Curriculum Development in the Cairns Diocese

Curriculum Development – A Way Forward

Curriculum Development in the Cairns Diocese

A Way Forward

Version Control

August 15, 2008 - Original document written by John Mula (AED – Learning and Teaching) in collaboration with members of the Curriculum Team.

Revision History

Table of Contents

Preamble

The Catholic School Identity – Learning with Faith and Vision

Educational Philosophy

Changing Nature of Learning

Key relationships that contribute to quality learning and teaching

Curriculum in Australia – National and State Reforms since 1989

Phases of Learning

Years P – 2

Years 3–6

Years 7/8 –10

Years 11 and 12

Curriculum Planning and Delivery

1. Diocesan Learning Framework

2. School Based Curriculum Planning

3. Planning, Assessing and Reporting

4. School Based Curriculum Plan Development

5. Assessing Student Achievement

6. Reporting student achievement

7. External National, State and International Testing

8. Timeline for Curriculum Development in schools

Appendix One: Curriculum Reform in Australia

Appendix Two: Process for Validation

Curriculum Review Criteria

Appendix Three: Sample LA Plan

Appendix Four: Cross Curriculum Priorities

Appendix Five: General Capabilities

Appendix Six: Sample Unit Plan

Appendix Seven: Assessment Tools

Appendix Eight: Assessment Task and Criteria Sheet

Preamble

The purpose of this document is to inform curriculum planning, implementation and accreditation in the Cairns Diocese in light of development of an Australian Curriculum.

It serves as a source document for school and whole community discussion on the nature and development of curriculum in Catholic schools and provides a framework for a consistent approach to curriculum delivery in the Cairns Diocese.

Specific aspects of this document could be used to inform parents and communities in matters relating to the delivery of curriculum in Catholic schools in the Cairns Diocese.

The Catholic School Identity – Learning with Faith and Vision

Catholic schools have been part of Australian education for over 180 years. Over that period of time there have been many historical changes in education but what has remained constant has been Catholic education's focus on the development of the individual, academically, spiritually, emotionally and as a member of their community and their changing world. Many aspects of Catholic school life combine to create this nurturing environment. One of these aspects is the formal curriculum of the Catholic school.

Our Catholic school communities engage in the mission of the Church through daily active living of the Gospel. It follows that learning and teaching in a Catholic school involves bringing together faith, culture and life to make meaning of the world and form the basis for personal transformation.

The Catholic school responds to its mission by offering a particular cultural experience that is grounded in ‘…a Christian view of the world, of culture and of history’.

(Catholic Schools on the Threshold of the Third Millennium 1997)

This means that a Christ-centred orientation is evident in all aspects of school life including relationships, structures, celebrations and routines, as well as the formal curriculum. It is reasonable to expect that a school embedded in this Catholic view will display certain fundamental and distinguishing characteristics. These should include a commitment to:

• being grounded in the local Christian community that is centred on the person of Jesus and guided by gospel values;
• fostering the total development of all its students;
• participating in the evangelising mission of the Church;
• assisting students to integrate their faith, their culture & their experiences of life;
• displaying a fundamental option for the poor and the marginalised;
• offering service to individuals, society and the wider culture;
• transforming society, hastening the kingdom which Jesus announced.

Thus, Catholic school students are informed and formed in the light of the Catholic Christian tradition. We see ourselves as a community of lifelong learners aiming to make sense of our world and challenged to become active, engaged and ethical citizens. Therefore our Catholic schools offer a ‘values added’ curriculum in which the cultural and religious dimensions of learning are interwoven to form the fabric of the school.

Educational Philosophy

In the context of rapid change, schools are working to provide their students with education, which will empower them to take their place in the world as spiritual, moral, well integrated persons, contributing positively to the life of the church and the wider society.

“….school should be able to offer young people and the means to acquire the knowledge they need to find a place in a society, which is strongly characterised by technical and scientific skill. But, at the same time, it should be a place, above all, to impart a solid Christian formation. And for the Catholic school to be a means of education in the modern world, we are convinced that certain fundamental characteristics need to be strengthened.”

(Catholic Schools on the Threshold of the Third Millennium 1997)

For Catholic schools in the Cairns Diocese there are three key dimensions that contribute to the overall philosophy of our Schools and Colleges. All dimensions operate independently and interdependently to form our Catholic School Identity. They are:

Changing Nature of Learning

Learning has always been one of the most natural of all human activities, unlocking the capacity for change, growth and renewal. It is fundamental to achievement and self-esteem in later life and, in partnership with parents, is the core responsibility of our school staff and schools leadership.

However we recognize that the nature of learning in the 21st century has changed. Students of the current generation inhabit a highly technological and information rich world that has experienced an information explosion, significant and rapid changes to society, as well as change to national and international economic structures. Young people increasingly live, socialise, create and workin the digital environment.

21st century education integrates technologies, engaging students in ways not previously possible, creating new learning and teaching possibilities, enhancing achievement and extending interactions with local and global communities.

(Contemporary Learning, Learning in an Online World MCEETYA 2005)

This environment creates both opportunities and challenges for learning and living in the 21st Century. Participation in 21st Century demands competence at higher levels in multi-literacies (e.g. critical, visual and information literacy).

Key relationships that contribute to quality learning and teaching

Catholic education recognizes that the parent is the primary educator of their child, however there is a wise old saying that it takes a village to nurture a child. Catholic education recognizes that this nurturing is a partnership between the learner, the parent, the teacher and the parish in general community.

Learners and teachers bring with them rich life experiences and diverse religious, social and cultural backgrounds. Catholic schools offer a rich and relevant curriculum recognising that “every learner is, in some respect, like all others, like some others and like no other”[1]. Students are at the centre of the learning process and effective teaching assists the learner to make meaning of their world. This is achieved by providing creative and engaging opportunities for all within a safe, supporting and nurturing educational environment.

Quality learning and teaching in Catholic schools is informed by:

• The educational vision, mission, policies and strategic priorities[2] of the Diocese of Cairns
• The Diocesan Learning Framework
• Contemporary educational research and practices
• The needs and the aspirations of students, their families and the local community
• The knowledge and skills of teachers and support staff
• The requirements of Government educational policies and directions.

Curriculum in Australia – National and State Reforms since 1989

(Refer to Appendix 1)

In Hobart in 1989 State, Territory and Commonwealth ministers of education endorsed a set of agreed national goals for Australian schooling. What was to become known as the Hobart Declaration agreed that curriculum across Australia would be limited to eight ‘key learning areas’ or KLA’s. Within Catholic schools in Queensland, Religious Education is included as the tenth KLA.

This initial step lead to some level of commonality across the States regarding the actual subjects learnt in schools. For over a decade Catholic schools took up the challenge of the Hobart Declaration by implementing the key learning areas through an outcomes approach to learning. This approach to the delivery of curriculum recognized that students learn at different rates and have different styles of learning. Consequently teachers’ curriculum planning began to focus on the learner rather than the delivery of content and technical skills.

In 1999 the Adelaide Declaration on National Goals for Schooling in the Twenty-First Century was jointly signed by States, Territories and the Commonwealth. It was a significant agreement that committed all Australian governments to a national framework for schooling and established cooperation between governments as the means to achieve the best possible results for all Australian students. Jurisdictions endorsed a new set of goals that identified additional priority areas (for example, vocational education, information technology, literacy and numeracy, civics and citizenship); gave clear recognition to the particular learning needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students; and sharpened the focus on students and their learning outcomes.

As a result of the Adelaide Declaration, education in Queensland began a transition from an outcomes approach to a common framework for curriculum, assessment and reporting referred to as Queensland Curriculum Assessment and Reporting (QCAR). The focus of the QCAR Framework was to provide:

• clarity of KLA syllabus documents
• consistency of what is taught across Queensland by specifying essential elements (knowledge and capabilities) referred to as essential learnings
• a capacity for teachers to assess and make informed judgments about student work against commonly applied standards
• a capacity for teachers to use information about student learning to inform future teaching programs
• feedback to students about their learning
• a level of comparability of student reports to parents and carers.

Eight years on, the States and Territories reasserted the importance of national collaboration to promote high-quality schooling for all Australian students, whatever jurisdiction, school system or individual school is involved. As a result, in 2008, the Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australianswas signed by all States and Territories. It recognises the need for fundamental changes in schooling – driven by technology and drawing on better information about how learners learn. “Literacy and numeracy and knowledge of key disciplines remain the cornerstone of schooling for young Australians. Schooling should also support the development of skills in areas such as social interaction, cross-disciplinary thinking and the use of digital media, which is essential in all 21st century occupations.

“As well as knowledge and skills, a school’s legacy to young people should include national values of democracy, equity and justice, and personal values and attributes such as honesty, resilience and respect for others.”

(Melbourne Declaration for Young Australians)

This declaration identified the following goals for schooling:

Goal 1:

Australian schooling promotes equity and excellence

Goal 2:

All young Australians become:

• successful learners
• confident and creative individuals
• active and informed citizens

With the release of the Melbourne Declaration the Federal government formed a National Curriculum Board – Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) which was given responsibility for the development and implementation of a national curriculum (K-12), a national assessment program, national data collection and reporting.

The Australian Curriculum Board[3]has stateda number of keyprinciples:

1. The curriculum should make clear to teachers what has to be taught, and to students what they should learn and what achievement standards are expected of them in each stage of schooling.
2. The development of a national curriculum is intended to establish essential content and achievement standards for all students to invigorate a national effort to improve student learning in the selected subjects
3. There is an expectation that theAustralian curriculum will set down ‘core’ content in a way that leaves opportunity for systems, schools and teachers to exercise discretion over some of the content; to reflect local and regional circumstances and to take advantage of teachers’ special knowledge and teachers’ and students’ interests.
4. Descriptions of content will make clear what should be covered and the knowledge, understandings and skills that students are to acquire or develop. Achievement standards will indicate the level of knowledge, understanding and skills that students are expected to achieve, usually at some particular point in time. Clear definitions of achievement standards should provide the means to set appropriately challenging expectations for all students
5. Ensure that student achievement will be reported on a five point scale and in a similar way nationally.

Phases of Learning

It is generally accepted that the mix of curriculum offered at a school depends partly on educational philosophy, partly on the community and year levels the school serves, and partly on the human and financial resources available to the individual school. In line with the Australian Curriculum, schooling in the Diocese will take account of the following characteristics of the learnerand learning within four overlapping age bands.

Years P – 2

The curriculum for students between 5 and 8 years of age will give priorityto the foundational skills, knowledge and understanding that all children are expected to achieve toenhance their opportunities for continued learning, with priority to English and Literacy andMathematics and Numeracy.

The curriculum will build on the national Early Years Learning Framework and will be designedto accommodate the varied learning experiences that children experience prior to school. Thecurriculum will value and accommodate the diverse social and cultural backgrounds andexperiences that children bring to school.

A natural curiosity about their world and a desire to make sense of it provides children with a platform to construct and review their learning through interactions with others, throughexperimentation, practice and play in the classroom and beyond. This will assist them to makesense of a world that is outside their immediate experience, as they connect new knowledgewith what they already know or believe. This should also provide an opportunity to,at times,challenge what they know or believe.

Years 3–6

The curriculum for students between 8 and 12 years of age will beincreasingly organised through distinct learning areas, while also seeking to highlight andpromote links between learning areas and to deepen knowledge and understanding. Whilemaintaining a priority on English and Literacy and Mathematics and Numeracy, the curriculumwill provide children with core learning across all agreed learning areas.

In this age group, children begin to understand and appreciate different points of view, maintaining engagement with tasks for longer periods of time. Thought processes becomemore logical and consistent, and they gradually become more independent learners. In the lateryears of this range students are becoming more self-conscious of their abilities and appearance,are more aware of the consequences of their behaviour and are developing an awareness of justiceand fair play.

Years 7/8 –10

The curriculum for students between 12 and 15 years of age willprovide a broad general education organised around core learning areas while offeringopportunities for students to select additional areas of study matched to their interests andneeds.

The curriculum will continue to provide teachers with opportunities to deeply engage students byensuring that the curriculum content is presented in ways that challenge student knowledge andunderstanding through contexts that are meaningful and relevant to them.