. It may be the case that you cover more physical geography for the students to gain a more thorough understanding of the knowledge and understanding components. The scale of case studies in the new curriculum ranges from personal to regional, national and global. Despite the Cross-curriculum priorities of Asia and Australia's Engagement with Asia it was emphasised that teachers need to balance the focus on Asia with coverage of the rest of the world. The development of students' knowledge of the world develops from K-10. The earlier years focus more on the local case studies, while in late primary school students begin to look at regional and global case studies as well, particularly in the southern hemisphere. Students continue to develop their global knowledge in year 7-10. Despite references in the curriculum to specific countries, teachers do not have to focus on these examples but can use their own. View the development of geography from Foundation to 10. View the Scope and Sequence. The new curriculum tries to incorporate emerging trends and provides flexibility for fieldwork opportunities within each topic. It has a futures focus, and encourages students to consider their involvement in the world. How can I contribute? What are my responsibilities? What is my place in the world? How can I make the world a better place? There are many opportunities for enquiry-based learning and Problem Based Learning. ACARA does not specify the hours of teaching for each subject, but rather this decision is made by the states and territories. Work sample portfolios Portfolios of student work have been made available on the Australian Curriculum website. They can be found at the beneath the Achievement Standards on the Australian Curriculum website. The samples can be used a toll for moderation to help teachers decide to what extent student have met the achievement standards. For those teachers undergoing the accreditation process they also serve as a model of how to annotate work. Some time in the near future I will write about how all this will impact on NSW, but in short, there's certainly no rush for me to get something out there about it. It's a long way off for us. More to come later...
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   The Department of Education and Communities has put together a number of online training courses to guide staff through the implementation of the New NSW Syllabus' incorporating the Australian Curriculum. There are a number of generic online modules that would be useful for all staff, regardless of faculty. There are also a number of online modules available specifically for staff from English, Maths, Science and History. These can be accessed through the staff portal. From the staff portal (staff.det.nsw.edu.au), click on Curriculum resources, click on AC - NSW syllabuses for the Australian Curriculum, and then click on Professional Learning. The generic course are: The learner and the new curriculum Teaching and the new curriculum For help accessing the courses, view the access guide. The General Capabilities have been developed by ACARA and then incorporated into the new NSW syllabus documents. These are: - Critical and creative thinking - Ethical understanding - Information and communication technology capability - Intercultural understanding - Literacy - Numeracy - Personal and social capability In developing your programs you should consider lesson ideas and activity that develop a range of these capabilities. Want more information? Project Based Learning and the Australian Curriculum "General Capabilities" Australian Curriculum and the General Capabilities - the role of the Teacher Librarian Cross curriculum priorities have been developed by ACARA and incorporated into the new NSW syllabus documents. These are: - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures - Asia and Australia's engagement with Asia - Sustainability Other learning across the curriculum Other areas have been identified by the Board of Studies for attention in NSW. These are: - Civic and Citizenship - Difference and diversity - Work and enterprise Want more information? Book lists for the Australian Curriculum Cross Curriculum Priorities. Some important aspects of the new syllabuses include the provision of resources and more detailed guidance for teaching students with a variety of needs.
Planning for diversity Student diversity and the Australian Curriculum Meeting the needs of all students Adjustments and the Australian Curriculum Students with disabilities Making adjustments Examples of adjustments for students with disabilities are currently being developed and should be available soon for examination. EAL/D Making adjustments Teacher resources Gifted and Talented Making adjustments Program Builder is a new interactive tool to assist staff in writing new programs. It enables you to drag in different elements of the syllabus to create programs quickly and easily. Program Builder can be found on the Board of Studies website. Professional Learning Examine the Your school and the History 7-10 syllabus online course. You will need to be logged into the DET portal to gain access, alternatively from the staff portal (staff.det.nsw.edu.au), click on Curriculum resources, click on AC - NSW syllabuses for the Australian Curriculum, and then click on Professional Learning.For help accessing the courses, view the access guide. Teachmeet AC History 2013 is going to be held on May 1 at the State Library from 4pm. This is a free event. Where are we up to? The Board of Studies has finalised the NSW syllabus K-10 for History. In 2014, the new syllabus is to be implemented for years 7 and 9. In 2015, the new syllabus is to be implemented for years 8 and 10. Syllabus and programming Board of Studies syllabus 7-10 Sample scope and sequences Differentiated programming History 7-10 Guide Resources Sample units of work DEC resources You will need to be logged into the DET portal to gain access, alternatively from the staff portal (staff.det.nsw.edu.au), click on Curriculum resources, click on AC - NSW syllabuses for the Australian Curriculum, and then click on Resources. Alternatively you can search for the resources on Tale. Syllabus Bites: Explore a source Syllabus Bites: Ancient India Resources from ABC Splash Resources from Asia Education Foundation Resources from the Department of Veteran Affairs |
