Developing 21

st

century competencies through disciplines of knowledge

Barry McGaw Vice Chancellor’s Fellow, University of Melbourne Chair, Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority Education and 21 st Century Competencies National Symposium Muscat, Sultanate of Oman 22-24 September 2013

Outline of presentation

 Simultaneous treatment of disciplines and 21 st century skills  Presenting the curriculum electronically  Linking resources to the curriculum for teachers

Simultaneous treatment of disciplines and 21

st

century skills

21

st

century skills for the 21

st

century

 Cisco/Intel/Microsoft Assessment and Teaching of 21 st century skills project  White paper defining 21 st • Ways of thinking century skills – Creativity and innovation – Critical thinking, problem solving and decision making – Learning to learn and metacognition • Ways of working – Communication – Collaboration and teamwork • Tools for working – Information literacy – ICT literacy • Living in the world – Citizenship – global and local – Life and career – Personal and social responsibility

Australian Curriculum view of 21

st

century skills

 Are they uniquely 21 st century?

  Most have been important for centuries The technology-rich environment is new  Nomenclature

General capabilities

not

21 st century skills

 Literacy      Numeracy Information and communication technology capability Critical and creative thinking Personal and social capability Ethical understanding  Intercultural understanding  Key questions   Do we have developmental continua for these capabilities?

What content would be required for their development?

ATC21S Ways of thinking Creativity and innovation Critical thinking, problem solving & decision making Learning to learn and metacognition Ways of working Communication Collaboration and teamwork Tools for working Information literacy ICT literacy Australian Curriculum Critical and creative thinking Personal capability Literacy Social capability ICT capability Numeracy Living in the world Citizenship – global and local Life and career Personal and social responsibility Intercultural understanding Ethical understanding Personal and social capability

Australian Curriculum view of knowledge disciplines

 Central place for content  Preserving the disciplines • • Disciplines are the result of several millennia of human effort Research on expertise shows importance of deep, domain-specific knowledge  Attending to some current, cross-curriculum priorities • • • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia Sustainability  Form of curriculum content   Content descriptions setting out learning entitlements Content elaborations for teachers who would like more details  Achievement standards with annotated samples of student work  Can the same content serve the general capabilities?

Structure of the Australian Curriculum

Many cells will be empty.

Can general capabilities be covered in the cells?

Sustainability 3 Cross-curriculum Priorities Asia and Australia’s Links with Asia Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures 7 General Capabilities 11 Disciplines/Learning areas

Presenting the curriculum electronically

F-10 • English, mathematics, science, history, geography available.

• Rest due by end of 2013.

This button opens curriculum by learning area, general capability, cross-curriculum priority and year (grade) level.

Filter by year (grade) levels, strands, general capabilities, cross-curriculum priorities.

Icons indicate general capabilities and cross-curriculum priorities for which the content descriptions are relevant.

Icons for general capabilities and cross-curriculum priorities

Use this view to display content and content elaborations.

Foundation year selected.

General capability & cross curriculum priority icons.

Display filtered on: Grade/year 4 Strand Science understanding General capability Critical & creative thinking

Organising elements

The Critical and creating thinking learning continuum is organised into four interrelated elements, each detailing differing aspects of thinking. The elements are not a taxonomy of thinking. Rather, each makes its own contribution to learning and needs to be explicitly and simultaneously developed.

 Inquiring – identifying, exploring and organising information and ideas  Generating ideas, possibilities and actions  Reflecting on thinking and processes  Analysing, synthesising and evaluating reasoning and procedures.

Six levels cover the years F to 10.

Level 1 – Foundation Level 2 – Years 1-2 Level 3 – Years 3-4 Level 4 – Years 5-6 Level 5 – Years 7-9 Level 6 – Years 9-10 In this display, 3 levels can be seen at a time, either 1-3 or 4-6.

Asking why events make people happy or sad.

Asking who, when, how and why about a range of situations and events.

Linking resources to the curriculum for teachers

Website of resources linked by meta-tags to the Australian Curriculum

Filtered on: Grade/Year 4 Critical & creative thinking Now select: View elaborations and matching resources

Resources for students and teachers help with personalisation of learning for students.

The resources can be filtered by type.

182 resources listed below.

Review and conclusion

 Australian Curriculum  Includes 21 st century skills as

general capabilities

 Is also, very importantly, organised by

disciplines/learning areas

.

 Provides developmental continua for both  Electronic presentation  Allows users to filter the curriculum in various ways.

 Allows ready connection with a database of electronic resources  Powerful confluence of developments that is supporting a major curriculum change in Australia.

Thank you.