What is curriculum?

Curriculum = Framework for learning

Eisner
 Explicit Curriculum
 Implicit Curriculum
o Work ethics
o “Lets get this done”
o “Good work”
o “You’ve worked hard”
 Null Curriculum
o Religion?
o Politics?

Development of the Australian Curriculum

Curriculum = State responsibility
 Hobart Declaration (1989)
 Attempt at National Curriculum (early 1990s)
 Adelaide Declaration (1999)
 Melbourne Declaration (2008)
 Western Australia: SCSA/WACE (2013+)
Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians
 Goals
o to develop successful learners, confident and creative individuals
o active and informed citizens.
 General Capabilities
o Literacy
o Numeracy
o ICT Capability
o Critical and Creative Thinking
o Personal and Social Capability
o Ethical Understanding
o Intercultural Understanding
 Cross-curriculum Priorities
o Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories
o Asia and Australia’s Engagement with Asia
o Sustainability
Websites
  www.acara.edu.au Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority
 www.australiancurriculum.edu.au
 www.scsa.wa.edu.au/ School Curriculum and Standards Authority

Influencing Contexts
 Big Contexts
o Technology & Social media
 People getting rich through Youtube/Instagram
o Mental health
o Changing global contexts
o Education policies in UK and USA
o PISA results  government pushes for more focus on certain areas
o Type of workforce needed
 Skills
 Attributes
 Dispositions
 Students’ contexts
o Diverse not homogenous
 Drugs
 Abused
 No books
 No discipline
 TV on 24/7
 Hungry
 Teen mum
 Homeless
 Dadless
o Media/image saturated
o Pressures (identity/ies, future, peers)
o Changing characteristics of family life/households
 Nuclear family changing

From Australian Curriculum to My Curriculum

Australian Curriculum
Filters:
 VIEW OF CURRICULUM
 LOCAL CONTEXTS
 WHOSE KNOWLEDGE?
 ROLE OF STUDENTS
  PEDAGOGY
 RESOURCES
 EXPERTISE
 STUDENT NEEDS
 ASSESSMENT POLICIES,
 WHAT’S ALREADY THERE?

My Curriculum

3 Approaches to Curriculum Design

 Rational or ends-means approach
o Step-by-step, staged process
o Learner acquires simple -> complex skills
o Identify ends, then means
STEP-BY-STEP COMMERCIAL PHONIC PROGRAM: RECOGNISE SINGLE SOUNDS DOUBLE SOUNDS WHOLE
WORDS SIMPLE TEXTS CONTAINING LEARNT VOCABULARY MORE DIFFICULT WORDS LESS EASILY SOUNDED
OUT PHONETICALLY BOOKS WITH LESS CONTRIVED VOCABULARY

 Process or procedural approach

o IMMERSE STUDENTS IN PRINT INTRODUCE A RANGE OF WORDS, SOUNDS, LETTERS AS THEY
ENCOUNTER THEM IN SHARED READING EXPERIENCES
o READING USING MEANING AND PICTURE CUES, GRAMMATICAL CUES, SOUNDS
 Critical approach
o Combines rational and procedural approaches
o Holistic approach to curriculum design
LITERACY PROGRAM: STUDENTS EXAMINE LETTER-SOUND RELATIONSHIPS OF ENGLISH, AND THE WAY
LANGUAGE IS STRUCTURED  EXPLORE DIFFERENT MEANING SUGGESTED IN A TEXT AND DISCUSS DIFFERENT
INTERPRETATIONS