The Australian Curriculum in Victoria.
We cannot wander at pleasure among the educational systems of the world, like a child strolling through the garden, and pick off a flower from one bush and some leaves from another, and then expect that if we stick what we have gathered into the soil at home, we shall have a living plant. A national system of Education is a living thing, the outcome of forgotten struggles and difficulties, and "of battles long ago". It has in it some of the secret workings of national life (Sadler, 1900, cited in Ochs and Philips, 2004, p. 7).
The process of developing the new curriculum has provided an important opportunity for each State and Territory to reflect on their respective current practices. This was certainly the case in Victoria when in 2009 the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA), the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (DEECD), the Catholic Education Commission Victoria (CECV) and Independent Schools Victoria conducted a statewide series of consultations on the initial set of draft national curriculum documents.
Three key themes emerged from that process:
(i) a strong commitment to two propositions that are in practice difficult but necessary to reconcile: the concept of a common entitlement of learning for
every student and the provision of personalised learning pathways;
(ii) the importance of assessment for and of learning against a continuum rather than prescribed expected levels of learning in order to provide diagnostic pathways for both students and teachers to inform further learning;
(iii) the central importance of the curriculum domains categorised in the Victorian Essential Learning Standards (VELS) as Physical, Personal and Social Learning and Interdisciplinary Learning.
These responses have been important in shaping the emergent approach to implementation of the Australian Curriculum in Victoria. To read the document prepared by the VCAA please refer to the document below.
The process of developing the new curriculum has provided an important opportunity for each State and Territory to reflect on their respective current practices. This was certainly the case in Victoria when in 2009 the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA), the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (DEECD), the Catholic Education Commission Victoria (CECV) and Independent Schools Victoria conducted a statewide series of consultations on the initial set of draft national curriculum documents.
Three key themes emerged from that process:
(i) a strong commitment to two propositions that are in practice difficult but necessary to reconcile: the concept of a common entitlement of learning for
every student and the provision of personalised learning pathways;
(ii) the importance of assessment for and of learning against a continuum rather than prescribed expected levels of learning in order to provide diagnostic pathways for both students and teachers to inform further learning;
(iii) the central importance of the curriculum domains categorised in the Victorian Essential Learning Standards (VELS) as Physical, Personal and Social Learning and Interdisciplinary Learning.
These responses have been important in shaping the emergent approach to implementation of the Australian Curriculum in Victoria. To read the document prepared by the VCAA please refer to the document below.
transition_to_the_australian_curriculum_in_victoria.pdf | |
File Size: | 125 kb |
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AusVELS for Victoria
AusVELS is the official curriculum for all Victorian schools. Schools are mandated to use the AusVELS website for curriculum content.
AusVELS Structure AusVELS provides a single curriculum for years F-10 that incorporates the Australian Curriculum as it is progressively developed within a framework that reflects particular Victorian priorities and approaches to teaching and learning (F is the abbreviation for ‘Foundation’ which is now the common term agreed to by all States and Territories to refer to the first year of school for curriculum design purposes). AusVELS has been designed to ensure that schools and teachers are not required to manage two different curriculum and reporting frameworks during the development of the Australian Curriculum.
For 2011 and 2012, the AusVELS website is available to assist schools to plan for implementation in 2013. For further information, see Overview, Support and Resources.
AusVELS Structure AusVELS provides a single curriculum for years F-10 that incorporates the Australian Curriculum as it is progressively developed within a framework that reflects particular Victorian priorities and approaches to teaching and learning (F is the abbreviation for ‘Foundation’ which is now the common term agreed to by all States and Territories to refer to the first year of school for curriculum design purposes). AusVELS has been designed to ensure that schools and teachers are not required to manage two different curriculum and reporting frameworks during the development of the Australian Curriculum.
For 2011 and 2012, the AusVELS website is available to assist schools to plan for implementation in 2013. For further information, see Overview, Support and Resources.
Strands, Domains and Dimensions
For an overview of the AusVELS structure for Strands, Domains and Dimensions click on the link below.
http://ausvels.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Overview/Strands-Domains-and-Dimensions
http://ausvels.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Overview/Strands-Domains-and-Dimensions
Overview of Curriculum
The development of the Australian Curriculum is guided by the Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians, adopted by the council of state and territory education ministers in December 2008. The Melbourne Declaration emphasises the importance of knowledge, understanding and skills of learning areas, general capabilities and cross-curriculum priorities as the basis for a curriculum designed to support 21st century learning.
The Australian Curriculum describes a learning entitlement for each Australian student that provides a foundation for successful, lifelong learning and participation in the Australian community. It acknowledges that the needs and interests of students will vary, and that schools and teachers will plan from the curriculum in ways that respond to those needs and interests.
The Australian Curriculum acknowledges the changing ways in which young people will learn and the challenges that will continue to shape their learning in the future.The Australian Curriculum will eventually be developed for all learning areas and subjects set out in the Melbourne Declaration: initially for English, mathematics, science and history; followed by geography, languages, the arts, economics, business, civics and citizenship, health and physical education, and information and communication technology and design and technology.
The Australian Curriculum sets out what all young people should be taught through the specification of curriculum content and the learning expected at points in their schooling through the specification of achievement standards.·
Each learning area or subject includes:_
-a statement of rationale and a set of aims
-an overview of how the learning area is organised
-year level descriptions
-content descriptions (knowledge, understanding and skills) specifying what teachers are expected to teach
-content elaborations to provide additional clarity by way of illustrative examples only
-achievement standards that describe the quality of learning (the depth of understanding, extent of knowledge and sophistication of skill) expected of students at points in their schooling annotated student work samples that illustrate the achievement standard at each year level.
-work samples will be enhanced in both volume and range of forms.
-a glossary to support consistent understanding of terms used
Increasingly, in a world where knowledge itself is constantly growing and evolving, students need to develop a set of skills, behaviours and dispositions, or general capabilities that apply across discipline content and equip them to be lifelong learners able to operate with confidence in a complex, information-rich, globalised world.
The Australian Curriculum includes a focus on seven general capabilities (literacy, numeracy, information and communication technology competence, critical and creative thinking, ethical behaviour, personal and social competence and intercultural understanding) and three cross-curriculum priorities (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures, Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia and Sustainability). Continua of learning have been developed for each, to describe the relevant knowledge, understanding and skills at particular points of schooling. These have been embedded where relevant and appropriate in each learning area and can be viewed explicitly in the curriculum online.
The Australian Curriculum is published online. This provides maximum flexibility in how the curriculum can be accessed and organised. For example, the curriculum may be viewed by learning area, by multiple year levels, or by year level across learning areas, and may be downloaded and printed in those views.
The Australian Curriculum describes a learning entitlement for each Australian student that provides a foundation for successful, lifelong learning and participation in the Australian community. It acknowledges that the needs and interests of students will vary, and that schools and teachers will plan from the curriculum in ways that respond to those needs and interests.
The Australian Curriculum acknowledges the changing ways in which young people will learn and the challenges that will continue to shape their learning in the future.The Australian Curriculum will eventually be developed for all learning areas and subjects set out in the Melbourne Declaration: initially for English, mathematics, science and history; followed by geography, languages, the arts, economics, business, civics and citizenship, health and physical education, and information and communication technology and design and technology.
The Australian Curriculum sets out what all young people should be taught through the specification of curriculum content and the learning expected at points in their schooling through the specification of achievement standards.·
Each learning area or subject includes:_
-a statement of rationale and a set of aims
-an overview of how the learning area is organised
-year level descriptions
-content descriptions (knowledge, understanding and skills) specifying what teachers are expected to teach
-content elaborations to provide additional clarity by way of illustrative examples only
-achievement standards that describe the quality of learning (the depth of understanding, extent of knowledge and sophistication of skill) expected of students at points in their schooling annotated student work samples that illustrate the achievement standard at each year level.
-work samples will be enhanced in both volume and range of forms.
-a glossary to support consistent understanding of terms used
Increasingly, in a world where knowledge itself is constantly growing and evolving, students need to develop a set of skills, behaviours and dispositions, or general capabilities that apply across discipline content and equip them to be lifelong learners able to operate with confidence in a complex, information-rich, globalised world.
The Australian Curriculum includes a focus on seven general capabilities (literacy, numeracy, information and communication technology competence, critical and creative thinking, ethical behaviour, personal and social competence and intercultural understanding) and three cross-curriculum priorities (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures, Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia and Sustainability). Continua of learning have been developed for each, to describe the relevant knowledge, understanding and skills at particular points of schooling. These have been embedded where relevant and appropriate in each learning area and can be viewed explicitly in the curriculum online.
The Australian Curriculum is published online. This provides maximum flexibility in how the curriculum can be accessed and organised. For example, the curriculum may be viewed by learning area, by multiple year levels, or by year level across learning areas, and may be downloaded and printed in those views.
References
Australian Curriculum/Overview
http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/Curriculum/Overview
AusVELS
http://ausvels.vcaa.vic.edu.au/
Ochs, K., & Phillips, D. (2004). ‘Processes of Educational Borrowing in
Historical Context’ in D. Phillips & K. Ochs (Eds.),
Educational Policy Borrowing: historical perspectives. Oxford: Symposium Books.