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DRAFT
Queensland Studies Authority
Syllabuses for Senior Phase of
Learning: an enabling platform
based on disciplinary learning,
standards, flexibility and
continuity
This is a developmental draft paper that attempts to
capture a model for future syllabus design based on
what has been said at consultation and in research.
The positions described in the paper do not
represent definitive decisions. Likewise, the
terminology used in the paper is not definitive but
rather a first attempt to label various aspects of a
model for future syllabus design.
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Chair’s Message (to be completed)
Contents
Part 1 Justification ........................................................................................................ 3
1.1 Context ............................................................................................................... 3
1.2 The case for change ........................................................................................... 3
1.3 Syllabuses for the senior phase of education ...................................................... 4
1.3.1 An enabling platform for further education, training or work .......................... 5
1.3.2 A broad and general education..................................................................... 6
1.3.3 Disciplined learning ...................................................................................... 7
1.4 What the change delivers ................................................................................. 12
1.4.1 Improved outcomes for students ................................................................ 12
1.4.2 Improved outcomes for schools .................................................................. 13
1.4.3 Clarity for the community ............................................................................ 13
1.4.4 System ....................................................................................................... 13
1.5 Research and consultation................................................................................ 13
1.5.1 What the research told us ........................................................................... 13
1.5.2 What the community said ........................................................................... 14
1.6 Issues of national consistency .......................................................................... 15
Part 2 Establishing an enabling platform of knowledge and skills in the senior phase of
learning ...................................................................................................................... 17
2.1 A disciplinary approach to syllabus design ........................................................ 18
2.2 Learning domains ............................................................................................. 19
2.3 Courses within the learning domain .................................................................. 23
2.3.1 Foundation studies ..................................................................................... 23
2.3.2 Electives ..................................................................................................... 25
2.3.3 Generic capabilities .................................................................................... 27
2.3.4 Preparatory courses – English language and Mathematics ........................ 28
2.3.5 Languages ................................................................................................. 28
2.3.6 Associated Learning ................................................................................... 28
2.4 Study Patterns .................................................................................................. 30
2.4.1 Achieving a Queensland Certificate of Education ....................................... 30
2.4.2 Tertiary Entrance ........................................................................................ 34
The organisation of the learning domain means that a default position is that all
students are potentially eligible for tertiary entrance either through the OP or the
QTAC Ranks. ...................................................................................................... 34
2.5 Assessment and standards ............................................................................... 35
Part 3 Implementation (to be completed) .................................................................... 38
Appendices ................................................................................................................ 39
Executive Summary
Blueprint diagram
Fields diagram
Glossary
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Part 1 Justification
1.1 Context
Education is integral to a knowledge-based economy and an informed citizenry. In
2001, an OECD survey concluded that ‘high levels of education and literacy are the
key principal components demanded in the knowledge economy.’
The Education and Training Reforms for the Future (ETRF) agenda was a defining
moment in Queensland education: it began the process of rebuilding Queensland’s
education from the ground up, across the early, middle and senior phases of
learning. What had been a goal has become an expectation – young people should
complete 12 years of schooling or its equivalent. It is a new education era – more
young people will be staying on at school.
The ETRF made a commitment to young people required to participate in
education or training to age 17 that there would be flexible options to achieve a
Queensland Certificate of Education and/or vocational qualifications.
The redevelopment of the syllabuses continues the reshaping of the senior phase
of learning begun with the changes to legislation and the introduction of the
Queensland Certificate of Education.
Queensland is at a crucial stage in the development of the curriculum across all
levels of schooling. The standards and essentials being defined through the
QCAR Framework now provide a more solid foundation from Prep to Year 10 from
which the senior phase can articulate and develop.
While the scope of the review was confined to the syllabuses developed by the
QSA, the impact of the review’s recommendations will affect the three key
components of the classroom. That is:
- the syllabuses, or what is taught
- pedagogy, or how it is taught
- assessment, or how we know how well young people have learned.
After 18 months of research and consultation it is clear that a cohesive framework
for the development of syllabuses for the senior phase of learning that creates a
strong platform of knowledge and skills is needed to:
- ensure students have access to valued knowledge and skills
- provide greater consistency across subjects
- provide greater consistency in assessment strategies
- provide a broad based education with degrees of specialisation that builds from
Prep to Year10
- provide a degree of flexibility.
1.2 The case for change
The current senior system developed in 1972. At that time it was based on 20
discipline specific subjects and 6 languages (Appendix). Since then, the addition of
new syllabuses in response to perceived needs has resulted in an explosion of
subjects. Some are based on disciplines, some are industry specific and some are
a response to local or community needs. Some are very specialised. There are
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some subjects that could be considered fundamental and some that are not.
There are now over 80 syllabuses including:
- 10 separate science syllabuses
- 10 technology related syllabuses
- 9 business and commerce syllabuses
- 5 mathematics syllabuses
- 3 English syllabuses.
The subjects in Years 11 and 12 have developed in an ad hoc way. The policy
emphasis has been on choice rather than continuity or what is fundamental or
worthwhile for young people to learn.
The world is changing rapidly. This rate of change is likely to continue in coming
decades. It is generally agreed (reference) that the best preparation for the future
is a broad and balanced education that provides young people with an enabling
platform to pursue varied post school destinations.
A consistent and perhaps defining characteristic of smart regions across the globe
is an emphasis on a general education that equips students with core skills in
language and expression, science and mathematics, social sciences, and an
appreciation and understanding of the arts.
Further, a broad education plays a key role in creating citizens who are well
equipped to make sound judgments, to communicate well and to move flexibly
towards their career pathways and life goals.
The overall suite of syllabuses has not been strategically reviewed for at least 30
years. It is time to consider how the suite of syllabuses should be organised to
ensure the best preparation for post school destinations and the right blend of
knowledge and skills that will improve general education attainment levels and
reflect the changing needs and priorities within society.
Education is a shared responsibility of the state, the community, the family and the
individual. The community and education authorities have a fundamental interest,
whether social, economic, political or financial, in the educational outcomes at both
the individual and aggregate level. It is critical that principled, informed and
considered decisions are made about whether the learning in Years 11 and 12
delivers the knowledge and skills important for individual and community wellbeing.
1.3 Syllabuses for the senior phase of education
The curriculum in the senior phase includes a broad range of learning options that
cater to the range of abilities and interests of young people. The syllabuses
developed by the QSA represent one part of the learning options now available in
the senior phase of learning and which young people can include in their learning
accounts and towards their QCE.
This breadth of learning recognises that not all young people are suited or able to
undertake the learning packaged as school subjects.
The consultation and research on the proposed blueprint for the future syllabuses
for the senior phase of learning has highlighted the need for breadth and depth,
learning for 21st century, flexibility, valuing of different kinds of learning and
knowledge and sustainable systems for quality and consistency.
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There was agreement that senior schooling should continue a broad and general
education and that there must be a cohesive framework for the development of
syllabuses for the senior phase of learning.
The principles endorsed during consultation will inform the future development of
syllabuses for the senior phase of learning:
- coherence which will be realised in the development of an enabling platform of
knowledge and skills based on disciplines, standards, flexibility and continuity
- rigour which will focus on the community’s expectation that there are high
standards in all subjects and their forms of assessment and will be realised
through a clear and specific exit standards assessed in different ways
- flexibility which will focus on equity and inclusion and will be realised through
the structured flexibility of the study patterns within disciplinary studies
- connection which will focus on developing an identifiable route from the Prep
to Year 10 syllabuses and through the senior phase of learning and which will
be realised through the development of capabilities for lifelong learning and
clear pathways to post-school destinations.
These principles will strengthen principles that already underpin the development of
syllabuses notably: (Appendix).
- Educational equity
- Indigenous policy statement
- Language education policy
1.3.1 An enabling platform for further education, training or work
Syllabuses provide schools and their communities with the detail about the
knowledge and skills that students are expected to know and be able to do on
completing a course of study. Syllabuses are the public face of what learning is
undertaken in schools. They define what students are taught and what teachers
are required to teach.
As a group, the syllabuses send a strong message about what is valued learning
for a community’s young people.
Over the last 30 years, the pressures from social and economic change and new
knowledge and skill requirements have overcrowded the curriculum. The
development of increasingly specialised subjects, conceptualised as two year
courses of study, has been based on the assumptions that:
- in a system where no specific subjects are prescribed, any subject selected
must equally set young people up well for a range of post school destinations,
and
- different learning needs can be solved by adding more and more narrowly
specialised subjects.
While being responsive, in the absence of a cohesive, overarching framework,
schedule or plan there are now subjects which are variations of the same subject
with only slight differences, overlap and duplication. There are subjects that could
be described as vital and those that are not.
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The redeveloped syllabuses will provide a clear sense of purpose for the
curriculum as a whole and overcame divisions, fragmentation, rigidities and low
expectations inherent in a system that divides learning into two separate tracks.
The curriculum will form an enabling platform of knowledge and skills that will allow
maximum flexibility for future choice of further education, training or work. It will
optimise opportunities for students to achieve relevant and powerful skills and
knowledge through a broad-based education with an identifiable route from the
Prep to Year 10 syllabuses through to Year 12. There will be a sharper focus on
the fundamentals in core areas of learning. The essentials and standards identified
in Years 3, 5,7 and 9 will create the developmental stages from which the learning
in the senior phase will be based.
1.3.2 A broad and general education
Since the 1980s, the development of knowledge-based economies, with new
technical and social organization of work, has emphasised the need for new kinds
of skills and capacities. The new economies place a premium on innovation,
creativity, entrepreneurship, self-regulation and life-long learning and greater
emphasis on analytical problem solving, knowledge application and the generation
of new knowledge. The new social organization of work characterized by greater
autonomy, flatter hierarchies, shared decision making, more team work, more risk
taking, more extensive oral and written communication, and far greater social
interaction between employees calls for greater emphasis on interpersonal skills,
problem-solving, independence, collaboration, trust, sense of agency and
adaptability.
Schools must help all students to develop the knowledge and skills for active
participation as citizens in a globalised knowledge and service-based economy, lay
foundations for lifelong learning and ensure that students reach their optimal
potential. (2010 p6)
The school curriculum must open up options for a more diverse student cohort to
gain the knowledge and skills needed for expanded pathways beyond school.
(2010 p8)
The Smarter Learning initiative within the Smart State Strategy 2005-2015 states
that there must be a sharp focus on the fundamentals in core subjects to give
students deeper knowledge.
The syllabuses must reinforce what is regarded as worthwhile or socially powerful
knowledge that all young people need in the 21st century.
The growth in knowledge has been expressed in greater subject specialisation and
the growth of the divisions between academic subjects and vocational learning.
This has been described as ‘divisive specialisation’ (Young) and has meant a
separation of knowledge from its application.
The future design of the syllabuses will establish a suite of syllabuses that focus
young people’s choices on what is regarded by the community as valued
knowledge and skills. Students will be able to engage with a disciplinary approach
to fundamental areas of learning beyond Year 10. The development of key generic
skills will continue from the earlier phase of education. This will create a solid
foundation for future choice.
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1.3.3 Disciplined learning
All countries grapple with the issues of content in syllabuses and what constitutes
powerful learning.
Disciplines have two major strengths – they are bodies of knowledge and methods
of inquiry. A discipline is a public, systematic, coherent and integrated (if often
contested) body of knowledge (facts, concepts, propositions, relationships,
arguments, models, theorems, narratives), understandings, procedures, skills and
dispositions, commitments, identities and attachments focused on the explanation,
prediction, interpretation, representation or control of some aspect of human
experience (the natural world, the social world or ourselves). The disciplines are
publicly recognisable traditions of discourse that we have come to value.
As an organising principle, a disciplinary approach provides a means for fostering
powerful learning arises. A disciplinary approach:
- is an historically defensible access to, and participation in, public conversations
about the nature and meaning of human experience. Through disciplines, the
development of curriculum becomes the development of culturally significant
domains for conversation, and instruction (emphasis) becomes a matter of
helping students learn to participate in those conversations within those
domains. Arthur Applebee (1996 p. 3)
- provides a mechanism for a sharper focus on the fundamentals in core areas of
learning and an exploration of the ‘big’ questions both now and in the past.
- provides access to the key cognitive understandings, skills and dispositions
that are the stepping stones for the understanding of, and successful
participation in, trans-disciplinary 21st Century ways of working
- allows for domain specific processes focussing on understanding,
interpretation, explanation, application, problem solving and knowledge building
rather than memorized “knowledge-of-action-out-of-context” (Arthur Applebee)
and at the same time generic processes that are embedded in how the
disciplines are worked out in the real world. Both the domain specific and the
generic work together and are both important.
The current system is based on subjects. The disciplinary bases of some
academic subjects vary considerably in the degree to which they demonstrate their
domain-specific disciplinary content knowledge and skills.
‘Vocational’ subjects can also have a strong disciplinary approach that puts an
emphasis on “adaptive expertise” (Bransford 2006) and capability (Stephenson
1999) rather than competent performance in routine skills and specific job training.
The key organising principle for the future syllabuses will be a disciplinary
approach. There will be explicit statements about domain specific knowledge and
skills. There will be a clearer balance between domain specific knowledge, generic
capabilities and processes. This balance is essential if the community is to be
assured that young people studying at school are learning what is valued.
The disciplinary approach will form a solid foundation for trans-disciplinary study.
During the senior phase, students can engage in trans-disciplinary studies in two
ways. Students can select learning domains that reflect new and emerging or
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forming ‘disciplines’ for example, design, production and technology. There is also
the option to undertake a trans-disciplinary extension course working with the
foundational knowledge from a number of learning domains to produce new
knowledge through innovation and creativity.
1.3.4 Assessment and Standards
Queensland’s approach to externally moderated school-based assessment has
evolved over the last 35 years.
During that time, the syllabuses were designed to match the needs of the
assessment model. Each subject was developed to fit the requirement for a two
year course of study.
Moderation, the lynchpin of the school-based assessment system and the essential
element for delivering comparability of results, meant that there needed to be
‘economies of scale’ so that the panel system could operate effectively.
Moderation and assessment processes have been in place for a long time. They
have become ‘the way we do things’. In this situation the reason for different
processes can become lost.
There are many teachers, some new to the profession or new to the State, who
have not been part of the culture of criteria and standards-based assessment. The
majority of these teachers have learnt about the operationalisation of externally
moderated school-based assessment from their colleagues – and sometimes much
is lost in translation and re-interpretations. (Matters p21)
There is also a lack of knowledge about alternative ways that could be used in the
process of assigning grades. (Matters p21)
There is a need for constant refurbishment, particularly in the minds of teachers, of
the underlying rationale for those processes. The main body of theory supporting
school-based assessment practices1 is now over 20 years old and has not been
updated to reflect current concerns and language (Maxwell p2). The current
Moderation Processes for Senior Certification, the ‘handbook’ for schools and
teachers which details step-by-step procedures2, does not include a rationale or
theoretical justification.
The introduction of the QCE and the review of the syllabuses has highlighted that
there needs to be an approach to syllabus design that better meets the needs of
students and allows greater responsiveness to introduce new subjects and new
combinations of learning for 21st century education.
While some aspects of the current system can be modified beneficially (Maxwell) to
accommodate some of the proposed changes, there is now an imperative to
revitalise the system. This means keeping what is effective and efficient, notably:
- respect for the professional expertise of teachers
1
The main body of theory is found in the Assessment Unit Discussion Papers 1 – 21 from
1986-87 available at http://www.qsa.qld.edu.au/yrs11_12/assessment/discuss.html.
2
Moderation Processes for Senior Certification, detailing step-by-step procedures is available
at http://www.qsa.qld.edu.au/publications/yrs11_12/moderation/moderation_processes.pdf.
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- shared responsibility for the assessment and certification system between the
central authority and schools
- social moderation and the verification folios
- underlying principles of assessment such as fullest and latest.
However, it is time to identify and introduce new forms of assessment that
complement school-based assessment. Using contemporary research into good
assessment, introduce new forms of assessment that are less resource intensive for
schools yet maintain validity and rigour, are more open to change and are more
diverse.
Standards
At a time when the community, employers and government are demanding greater
comparability in terms of what young people learn and how well they learn, there is
a need for tighter and clearer standards. ‘Compare-ability’ has to be established
through reference to defined and commonly understood assessment criteria and
performance standards.
The ad hoc addition of syllabuses has led to a perception that there is unevenness
across the current suite of senior syllabuses and varying standards. The
maintenance of standards across an ever growing range of subjects is increasingly
difficult.
The time is right to consolidate and simplify criteria and standards-based
assessment in practice by building greater validity and reliability in assessment
through:
- assessing what is identified as worth knowing and being able to do
- strengthening exit criteria
- developing clear and specific standards descriptors that describe the
characteristics of student work
- devising scoring rubrics that accurately and appropriately reflect the standards
for both general and task specific components of a task
- viewing all assessment as encompassing the dual and related goals of
assessment of learning and assessment for learning and moving away from the
distinction between summative and formative assessment.
1.3.5 Structured flexibility
Student choice recognises the complex social demography of the senior secondary
population, the variations in student interests and facilitates higher levels of student
engagement, participation, attainment and achievement.
However, many students moving from the eight ‘key learning areas' in Year 10 are
confronted with decisions that require early specialisation when they may not have
a clear sense of their ultimate direction. A survey3 of over 6000 Queensland Year
12 students in 2006 found that 86 percent of students did not have absolute clarity
as to what they wanted to do. Of these, 56 percent were very unclear or had
absolutely no idea as to what they want to do when they left school.
3
Survey of Year 12 Students Attending East Coast Secondary Schools ‘Clarity Of Immediate
Direction In Life’. Australian Youth Development Association
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The choice of specialist subjects in Years 11 and 12 appears to offer wonderful
choice. However, as a consequence of poor subject selection or important gaps in
their education, future options may be limited. Choice in this instance may
disadvantage many students.
Unregulated student choice of subjects characterized by what has been termed the
‘shopping mall’ approach, results in the stratification of curriculum choices and
student outcomes. Research shows that the ‘shopping mall approach’ waters
down education because it loses the disciplinary knowledge and standards and
offers fewer opportunities for transferable and portable skills. references
So, rather than promote equity, unstructured choice undermines equity. Through
poor choices or gaps in knowledge and skills some young people do not have
access to the cognitive, linguistic and practical ‘toolkit’ that opens up future
choices. Research shows that most flexibility or choice tends to be exercised by
students on the margins and by those who are least fitted for it. (Smith et al 1999)
In practical terms, students’ choices are based on what a school can offer and it is
increasingly difficult for many schools to offer a full complement of subjects.
The challenge is to achieve an appropriate balance between choice and
consistency in educational outcomes in an increasingly complex, uncertain and
diverse community.
The future syllabuses will have rules of combination for balancing disciplinary
studies with broadening studies. This will create structured flexibility.
- Firstly, while there will be greater clarity about and emphasis on the
fundamentals in core areas of learning. While this will ensure greater
consistency across the state, there will also be a degree of content flexibility to
cater for sector, regional, community and individual interests and emphases.
Sectors and schools will continue to have discretionary responsibility to
interpret the curriculum to match local context and needs.
- Secondly, the redeveloped syllabuses will offer schools more flexible ways for
delivering learning to suit the needs of their students.
- And, thirdly, the flexibility, and hence choice, will allow more opportunities for
students to become ‘active’ learners with the capacity to make learning
decisions about depth and breadth of learning and manage their learning in a
structured way. They will not have to do all their learning in the same way.
They will have opportunities for specialised electives and disciplinary and trans-
disciplinary extensions.
Flexibility and choice remains a major feature of the senior phase of learning. The
QCE is build around depth and breadth of learning, flexibility and attainment. It has
broadened what learning counts. The QSA syllabuses are just one part of the new
learning landscape. Students have the flexibility to choose vocational education
and training and the sorts of learning that the QCE describes as enrichment and
advanced.
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The redeveloped QSA syllabuses will add an important new flexibility: a better
platform for future choice of pathways in further education, training or work.
1.3.6 Equity and inclusion
The redevelopment of the syllabuses for the senior phase of learning complements
and builds on other reforms that set the foundations for greater equity and inclusion
in Queensland’s education system.
In this paper, educational equity is used to mean equalisation of educational
opportunities and chances and to ‘improve the long term expectation of the least
favoured’. (Rawls, 1997, p186 in Luke p25) Equity and inclusion can be fostered
by different emphases at different stages of education. Each stage relies on and
builds from the one before: (Luke: Colloquium 2006):
- equity of access in the initial phase or early years
- equity of engagement in the middle years and beginning critical engagement
with disciplines and multidisciplinary knowledge
- equity of outcomes and the parity of esteem of outcomes in the senior phase.
The introduction of a prep year opens up greater equity of access in the initial
phase of schooling.
The work of QCAR and the redevelopment of the middle years encourage greater
equity of engagement through participation and achievement.
These changes coupled with the redeveloped syllabuses as an enabling platform
for future choice in education, training and work provide more students with the
‘cognitive, linguistic and practical ‘toolkit’ for unpacking culturally significant
knowledge and enabling access to the facts and truths, values and beliefs,
knowledges and interpretations, texts and discourses of the curriculum’ (p26 Luke).
The changes complement the introduction of the QCE, a broad-based qualification
requiring a significant amount of learning, depth and breadth of learning at a
standard. The qualification opens up multiple pathways to further education,
training and work.
While curriculum alone cannot address the disparities in opportunity for students
arising from the distribution of wealth, different cultures and location, research
shows that there are a number of significant ways that equity and inclusion can be
enhanced in the school curriculum.
- A disciplinary education for all students, with a high degree of authenticity and
disciplinarity across the curriculum, is critical to reducing social reproduction of
inequality. (Michael Young, The Curriculum of the Future: From the ‘New
Sociology of Education’ to a Critical Theory of Learning 1998 Farmer Press
London)
- Equity is enhanced when school knowledge is not stratified.
- Equity is enhanced when student choice is structured to promote engagement,
participation and attainment.
- An individual’s ongoing employability will depend on having the relevant
knowledge and skills and the capacity to continually learn new things.
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Research has also identified that there is little difference between the generic skills
identified by universities with those promoted under the label of employability.
‘Accordingly, there are no prima facie preparatory requirements for vocational
education which are qualitatively different from those of academic professional
study on the one hand … or from those required for workplace training on the
other. In other words, there is an overlap between preparation for university and
vocational education…and between vocational education and work. (Gilbert and
Macleod, 2006, pp. 12-13).
The redeveloped syllabuses will expect all students to engage in learning that is
clearly focused on disciplinary knowledge and skills. The stratification of
knowledge will be minimised. All students will engage in learning that develops the
capabilities that all young people need.
The enabling platform will concentrate on the areas of learning that are crucial and
on the capabilities that best prepare young people for post-school life. This
articulates a clear focus for Queensland’s education system.
1.4 What the change delivers
The redeveloped syllabuses will shift from a large, ad hoc suite of about 80
subjects to a suite of (about 15) syllabuses focussed on a disciplinary approach
which will establish:
- an enabling platform of knowledge and skills that balance choice and
flexibility.
- clarity about a ‘good’ education for the senior secondary school program
based on principled decisions
- refocussing the senior phase of learning on a broad and general education
which is considered to be the best preparation for liberal democratic
knowledge-based societies
- higher expectations of young people finishing senior education.
The key aspects are:
- disciplinary learning as the key organising principle
- a common learning experience in the senior phase of learning
- a broad range of study options in specialised, extension and trans-
disciplinary electives
- different approaches to assessment including more standardised
assessment
- greater consistency with national and international standards
- clear and explicit links with the P to 10 syllabuses with a strong focus on the
essential learnings
- new processes for the future maintenance of the suite of syllabuses and
maintaining standards by locating new areas of knowledge within discipline
fields.
1.4.1 Improved outcomes for students
For students the changes to syllabus design and organisation will promote:
clarity about how to access the sort of broad and general education that promotes
the knowledge, skills and attributes that open up future pathways.
learning based on the disciplinary knowledge let’s students into the publicly
recognisable traditions of discourse that is valued
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structured flexibility that will allow for depth and breadth of learning and the
flexibility to keep options open through course sampling and broaden potential
pathways
capabilities to develop transferable and portable skills
a clearly stated framework within which syllabuses are developed that will reduce
disruption if students change schools
certainty about how learning contributes to the QCE.
1.4.2 Improved outcomes for schools
For schools the changes to syllabus design and organisation will promote:
a manageable suite of syllabuses based on disciplinary learning
syllabuses that continue to build on teacher professional expertise and judgement
but which also provide clarity about what must be taught
a clearly stated framework within which syllabuses are developed that offers
greater clarity for teachers entering the profession and less disruption for teachers
who move across the state.
1.4.3 Clarity for the community
The changes to syllabus design and organisation will promote a curriculum that:
strengthens the knowledge and skill base required by young people to live and
work in knowledge and service-based economies
better prepares young people for active involvement in our community
is a more consistent and reliable platform of knowledge and skills that clearly
shows what it means to do a course of study based on syllabuses produced by the
QSA
clearly articulates the standards
1.4.4 System
At a system level, changes to syllabus design and organisation, provides:
an overarching map for thinking about and planning the senior phase of learning
a defensible framework to address concerns about the quality of learning in our
schools
a systemic way to engage with national debates about common curriculum and
standards.
1.5 Research and consultation
Comprehensive statewide consultation undertaken over the last 18 months4 and
extensive research, including five commissioned papers5, has confirmed that it is
timely for a fundamental change to the way syllabuses for the senior phase of learning
are organised.
1.5.1 What the research told us
A principled curriculum that is purposeful, valuable for the individual and the
community, intellectually rich and socially inclusive is one designed around a
disciplinary approach to learning because disciplines are the richest, the most
powerful, the most generative, and the most existentially rewarding cognitive tools
4
Consultation reports are available at http://www.qsa.qld.edu.au/syllabus_review/index.html.
5
Research papers are available at http://www.qsa.qld.edu.au/syllabus_review/index.html.
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we have developed historically to understand, explain, interpret, represent and
control human experience.
Syllabus design should emphasise disciplinarity or “knowledge in action”. It
should concentrate on understanding, interpretation, explanation, application,
problem solving and knowledge building, rather than memorized “knowledge-of-
action-out-of-context”.
During the senior phase students should have some access to trans-disciplinary
learning characterized by the interplay of the theoretical and the practical.
Transdisciplinary teaching programmes are orientated to understanding complex
systems, are based on participation in problem solving teams, and draw heavily on
modelling and simulation techniques.
All students require elements of a strong disciplinary education in both their
academic and vocational studies to a level necessary for their own wellbeing and
the wellbeing of the community.
Student choice is important but unregulated student choice results in the
stratification of curriculum choices and student outcomes and undermines equity
principles of liberal democratic education and limits maximization of capital
formation.
The community has a responsibility to make informed and considered choices on
behalf of young people about what it believes is necessary for all young people to
successfully participate in contemporary society and workplaces.
We cannot ignore national pressures and international models.
1.5.2 What the community said
The initial consultation on broad issues identified that there is an expectation that
young people will continue a broad and general education with some opportunities for
specialisation in the senior phase of learning.
Consultation on the proposed blueprint for the future development of syllabuses
refined what this might mean when translated into the curriculum offered during the
senior phase of learning. The consultation confirmed that all four principles:
coherence, rigour, flexibility and connection, were appropriate for the development of
syllabuses.
Key themes emerging from the consultation included:
It is critical to develop a learning continuum from Prep to Year 12. This includes
making explicit links to the KLAs and the work of QCAR. This would lessen the
issues around Year 10.
Disciplines should be the basis on which any changes are made to how knowledge
is organised.
Flexibility and choice must be maintained for schools and for students. This
includes multiple exit points, areas of learning and levels of learning. These should
be described so as to be consistent with the requirements of the Queensland
Certificate of Education.
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There needs to be opportunities for a broad and general education and specialised
study during the senior phase of learning.
Specified generic elements are important and should be included across all
syllabuses but that these should not be more important than the disciplinary
knowledge.
There needs to be a strong commitment to school based assessment. At the same
time consideration should be given to introducing other, complementary ways of
assessing students work, particularly in relation to core and extension study.
Assessment should maximise the opportunities for flexible study patterns while
maintaining confidence in the robustness of the system.
There needs to be greater clarity and consistency about the mandatory
requirements within and across syllabuses.
Any changes to syllabus design must address the critically important areas of
assessment and standards. There must be greater consistency in the amount and
intellectual demand of assessment across syllabuses and greater clarity in the
description of standards.
There must be greater clarity about how the senior phase of learning connects with
the next phase of learning in further education, training and work. This includes
greater understanding of the assumed knowledge required for the range of post-
school destinations.
More information about the technical details of the reforms and implementation
timelines is needed.
Resourcing and professional development will be critical and must be included in
any recommendations for implementation.
1.6 Issues of national consistency
What young people know and are able to do at the end of twelve years of
schooling was a central question at the outset of this review of the syllabuses some
20 months ago.
It is the question is now the centre of a national debate about education. The
Australian Education Minister has released a report prepared by the Australian
Council for Educational Research (ACER), Year 12 Curriculum Content and
Achievement Standards. The report calls for a set of common, core learnings in the
areas of English, English Literature, Maths, Physics, Chemistry and History across
Australia.
The Senate Employment, Workplace Relations and Education Committee is
conducting an inquiry into the current level of academic standards of school
education and is investigating whether school education prepares students
adequately for further education, training and employment.
In addition, work is also underway through the Australian Education Systems
Officials Committee (AESOC) to introduce a national common grading scale and to
ensure consistency of standards reported using the common scale.
The education debate focuses on curriculum but there is no clarity about what is
meant by curriculum and what curriculum consistency means.
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Nevertheless, it is highly likely that there will be new expectations of Queensland
senior syllabuses to conform to some level of national consistency in terms of
syllabus development and assessment models.
Queensland’s preferred position is that there will be nationally consistent standards
based on a five point scale so that an ‘A’ in a particular subject will mean the same
regardless of where the learning took place. Associated with this is the use of
common nomenclature.
If curriculum consistency means that common content is required, the reforms to
syllabus design and organisation proposed in this paper will accommodate this.
The reforms proposed in this paper are based on sound research and consultation.
The development of an enabling platform based on disciplinary learning,
standards, flexibility and continuity provides a positive and constructive way
forward for the development of future syllabuses.
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Part 2 Establishing an enabling platform of knowledge
and skills in the senior phase of learning
An enabling platform based on disciplinary learning, standards, flexibility and continuity.
15 foundation studies (110 hours/ 2 credit) to provide young people with
Disciplinary learning the disciplinary knowledge and skills to enable them to specialise,
normally completed in Year 11
elective specialist courses (110 hours/ 2 credit) which build on the
foundation studies, normally completed in Year 12
15 disciplinary syllabuses
disciplinary and trans-disciplinary extension courses (55 hours / 1
containing one foundation study
credit) for students who excel in discipline fields, normally completed
and a number of elective specialist
throughout Year 12
and disciplinary and trans-
two preparatory courses in English and Mathematics designed
disciplinary extension courses
specifically for young people who are at risk of not meeting minimum
literacy and numeracy requirements of the QCE
Standards
a more visibly standardised assessment regime for the foundation
studies
Clear and specific exit standards elective specialist courses assessed through a system of school-based
assessed in different ways assessment, normally completed by the end of Year 12
disciplinary and trans-disciplinary extension courses assessed through
an extended essay, thesis, production or other in-depth method
reworked QCS test based on common, generic skills drawn from the 14
discipline fields
Flexibility
all foundation studies provide the disciplinary learning required for
Study patterns providing choice future specialised study in electives
within a disciplinary broad and elective specialist courses which can be undertaken on completion of or
general education and allowing concurrently with foundation studies
for a depth and breadth of disciplinary and trans-disciplinary extension courses which can be
learning. undertaken on completion of or concurrently with foundation studies
Continuity
all foundation studies have transition notes which articulate with
essential learning and capabilities required in the Years 1-10 syllabuses
all elective specialist courses have transition notes which directly relate
Clear directions in all syllabuses to employment, further education and/or training
supporting transitions into and out all syllabuses explicate generic skills based on Years 1-10 essential
of the Senior Phase of Learning learnings and capabilities and built out of the disciplinary learning
maintenance of an OP for tertiary entrance based on combinations of
foundation studies and specialist and extension electives in a required
pattern
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Part 2 describes the technical specifications for syllabuses for the senior phase of
learning designed as learning domains based on a disciplinary approach to learning.
The syllabuses will have a core and elective design with each learning domain
including a disciplinary foundation study (the core) and a range of electives to deepen
and extend the disciplinary learning and promote greater learning independence.
Explicit standards will be developed for the foundation study with emphasis on
disciplinary knowledge and skills. The electives will have more specific and detailed
standards.
School-based assessment will be maintained but will be complemented with a range of
other assessment methods.
Explicit links with the essentials identified for Year 9 to the relevant disciplinary
concepts in the foundation study will establish clear links with the Years 1 to 10
syllabuses.
This continuity will be further enhanced by extending the capabilities developed during
Years 1 to 10 into the senior phase of learning. The capabilities are a broader range
of skills than the current Common Curriculum Elements and will continue the
development of skills needed for active citizenship and lifelong learning.
Part 2 outlines the following:
a disciplinary approach to syllabus design
learning domains
study patterns
standards and assessment
pathways – QCE and tertiary entrance.
2.1 A disciplinary approach to syllabus design
The future syllabuses for the senior phase of learning will be organised as 15 learning
domains.
The key organising principle for each learning domain syllabus will be a disciplinary
approach to learning that is, powerful learning that arises from disciplined inquiry with
a focus on the fundamentals in core areas of learning.
Young people will be expected to engage with the fundamentals in a foundation study
prior to undertaking specialised courses or disciplinary or trans-disciplinary extension
courses.
The focus will be on disciplinary knowledge because disciplines represent a public,
systemic, coherent and integrated (if often contested) body of knowledge about the
nature and meaning of human experience. This is culturally significant learning that
opens up access to key cognitive understandings, skills and dispositions necessary for
participation in 21st Century ways of working.
A disciplinary approach provides the mechanism for a sharper focus on the
fundamentals in core areas of learning. Each learning domain will set out fundamental
knowledge, understandings, procedures, skills and dispositions that all young people
taking this syllabus will be expected to engage with.
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The domain specific processes will be complemented by generic processes that
demonstrate knowledge in action: understanding, interpretation, explanation,
application, problem solving, knowledge building rather than on memorised
knowledge-of-action-out-of-context (Applebee).
A learning domain syllabus will include the requirements for:
a foundation study
a range of specialist electives
disciplinary extension
trans-disciplinary extension
underpinning generic skills
associated learning.
In addition, there will be provision for preparatory courses in English and Mathematics.
Learning Domain Syllabus
Foundation Specialist Extensions Associated
Study
A disciplinary
+ electives
Electives that
+ Extension electives
+ Learning
Associated learning
core with direct extend provide talented illustrating how the
links with the disciplinary students with an disciplinary learning
essentials learning in more opportunity to is complemented
identified in the specialised pursue an by other learning,
relevant Years areas. individualised study particularly how the
1-10 syllabuses. in an area of learning links to
interest with vocational
increased education and
independence and training, higher
sophistication. education and
Disciplinary other recognised
extension learning awards.
Trans-
disciplinary
extension
165 hours 110 hours 55 hours
2 credit 2 credit 1 credit
+
Generic capabilities that complement the disciplinary fundamentals.
2.2 Learning domains (see also attached diagram)
There are 15 learning domain syllabuses. Some learning domains are clearly
recognisable as disciplines or traditional subject areas. These learning domains reflect
the learning that is commonly seen in core curriculum in most education systems in the
world and represent areas of learning that provide a broad and general education:
English, mathematics, science, history, social sciences, foreign languages,
environmental studies and geography, health education, religion and ethics, music.
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There are also learning domains that combine learning and point to the future and
emerging areas of study: design, production and performance, business and
enterprise, technologies and industry and workplace practices.
The learning domains are: (to be completed)
English:
The foundation study will include major linguistic traditions of syntax, semantics,
pragmatics and critical theory.
The preparatory course
The electives
Mathematics
The foundation study could include a
The preparatory course provides more time for students to gain those
fundamentals
The electives
Science
The foundation study could include a
The electives
History
The foundation study could include key historical concepts: change, continuity,
cause, motive and effect in relation to Australian History.
The electives
Ancient History
Modern 20th History
Asian History
Social History
Social Sciences
The foundation study could include key concepts such as: socialisation, culture,
inequality and power and decision making to investigate the socialisation of
individuals and the interaction of the individual and society.
The electives could include:
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
Early Childhood Studies
Sociology
Psychology
Political Science
Philosophy and Religion
The foundation study could include a
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The electives could include:
Philosophy
Ethics
Study of Religion
Environmental Studies
The foundation study could include themes such as natural hazards, feeding the
world’s poor, sustaining urban and/or rural communities and managing resources
to consider the four questions of geographical inquiry
what and where are the issues or patterns being studied
how and why are they there
what are their impacts or consequences
what is being done and could be done.
The electives could include:
Physical Geography
Human Geography
Economic Geography
Environmental Issues and sustainability
Tourism
Design
The foundation study could include a
The electives could include
Visual Art
Graphics and industrial design
Textile design
Interactive media
Engineering
Web and Software Design & Development
Performance and Production
The foundation study could include a
The electives
Music
The foundation study could include a
The electives could include
Theory of Music
Composition
Music Styles
Technologies
The foundation study could include a
The electives
ICT Hardware
Applications Development
ICT Project Management
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Network Systems
Business and Enterprise
The foundation study could include economics
The electives
Economics
Accounting
Legal Studies
Small Business
Entrepreneurship
Manufacturing
Aerospace (Bus)
Project Mgt
Health and Wellbeing
The foundation study could include a
The electives
Physiology and human movement
Health and nutrition studies
Sport Studies
Languages
The area of languages could be arranged in a different way to accommodate
different levels of language competence.
Foundation studies (110 hours) could focus on beginners or students who have not
taken languages or very little language study in Years 1 to 10.
There could be two electives that would allow students up to 220 hours in further
language study:
a continuer’s course for students continuing their languages study from
Year 10.
a course for highly competent or native speakers.
Students could advance straight to an elective depending on their level of prior
knowledge. Students who undertake the foundation study could still complete four
semesters of language study by completing the foundation study and then
undertaking the first half of the continuer’s course.
A disciplinary extension might focus on the acquisition of languages or applied
linguistics.
A trans-disciplinary extension might involve a study that includes language, tourism
and business.
Industry and Workplace Practices
The foundation study could include workplace practice and understanding the skills
and attitudes that underpin employment in an industrial sector. Topics could
include occupational health and safety, working with materials, equipment and
tools in an industrial, domestic or recreational environment, communication and
measurement in the workplace and working effectively as a team. The foundation
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study could include some ‘big’ questions in industry such as the impact of industrial
technology, the economic aspects of Australian industry and issues such as
industrial relations and sustainable manufacturing.
The electives could include industry areas such as:
- aeroskills
- automotive
- building and construction
- engineering (manufacturing)
- furnishing
- industrial graphics
- plastics
A disciplinary extension might be a major project on the economics of
manufacturing in Australia.
A trans-disciplinary extension could include a major design project.
2.3 Courses within the learning domain
Each learning domain syllabus will include:
a foundation study (110 hours / 2 credit) which has a disciplinary focus and direct
link with the essentials identified in the relevant KLA syllabus
a range of electives for specialisation, extension and trans-disciplinary study
(55/110 hours / 1/2 credit)
generic skills described as capabilities that complement the disciplinary essentials
in the learning domains, English and Mathematics, there will be preparatory
courses
in the languages domain there will be courses described as Beginner, Continuer
and Highly Competent
associated learning illustrating how the disciplinary learning is complemented by
other learning, particularly how the learning links to vocational education and
training, higher education and other recognised learning awards.
2.3.1 Foundation studies
Each learning domain syllabus will contain a foundation study. The foundation study
will provide students with a common learning experience during the first part of the
senior phase of learning in preparation for later specialised study.
What is in a foundation study?
The foundation study will have a disciplinary approach. The emphasis will be on the
fundamental domain specific knowledge and skills.
The foundation study will strengthen the articulation between the Years 1 to 10
syllabuses by including clear and explicit links showing how the essential learnings,
standards and capabilities are continued and built upon in the disciplinary study.
The foundation study is not about cutting the current subjects in half. Rather the
course will provide a solid foundation for further specialised study or will provide
valuable learning in a learning domain with a logical exit point.
Delivery
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The Senior Phase of Learning begins when a student is registered with the QSA. This
is a school decision. The structure of the syllabus means there is flexibility at the
school level to begin the foundation study during Year 10.
The teaching time for the foundation study can be 110 hours to 165 hours. This
means that schools can allocate more time based on the needs of their students so
that they can reach the learning requirements.
Learning in the foundation study can be delivered:
Senior Phase of Learning
Semester 1 Semester 2 Semester 3 Semester 4 Semester 5 Semester 6
Foundation Study Electives
Foundation Study Electives
Foundation Study Electives
Registration
with QSA Registration
with QSA
Assessment
The assessment in the foundation study will have a strong disciplinary focus. Clear
and specific standards descriptors will describe the characteristics of student work in
terms of the both the general domain specific knowledge and skills and the task
specific components.
The foundation study will be assessed through more standardised methods and will be
normally undertaken at the end of Year 11.
Credit
Successfully completing a foundation study but opting not to undertake further study in
that learning domain will contribute credit towards QCE Enrichment courses.
Successfully completing a foundation study and undertaking further study in the
learning domain, that is, successfully completing a specialist or extension elective will
contribute credit to QCE Core courses.
For example within the same learning domain:
QCE - QCE - Core
Enrichment
Foundation study (2) 2 credits
Foundation study (2) + specialist elective (2) 4 credits
Foundation study (2) + specialist elective (2) + extension (1) 5 credits
Foundation study (2) + two specialist electives (4) 6 credits
Approval to be completed
Work program
Moderation
Maintenance to be completed
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Learning domain advisory committee
2.3.2 Electives
Electives will be available within a learning domain. Electives build on the disciplinary
learning in the foundation study and allow students to develop depth of study in a
particular learning domain. Learners can take more than one elective in a learning
domain.
Currently the notion of prerequisites for enrolling in subjects is informal. As the
foundation study provides the fundamentals on which specialised study is based,
learners will need to successfully complete the relevant foundation study prior to
undertaking a related elective.
Some students may have the ability to intensify their study in a learning domain and
undertake a specialist elective course concurrently with the foundation study.
What is in the electives?
Electives are more specific, more complex and demand more of the learner than the
foundation study. There are three types of electives: a broad range of study options in
specialist electives and discipline and trans-disciplinary extensions for more
challenging learning experiences.
Specialist elective courses: (110 hours/ 2 credit)
Specialist electives provide students with the opportunity to continue their study in a
learning domain.
Electives allow students to develop depth of understanding and engage with more
challenging, higher-order thinking in the domain.
Specialist elective courses will be 110 hours and successful completion will attract 2
credits towards the QCE.
Undertaking a standard course and then a specialist elective will contribute four credits
as a QCE Core Course.
Students can take more than one specialist elective in a learning domain
Assessment
Specialist Electives undertaken over 110 hours and normally completed by the end of
Year 12 will be assessed through a system of school-based assessment.
Successful completion of a Specialist Elective Course will contribute 2 credits to the
QCE.
Extension Elective (55 hours/ 1 credit)
Extension electives will provide talented students with an opportunity to pursue an
individualised study in an area of interest with increased independence and
sophistication.
An extension elective will require the student to undertake ongoing, systematic and
rigorous investigation into their chosen area to complete a major work which is an
extension of the knowledge, understanding and skills developed in the relevant
foundation study and specialist elective course.
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The extended study will allow a student to explore an area of interest in depth and
develop research and inquiry skills, foster learning-how-to-learn skills, creative
problem-solving and entrepreneurial skills as well as written, oral and visual
communication skills.
An extension elective may only be undertaken in addition to a specialist elective.
Generally, extension electives will be undertaken by students who excel in the learning
Advanced standing (for consideration)
For some gifted and talented students there may be a case for acceleration. For many
students this can be achieved by undertaking concurrent study. Within each
disciplinary area ‘advanced placement standards’ could be devised to allow
demonstration of prior learning (an exam?) so that students can move straight to
elective options within a disciplinary area.
Students can elect to undertake an extension with a disciplinary focus or a trans-
disciplinary focus.
Disciplinary Extension Trans-disciplinary extension
Learners will undertake an Learners will undertake an
independent research project that independent research project that
extends the knowledge, extends the disciplinary knowledge
understanding and skills developed and skills from a number of learning
in the specific foundation study and domains to explore an area of
related specialist elective course. interest.
.
Assessment
To complete an extension course, students will be required to present a major work for
example an extended essay or production. Specifically students will be required to:
present a proposal that makes explicit the ways in which it is intended that the
major work will be an extension of the knowledge, skills and understanding
developed in the relevant foundation study and specialist elective course. It also
allows students to begin to monitor, reflect on and document their process of
inquiry.
participate in ongoing discussions with a learning mentor/supervsior
complete a journal documenting the investigation process to demonstrate the
processes of inquiry, interpretation, analysis and reflection on the knowledge and
understanding gained, and explanation of the stages of the development of the
major work. The journal will also include a reflection on the knowledge and
understanding gained through undertaking the study. The reflection statement
(1000 – 1500 words) will be completed at the end of the project and summarise the
process of investigation and the development of the major work.
complete and present a major work.
The course is undertaken over 55 indicative hours of study.
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Where possible, extension courses should involve partnerships with external groups,
for example university or vocational education and training professionals or employers,
with expertise in the field being investigated.
The major work will be assessed internally as a process and externally as a product.
Credit
A successfully completed extension will contribute 1 credit to QCE Core courses in
conjunction with the related foundation study and specialist elective study.
Approval to be completed
Maintenance to be completed
2.3.3 Generic capabilities
Performative outcomes, or ‘knowing how’ rather than ‘knowing that’, figure highly in
much of the research into pathways, whether that pathway is to higher education,
training or work (see Gilbert and McLeod). All students need to develop initiative and
their confidence to operate independently as learners, and take responsibility for their
own learning.
The domain specific learning will be complemented and ‘fleshed out’ with explicit
references to generic learning. This will enhance the flexible and authentic application
of disciplinary learning in real contexts. There will be guidance on important learning
experiences that explicitly develop discipline specific metacognition, critical thinking,
problem solving consistently within and across all learning domains.
The Common Curriculum Elements (CCEs) will be reconceptualised as a broader set
of capabilities. These capabilities identify the cross curriculum knowledge and skills
that all students need to develop and use to be active and responsible citizens and
lifelong learners. No matter what selection of learning domains or intended pathway,
all students will have opportunities to develop the capabilities regarded as important
for living and working in our community in the 21st century.
Within the QCAR essentials, nine generic capabilities grouped into three broad
categories, have been embedded: (Appendix: map CCEs to capabilities)
Working with knowledge
- using a range of thinking strategies and skills in critical and creative ways
- using the tools of language, symbols, technologies and texts interactively to
communicate ideas and information
- interacting critically with socio-cultural environments
Developing identity and managing the self
- working with others
- acting within a social context
- managing the personal self
Acting in the social and political world
- working with communities
- acting in the wider world
- managing rights, responsibilities and duties of citizenship.
The current 49 CCEs that are tested in the QCS Test are consistent with the
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capabilities in just one of the three broad categories of capabilities: working with
knowledge. The capabilities that can be tested in a pen and paper test will inform the
future development of the QCS Test.
Learning domain syllabuses will complement the disciplinary essentials with the
broader set of capabilities. The standards descriptors will orient teachers to how
particular capabilities are included and qualitatively described.
Consistent development of the capabilities will form another important link between the
learning in the senior phase and the learning developed in the Years 1 – 10
syllabuses.
2.3.4 Preparatory courses – English language and Mathematics
The preparatory courses for English language and Mathematics will be designed to
complement the Foundation Studies for English and Mathematics. The preparatory
courses will allow students more time in these subjects to reach the requirements in
the foundation studies and will focus on basic skills. The preparatory courses are in
recognition that English language and mathematics are the key enablers for further
education, training and work.
The preparatory courses will be organised as two 55 hour modules.
Students can:
undertake the preparatory course concurrently with the foundation study with the
option of moving out of the preparatory course after one module, or
complete the preparatory course before articulating to the foundation study, or
complete the preparatory course and successfully complete the literacy or
numeracy requirements for the QCE.
The preparatory course contributes 1 or 2 credits towards QCE Preparatory courses.
2.3.5 Languages
All languages will be located in the Language learning domain and each language will
be organised in the following way:
a 110 hour beginner level course to allow students who have not studied a
language to begin language studies in the senior phase of learning
a 220 hour continuer level course for students who have undertaken language
learning in Years 1 to 10
a 220 hour course for highly competent learners or native speakers.
The range of languages available to Queensland students can be extended by
Queensland participating in the Collaborative Curriculum and Assessment Framework
for Languages (CCAFL) set up under the auspices of the Australasian Curriculum
Assessment and Certification Authorities (ACACA). The CCAFL framework is a common
curriculum and assessment framework for all the languages and includes beginner
courses. Individual states have the flexibility to adapt aspects of the framework to suit
state conditions.
2.3.6 Associated Learning
Associated learning will illustrate non-QSA learning that is associated with the
discipline.
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In particular, it will indicate linkages with vocational education and training, higher
education and other recognised learning awards.
Vocational Education and Training
Vocational education and training is an important part of the broader range of learning
options now available to young people in the senior phase of learning and that
contribute to the QCE.
Young people who do not go on to university have better employment prospects if they
have undertaken a VET course. VET programs and paid part-time work have a
particularly positive impact on the transition to post school activities by providing real
vocational experiences for school students to learn from when considering possible
career options. Some qualifications—such as certificate I and II courses—require
further study at a higher level before students can achieve the job that they want.
(Davina Woods, The role of VET in helping young peoples' transition into work: At a
glance, NCVER, March 2007)
The QSA fully supports schools to provide stand alone training that leads to
qualifications. However, QSA syllabuses will not replicate or duplicate VET nor will
VET competencies be embedded in the learning within the discipline areas.
The learning domain syllabuses will identify stand alone VET qualifications as
associated learning to complement the disciplinary learning. This will create greater
awareness of the application of learning in the real world. Furthermore, the more
flexible structure of the learning domain syllabus will make is easier for students to
combine their school subjects with vocational education and training.
The disciplinary learning in foundation studies will strengthen the underpinning
knowledge and skills required for further education and training. Current discussion
and research about pathways to further education, training and work emphasise the
importance of the changing economic and information context, its effects on what
knowledge is valued, and its implications for education and training. Past distinctions
are blurring as universities become more vocational, and vocational education and
training focus on more abstract and flexible skills required for decision making in the
workplace. (Gilbert and Macleod, 2006, p.19).
It is widely recognised that it is no longer enough to have just practical skills. All
learners need to develop the conceptual skills to manage the ever expanding
complexities of modern workplaces. Electives with an applied or ‘vocational’ emphasis
can also have a strong disciplinary approach that places importance on “adaptive
expertise” (Bransford 2006) and capability (Stephenson 1999) rather than competent
performance in routine skills and specific job training.
Significantly, research has shown that the intellectual demands of institutional
vocational education overlap to varying but considerable degree with those of
professional education in universities. (Gilbert and McLeod p7-8).
Other recognised learning (to be completed)
University study while still at school
re-engagement programs
recognised awards and certificates
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2.4 Study Patterns
Study patterns describe a range of available and approved options for learning
sequences.
Study patterns allow for decisions about depth and breadth of learning.
Importantly, study patterns do not label the different options as ‘higher’ or ‘lower’.
Within and across learning domains, flexible study patterns mean that students can
tailor their learning program to match their interests and talents.
For students only undertaking their all their learning at school the spread of learning
across the 15 learning domains is:
6 learning domains out of the 15 offered, that is 6 foundation studies
followed by specialist electives in the same learning domains
9 learning domains out of the 15 offered, that is 6 foundation studies
followed by specialist electives in 3 of those domains and selecting 3
additional learning domains.
However, it is not a case of any learning in any combination. When planning their
learning, students must consider the requirements for the QCE and, if required, the OP
or other tertiary entrance requirements such as the development of a portfolio or
prerequisites.
2.4.1 Achieving a Queensland Certificate of Education
The QCE sets out the enabling rules for gaining a qualification based on requirements
for depth and breadth of learning, parity of esteem for different types of learning and
an expectation for higher attainment.
The redeveloped syllabuses establish flexible study patterns that make effective use of
the QCE’s credit framework and its notions of depth and breadth. The redeveloped
syllabuses potentially strengthen the QCE as there will be greater clarity and
consistency about what learning and what standard.
Further, the learning account provides detailed information about where and when
learning was undertaken and the standard achieved that can be used by post-school
institutions.
The redevelopment of the syllabuses will mean there will need to be some minor
changes to the definition for the requirements completing Core courses of study.
Core courses of study
At least 12 credits from completed Core courses of study are required to meet the
QCE requirement for depth of study. Core courses are ‘generally completed over two
years of full-time study following the completion of Year 10’. (p9 Expect Success)
Students who are successful in completing the foundation study and a specialist
elective within the same field will meet the requirement for a Core course and will bank
4 credits.
Similarly students who are successful in completing the foundation study and more
than one specialist elective within the same disciplinary area can bank more than 4
credits as a Core course.
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For example within the same learning domain the following combinations within a
specific disciplinary area would meet the requirements for the core courses of study.
QCE - Core
Foundation study (2) + specialist elective (2) 4 credits
Foundation study (2) + specialist elective (2) + disciplinary extension (1) 5 credits
6
Foundation study (2) + specialist elective (2) + trans-disciplinary extension (1) 5 credits
Foundation study (2) + two specialist electives (4) 6 credits
Enrichment courses of study
Successfully completing a foundation study but opting not to undertake further study in
that learning domain will contribute credit towards the 8 credits that are described in
the QCE as Enrichment studies.
A study pattern for the QCE illustrating depth of learning or major studies
Learners can specialise or undertake a ‘major’ study in particular disciplines and
build study patterns for depth of learning. The learning sequence could include the
foundation study:
- followed by an elective in the same field
- followed by more than one elective in the same field
- concurrently with an elective in the same field.
Learners will need at least 12 credits from major studies to fulfil the requirement for 12
credits in Core course of study.
Example 1
This student wants a broad and general education based only on school subjects, a
QCE and an OP. This student undertakes a range of foundation studies and then
specialises in Year 2 with ‘majors’ in English, Mathematics, History (shaded areas).
Learning Domains Year 1 Year 2 Credit
English Foundation study Specialist elective: 6 credit (Core)
Literature
Specialist elective:
Language
Mathematics Foundation study Specialist elective: 4 credit (Core)
Applied Maths
Science Foundation study 2 credit (Enrichment)
History Foundation study Specialist elective: 6 credit (Core)
Australian History
Specialist elective:
Asian History
Design Foundation study 2 credit (Enrichment)
Health and Well Being Foundation study 2 credit (Enrichment)
6
The trans-disciplinary extension would include the disciplinary knowledge related to the standard
course and could only be used to complete the requirements in one disciplinary area.
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Extension course 1 credit (Core)
combining English and
History
23 Credits
A study pattern for the QCE illustrating breadth of learning or ‘minor’ studies
Learners can broaden their learning by undertaking only the foundation study or a
‘minor’ study and exit from the discipline area at a logical point having gained valued
disciplinary understanding. Over the senior phase of learning students will have the
flexibility to include a range of foundation studies.
Learners can include up to 8 credits from minor studies to fulfil the requirement for the
QCE.
Example 2
This student wants a QCE and an OP and has combined four major studies in English,
Mathematics, Technologies and Design with broadening study in Science,
Performance and Production and Business (shaded area). In addition, the student is
undertaking a trans-disciplinary elective to bring together learning in technology and
design.
Learning Domains Year 1 Year 2 Credit
English Foundation study Specialist elective 4 credit (Core)
Mathematics Foundation study Specialist elective 4 credit (Core)
Science Foundation study 2 credit (Enrichment)
Technologies Foundation study Specialist elective 4 credit (Core)
Design Foundation study Specialist elective 4 credit (Core)
Performance and Foundation study 2 credit (Enrichment)
Production
Business Foundation study 2 credit (Enrichment)
Trans disciplinary 1 credit (Core)
elective – technology
and design
23 credits
A study pattern that combines school and vocational education and training
Example 3
This student wants a QCE that combines learning from school subjects and vocational
education and training. This study pattern includes two ‘majors’ from study at school
– one in English and the other in Design and breadth studies or minors in four
foundation studies to complement a vocational education and training qualification.
Learning Domains Year 1 Year 2 Credit
English Foundation study Specialist elective: 4 credit (Core)
Communication and
Media Studies
Maths Foundation study 2 credit (Enrichment)
Science Foundation study 2 credit (Enrichment)
Design Foundation study Specialist elective 4 credit (Core)
Textile and Fashion
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Design
Business and Enterprise Foundation study 2 credit (Enrichment)
Health and Well Being Foundation study 2 credit (Enrichment)
VET certificate II Clothing Production 4 credits (Core)
20 credits
A study pattern that combines school and vocational education and training –
school-based apprenticeship
Example 4
This student wants a QCE and to begin an apprenticeship. The on and off-the-job
training undertaken through the school-based apprenticeship is complemented by
English, mathematics and Technologies.
Learning Domains Year 1 Year 2 Credit
English Foundation study Specialist elective: 4 credit (Core)
Communication and
Media Studies
Maths Foundation study Specialist elective 4 credit (Core)
Science Foundation study 2 credit (Enrichment)
Technologies Foundation study Specialist elective 4 credit (Core)
Industry and Workplace Foundation study 2 credit (Enrichment)
Practices
School-based apprenticeship 4 credits (Core)
Certificate III in Automotive Mechanical
Technology
20 credits
A study pattern that combines courses for students re-engaging
Example 5
This student is re-engaging with education and is planning to complete the
requirements for a QCE over three years. The school registered the student with the
QSA early during Year 10 to begin the Senior Phase of Learning. This student began
a certificate II during Year 12 and completed it at TAFE after leaving school.
Learning Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Credit
Domains at TAFE
English Preparatory Foundation 2 Prep
English English 2 Enrichment
Maths Preparatory Foundation Specialist 4 Core
Maths Mathematics Elective
Structured Structured 2 Enrichment
Workplace Workplace
Learning Learning
Industry and Foundation Specialist 4 Core
Workplace Elective
Practices
Certificate 1 2 Prep
Certificate II 4 Core
20 credits
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A study pattern that accelerates learning
Example 6
This student wants to accelerate her learning in the sciences so is intensifying her
learning by undertaking the foundation study concurrently with a specialist elective.
Gaining specialist skills has not been at the expense of continuing a broad education.
Learning Domains Year 1 Year 2 Credit
English Foundation study Specialist elective: 4 credit (Core)
Language
Mathematics Foundation study Specialist elective: 6 credit (Core)
Applied Maths
Specialist elective:
Science Foundation study Specialist elective 8 credit (Core)
Specialist elective Specialist elective
Environmental Studies Foundation Studies 2 Enrichment
Music Foundation Studies 2 Enrichment
Design Foundation Studies 2 Enrichment
26 Credits
A study pattern that includes associated learning
This student is also specialising and has selected to combine associated learning
undertaken outside the school.
Learning Domains Year 1 Year 2 Credit
English Foundation study Specialist elective: 4 credit (Core)
Language
Mathematics Foundation study Specialist elective: 4 credit (Core)
Applied Maths
Music Foundation study Specialist Elective 4 credit (Core)
Theory of Music
AMEB Grade 6 AMEB Grade 7 2 Enrichment
Performance and Foundation study Specialist elective: 6 credits (Core)
Production Music Production
Specialist Elective:
Event Management
History Foundation study 2 Enrichment
22 Credits
2.4.2 Tertiary Entrance
The organisation of the learning domain means that a default position is that all
students are potentially eligible for tertiary entrance either through the OP or the QTAC
Ranks.
Qualifying for an OP
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The OP is a rank order for tertiary entrance. Currently the required study pattern to be
eligible for the OP is a minimum of 20 semesters of Authority subjects with at least
three subjects completed over 4 semesters.
The suite of learning domain syllabuses can generate an OP. Students who choose
five foundation studies with a combination of electives will be eligible for an OP.
Tertiary entrance also requires the satisfactory achievement of prerequisites. Study
patterns will accommodate prerequisites for further study.
Examples 1 and 2 show a pattern that would generate an OP.
Ranks
The OP does not optimize the full range of learning young people can now undertake
as part of senior schooling as a result of the ETRF, the QCE and review of syllabuses.
The QTAC Ranks are a mechanism that reflects a broader range of achievements now
used by many universities to select students for their courses. (need to negotiate with
QTAC)
Example
2.5 Assessment and standards
The new syllabus design puts new and different demands on school-based criteria
and standards-based assessment as it is practised in Queensland.
The system will be updated and revitalised through a thorough investigation of
contemporary research into good assessment practices.
This will include new forms of assessment that are less resource intensive for
schools yet maintain validity and rigour. New forms of assessment include:
- subject-specific standardised assessment instruments in the Foundation
Studies
- extended investigations or thesis style tasks for talented students in Extension
Courses.
All assessment will encompass the dual and related goals of assessment of
learning and assessment for learning. This means moving away from the
distinction between summative and formative assessment.
Syllabuses will include all forms of authentic assessment to ensure all students
have an opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge, skills and understanding.
The processes for ensuring validity and reliability of results will be strengthened.
Criteria and standards-based assessment will be simplified and consolidated by:
- strengthening exit criteria by:
o careful consideration of what is required of students and what is rewarded
in the marking scheme by a better link between the global objectives at the
beginning of the syllabus and the exit criteria map at the end
o how the specific and general components of results map onto the features
of the exit levels of achievement.
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- developing clear and specific standards descriptors that describe the
characteristics of student work. A standards descriptor is a statement or list of
statements that succinctly conveys the required quality of, or features in,
student work in order for it to be awarded the corresponding grade. This
means that students are ‘let into the secret’ and can understand what
standards they should aspire to and that teachers can judge which one of
several standards descriptors best matches the characteristics of a student’s
performance.
- devising scoring rubrics that accurately and appropriately reflect the standards
for both general and task specific components of a task. This means moving
away from the current matrix model for describing standards that assumes all
criteria require the same number of standards descriptors even though real
differences may not exist.
Moderation
Moderation is the lynchpin of the school-based assessment system in Queensland. It
is the main means of quality assuring students’ achievement results to ensure results
are comparable, fair and appropriate.
Moderation processes are one part of the quality assurance processes. The
moderation processes maintain important principles and practices that have been
successful with the current curriculum.
The development of different approaches to assessment will require different methods
of moderation. In addition, the consolidation and simplification of criteria and
standards-based assessment discussed above will improve comparability in terms of
what young people learn and how well they learn. Professional development on
assessment will build a more common understanding of assessment criteria and
performance standards.
Different approaches to moderation such as a mix of workshops, self audit, moderation
forums and exchanges, expert review panel and/or appointment of external
moderators at state level could be used to ensure the quality of the four types of
courses within each learning domain.
Preparatory courses in English and Mathematics will be assessed using a more
standardised approach.
Foundation courses are self-contained and will include specific exit criteria and
standards. These courses will be assessed using a more standardised approach.
For students continuing from Year 11 to Year 12, verification-confirmation could be
undertaken in February. Negotiations of final recorded results will be completed by
the end of term 1 of Year 12. Processing continuing students in October/November
would mean Year 11 and Year 12 students completing the school year at the same
time.
Students who exit a foundation course at the end of the first semester will be
treated as exceptions and these could continue to be treated as they are currently.
The results for Year 12 students taking foundation courses will be verified and
confirmed before the end of the year. These results will be treated in the same way
as the results for Year 12 students taking Year 11 studies are treated now. That is,
verification and confirmation would occur parallel to the verification and
confirmation processes for elective (Year 12) courses.
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Specialist electives offer specialisation in Year 12 and are assessed using the
current school-based assessment model. Moderation will be based on expert panel
review. Verification and confirmation will occur as now in October /November.
It would be preferable to discourage exit after one semester but such cases could
be treated as exceptions as is the case now.
If schools offer these courses at ‘double rate’, that is, within a single semester,
verification and confirmation could remain for all cases at the end of the year.
Properly, for strong comparability, all cases should be considered at the same
time.
Extension electives, either disciplinary or trans-disciplinary, will be assessed by
extended thesis or project using generic criteria and standards.
Extension electives will require new approaches to moderation because of the
specialised nature of these projects, their one-semester length, their likely
dispersion across the state, and that extension courses undertaken in the second
semester of Year 12 would not be complete by the current October verification and
confirmation time.
There will be time pressures if evidence is not available until November although
these pressures could be managed through smart electronic processing.
The verification of extension courses might be best managed through an external
moderator in conjunction with other processes to support comparability, such as
moderation forums and exchanges.
QCS Test (text to come)
Senior External Examinations Subjects (text to come)
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Part 3 Implementation (to be completed)
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Appendices
Terms of Reference
1.To review current QSA Years 11 and 12 syllabuses in terms of content, construction
and scope and how these fit with new and emerging knowledge, future learning and
employment pathways for young people including:
how well Authority and Authority-registered subjects allow for study programs
that prepare students for future post-school destinations?
how well areas of knowledge or disciplines are represented and how
adequately they are addressed?
whether alternative syllabus design is desirable for some subjects and some
areas of knowledge?
whether options that suit the needs and capabilities of all students are
available?
whether selections possible under the QCE and the options they provide for
students allow for a balance between a general education, completion of Year
12 and more specific study in particular areas of knowledge?
how well the suite of Years 11 and 12 syllabuses connect with the KLA 1-10
syllabuses.
2.To research how knowledge and/or disciplines are ‘packaged’, delivered and
assessed including a structure for Year 11 and 12 syllabuses that covers the areas
of knowledge appropriate for inclusion in the senior phase of schooling
3. To consult with community and stakeholders on what is a syllabus and who
syllabuses serve
4. To develop and recommend a senior syllabus framework for the future that enables
schools to meet the needs of students and the post-school pathways they are
seeking including syllabus design principles
5. To develop an implementation plan including:
criteria for the maintenance of Years 11 and 12 syllabuses into the future
an approach to the redevelopment of the current suite of syllabuses.
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Comparing subjects offered 1970 with the introduction of school-
based assessment and 2007
1970 2007
English English
English Extension (Literature)
English Communication
Functional English
General Mathematics Mathematics A
Mathematics 1 Mathematics B
Mathematics II Mathematics C
Pre-vocational Mathematics
Functional Mathematics
Biology Biology
Chemistry Chemistry
Geology Earth Science
Physics (PSSC) Physics
Zoology
Multi-Strand science
Science 21
Marine Studies
Marine and Aquatic Practices
Agricultural Science
Agriculture and Horticulture
Modern History Modern History
Ancient History Ancient History
Geography Geography
Study of Society
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
Futures
Political Studies
Study of Religion
Religion and Ethics
Accounting Accounting
Economics Economics
Business Communication and Technologies
Business Organisation and Management
Business
Legal Studies
Retail
Tourism
Tourism Studies
Logic Philosophy and Reason
Geometrical Drawing and Perspective Graphics
Technology Studies
Engineering Technology
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Industrial Skills
Manufacturing Practices
Manufacturing
Aerospace Studies
Art Visual Art
Creative Arts
Music Music
Music Extension (Performance)
Speech and Drama Drama
Dance
Film, Television and New Media
Home Management Home economics
Social and Community Studies
Hospitality Studies
Hospitality
Early Childhood Practices
Logic Philosophy and Reason
Information Technology Systems
Information Processing and Technology
Information Communication and Technology
Health Education
Physical education
Recreation
Greek Modern Greek
Latin Latin
French French
French Extension
German German
German Extension
Italian Italian
Russian Russian
Indonesian
Indonesian Extension
Chinese
Japanese
Korean
Spanish
Vietnamese
Polish
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Capabilities and the Common Curriculum Elements (CCEs) – do as landscape
Capabilities
Nine generic capabilities grouped into three broad categories are embedded in the
QCAR essentials and is hence part of teachers’ assessment practices.. The
capabilities identify the cross curriculum knowledge and skills that all students need to
develop and use to be successful, active, responsible citizens and lifelong learners.
The standards descriptors will orient teachers to how particular capabilities are
included and qualitatively described at each year level.
Common Curriculum Elements
There is currently a total of 60 CCEs of which 49 are tested using a pen and pencil test, QCS Test. T
CCEs that are tested are divided into five ‘baskets’ or groupings: comprehend and collect, structu
sequence, analyse, assess and conclude, create and present, apply techniques and procedures.
Common Curriculum Category Capabilities Developed Through,
Elements For Example
ANALYSE ASSESS AND Working with knowledge Interactively using a range of
CONCLUDE Knowledge work means applying thinking strategies and skills Acquiring and
• Reaching a conclusion knowledge to knowledge in order
to make it more meaningful,
in critical and creative ways
e.g., accessing information,
transforming knowledge
through analysis, inquiry,
which is necessarily true
accessible, reliable and applicable conceptualising, analysing, problem solving,
provided a given set of
assumptions is true to other purposes. Students, as applying, and producing – decision-making and
knowledge workers, need to use a including, inquiry, problem concept development
• Reaching a conclusion wide range of tools for interacting posing and problem solving,
which is consistent with a effectively with the knowledge understanding approaches to Planning, enacting,
given set of assumptions environment: cognitive tools thinking, making decisions, monitoring and adjusting
• Inserting an intermediate (developing and using a range of justifying conclusions, reflective their own learning
between members of a thinking skills and strategies), the and critical thinking,
series tools of language, symbols, understanding different Making and assessing
technology and texts (evaluating perspectives, ethical reasoning, arguments with regard to
• Extrapolating ideas and information and visualising consequences, the accuracy, validity
• Hypothesising effectively communicating scepticism, discernment. and/or worth of any
position or source
• Criticising understandings through products
and performances) and socio-
Innovation and design
• Analysing cultural tools (critically interacting e.g., curiosity, flexibility, Generating ideas and
• Synthesising with a range of social and cultural confidence, risk-taking, new/insightful meanings
and relationships
environments). Within this imagination, responding and
• Judging/evaluating category, the three capabilities adapting to change, enterprise,
• Justifying are: valuing originality, initiative,
STRUCTURE AND understanding context, self-
SEQUENCE managing, thinking laterally,
• Structuring/organising recognising opportunity, self-
motivation, thinking laterally,
extended written text
planning,using design and
• Structuring/organising a engineering technologies.
mathematical argument
• Comparing, contrasting
• Classifying
• Interrelating
ideas/themes/issues
• Applying strategies to trial
and test ideas and
procedures
• Generalising from
information
• Perceiving patterns
• Visualising
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Common Curriculum Category Capabilities Developed Through,
Elements For Example
COMPREHEND AND Using the tools of language, Understanding the nature of
COLLECT symbols, technologies and the tools and their potential
• Recognising letters, words texts interactively to
communicate ideas and
Controlling and exploiting a
variety of representational
and other symbols
information forms
• Recalling/remembering Constructing meanings
• Interpreting the meaning of Communication and through exchanges in
words or other symbols multiliteracies interpersonal contexts of one
e.g., literacies (ie understanding kind or another
• Interpreting the meaning of and using different forms of Taking into account
pictures/ illustrations representation and interactions with other people
• Interpreting the meaning of communication, e.g., literacy in social environments in
tables or diagrams or maps and new literacies, visual evaluating and justifying
or graphs literacy, technological literacy, positions
• Empathising information literacy), numeracy
(e.g., numerical and spatial
• Identifying shapes in two concepts), intercultural
and three dimensions communication
• Gesturing (multilingualism).
• Translating from one form to
another
• Finding material in an
indexed collection
• Searching and locating
items/information
• Compiling lists/statistics
• Observing systematically
• Recording/noting data
• Manipulating/operating/usin
g equipment
CREATE AND PRESENT
• Using correct spelling,
punctuation, grammar
• Using vocabulary
appropriate to a context
• Summarising/condensing
written text
• Compiling results in a
tabular form
• Graphing
• Setting
out/presenting/arranging/dis
playing
• Explaining to others
• Expounding a viewpoint
• Creating/composing/devisin
g
• Sketching/drawing
APPLY TECHNIQUES AND
PROCEDURES
• Calculating with or without
calculator
• Estimating numerical
magnitude
• Approximating a numerical
value
• Substituting in formulae
• Applying a progression of
steps to achieve the
required answer
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Common Curriculum Category Capabilities Developed Through,
Elements For Example
Interacting critically with
socio-cultural environments Engaging with and
reflecting on social and
Interdependence and cultural meanings in
sustainability eg, understanding personal experiences
the inter-connectedness of the and knowledge
natural and constructed world
(i.e., environmental, social, Examining and reflecting
political, cultural etc), creating on beliefs, practices and
sustainable futures, social and values
cultural pasts and futures,
scientific literacy, understanding Engaging with cultural
systems, building and sustaining diversity and dominant
environments. and non-dominant
cultural perspectives
Evaluating changes in
beliefs, practices and
values from historical
and economic
perspectives
Developing identity and Working with others
managing the self Productive social Acting collaboratively
In an increasingly interdependent relationships
world, individuals need to develop e.g., collaboration, teamwork, Negotiating and
their own sense of identity through trust, building social capital, resolving conflicts across
developing a range of listening, conflict resolution, a range of contexts
interpersonal skills, through their developing and maintaining
ability to relate well to others and friendships. Presenting ideas and
through their ability to act information and actively
autonomously and manage their listening to others
own lives. Knowledge of particular
interpersonal and intrapersonal
Responding to diversity
and difference by
skills as well as the ability to apply
supporting the rights and
those skills is a necessity for
feelings of others
students. Within this category, the
Acting within a social context
three capabilities are:
Ethics and values e.g., empathy, Acting individually and
integrity, compassion, equity, collectively in ways that
social justice, responsibility, enhance the values of
resilience, connectedness, fairness and care
diversity, honesty, tolerance.
Making judgments about
personal actions,
behaviours and lifestyles
with consideration for the
consequences to others
Expressing the contexts
and reasons for my
actions and behaviours
with reference to
personal and social
values, attitudes and
beliefs
Examining and reflecting
on how rights,
responsibilities, duties
and obligations in society
impact on my behaviours
and actions
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Common Curriculum Category Capabilities Developed Through,
Elements For Example
Managing the personal self
Understanding self e.g., Exercising respect,
Understanding the social, thoughtfulness, and
physical and emotional self, responsibility for others
maintaining social, physical and in my actions
emotional well being, personal
past and futures, self-esteem, Setting and monitoring
identities (e.g., cultural, goals, managing
community, family, gender), emotions, change and
relationship between the stress
personal and the interpersonal
Appropriately expressing
and sharing my emotions
and actions
Critically reviewing
assumptions and actions
in the light of social and
cultural experiences and
knowledge
Acting in the social and political Working with communities
world Networking with various
Individuals need to develop a Intercultural understandings stakeholders
sense of themselves as co- e.g., understanding, respecting
participants in a wider world and valuing diversity, Operating and brokering
through understanding social multilingualism across issues, interests,
justice, fairness, rights, ethics and agreements and
social diversity and applying those disagreements of various
understandings across a range of stakeholders
social and cultural environments.
Within this category, the three Facilitating opportunities
capabilities are: for diverse and different
groups’ interests and
needs to be recognised
in decision making
processes
Dealing with the ideas
and information of
various stakeholders in a
trustworthy and fair
manner and effectively
representing their
position
Acting in the wider world
Active participation Acting in informed ways
e.g., participating in civil society to achieve socially just
and the public sphere (lobbying, change
communicating, questioning,
acting democratically,
Evaluating community,
economic and political
critiquing), understanding rights
institutions with reference
and obligations, acting in
to achieving the common
0multiple citizenship domains
good
(local, national, global).
Representing a variety of
positions on the current,
possible and desirable
ways of creating
communities in the
nation state
Critically engage with
how the roles and action
of citizens are promoted
or limited through the
rights, responsibilities,
duties and obligations in
society
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Common Curriculum Category Capabilities Developed Through,
Elements For Example
Managing rights,
responsibilities and duties of Understanding,
citizenship participating and shaping
community, economic
and political life
Engaging with a range of
cultural and institutional
texts of varying types in
order to take up my
rights, responsibilities
and duties as a citizen
Expressing a position
and constructing
arguments that
contribute to the public
dialogue
Critically reviewing
understandings of
citizenship in light of the
range of cultures and
customs that
characterise Australia.
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