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The National Curriculum – Victorian teachers have your say!

The consultation on the draft national curriculum in the four areas of P to 10 Maths, Science, English and History has been underway since its release in March. The VCAA has held a number of forums and teachers and schools have been encouraged to respond by the consultation deadline of 23 May.

This timeline is very short and the complexity of the task is significant.  While there is general support for a national curriculum, the forums and process of consultation have raised many issues which need to be clarified. There are two major general concerns, those being the curriculum being rolled out in a piecemeal way, and the amount of time necessary to do a proper job in the consultation, development and implementation phases.

VIEU Representation
As a key stakeholder, VIEU is a member of the VCAA State Reference Group for the National Curriculum.  Two VIEU members, Lucy D’Angelo from Penola College and Anne Maree Jones from St Joseph’s Primary School Boronia represented VIEU at the VCAA stakeholder forum and outline below the focus of the forum and the issues arising.

What are some of the issues for secondary schools?  
Possibly the greatest question for secondary schools as expressed by many participants, is the need to have a view of the whole curriculum before settling on the first four areas. Even though it could not have been fully developed at this stage, some felt that the overall structure and the alignment of pedagogy, assessment and reporting should have been clear by now.

The workshops gave the opportunity for many issues and concerns to be raised in respect to key areas of the new curriculum.

General Capabilities

  • What will be the balance between the General Capabilities and the content?
  • There are similarities and differences between VELS Domains and Dimensions &  the General Capabilities
  • What has been the level of collaboration between the writers of Learning Areas and writers of General Capabilities?
  • The scope and sequence of the GC has not been developed as yet, however, the first 5 General Capabilities are included in all 4 disciplines but these have been written in isolation from the scope and sequence for each GC
  • Will the GCs be assessed and reported on like in Victoria?
  • What is meant by continuum at Years 2, 6, 10 for General Capabilities?  Will there be National Testing for example of ICT & Civics & Citizenship skills and knowledge?
  • Literacy is a strand in the English curriculum but also a GC - is this confusing?


The Cross-Curriculum Dimensions include Indigenous history and culture, Sustainability, and Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia.

This area requires much more work at this stage. To what extent are we expected to include these dimensions in each learning area?

Catering for Students with Special Needs & English as a Second Language students is yet to be clarified. While the current focus is on the disciplines, their intention is to use the best in all systems and work with the University of Melbourne to better cater to the needs of students with special needs.

Content Description & Elaboration
Some learning areas raised more concerns than others. This raised questions about agreement about what all students should learn and whether there is still too much content?

Achievement Standards

  • Some confusion expressed here as they have been written year by year in these first 4 disciplines, but they may not be presented in this way in the Phase 2 disciplines.
  • Inconsistency in the structure across the various studies was not considered ideal.
  • The A-E grading system and linking achievement to a C standard is proposed. The concern is whether this system is currently working well, and as intended, in all secondary schools in Victoria? Has it been evaluated and is it appropriate for secondary school education?


Delivery of Curriculum

  • Enables a flexible approach, not locked in and prescribed, but many are concerned about the work load
  • Will there be less flexibility for differentiation because standards are year by year rather than over two years? Some feel that the scope for differentiation is narrowed with a one year approach
  • Is there sufficient focus on 21st Century Learning and pedagogy?


Individual Pathways/Elective Programs/VET & VCE at Years 9 & 10
What happens to our VET and VCE accelerated programs and to our student elective programs at Years 9 & 10? Some schools also have electives at Years 7 & 8.

  • Implications for determining individual pathways and catering to the needs of disengaged students?
  • The place of Year 9 & 10 alternative programs in many schools?
  • Implications for resources and staffing?


Professional Development
Will it be organised to cross all sectors?  Will there be an alignment of professional development days across the state or regions?

Senior Secondary Years Curriculum
While a transition process is understandable, a long term dual system is not desirable. Would students choose according to the studies that are nationally accredited over those that are state accredited? Do we envisage this to be a long term plan? Is this what we are working towards or will all studies eventually be nationally accredited? If not, what are the implications for staffing, redundancies and tertiary teaching courses?

Issues from the Primary Teaching perspective

Generally the atmosphere at the Consultation for the primary curriculum teachers was positive when analysing the content of the draft Australian Curriculum. Most conceded that they could see close links to the existing Victorian Essential Learning Standards and the proposed Australian Curriculum.
 
The conversation was animated and stimulating as a common understanding and questions evolved. Whilst this was encouraging there were questions that teachers posed before committing to the draft curriculum.

Key Questions raised were:

  • adequate time frame for implementation
  • opportunity for Teacher Professional Learning to assist in the implementation
  • use of common language/links to current curriculum
  • the need for assessment and reporting criteria linked to new documents
  • greater clarity about how Inquiry/Integrated topics fit into the curriculum
  • time allocation for specific areas
  • what are the implications of ‘grade topic’ focus as opposed to ‘level topic’ focus, currently in VELS with schools class/year level groupings/structures
  • the place for Personalised Learning
  • place for existing successful programs within the Australian National Curriculum
  • how will it enable catering for students with special needs
  • place for Interdisciplinary approaches - are they properly represented under general capabilities
  • the ‘workload’ once all areas have been introduced


Most primary teachers believed that the core documents appear manageable but the lack of the big picture and how the full P to 6 curriculum will work as a cohesive framework raised many concerns.

It was an important opportunity to contribute to the discussion .The ACARA website provides the opportunity for your input in the development of the Australian Curriculum.  So log on to: http://www.acara.edu.au and  Have your say !