Australian National Curriculum 2010 Australia is currently undergoing an ‘Education Revolution’ which includes a major curriculum review designed to provide some coordination across state boundaries. National collaboration in education in Australia is not new. Both the 1989 Ministerial Hobart Declaration and the subsequent 1999 Ministerial Adelaide Declaration authorised and stimulated national effort. The new National Curriculum currently being prepared will be a significant further step and will provide a framework for the National Curriculum Board’s development of a national, K–12 curriculum in English, mathematics, the sciences and history and later in geography and languages other than English. The challenge for teachers now and in the future is going to be to create coordinated and integrated learning opportunities for students. As we learn more about the process of learning, and use this to integrate our responses to a rapidly changing world, teaching is becoming a process of facilitation of effective learning rather than simply the transmission of accepted, imposed, compartmentalized curriculum. We believe that successful learning and development requires a purposeful approach to learning, facilitated by teachers who have strong philosophical, theoretical and principle-centered bases. These educators work to create a powerful alignment between the learning environment, an integrated approach to conceptually based learning in interactive classrooms, and an approach to assessment in which the individual ultimately learns to assess and challenge themselves. We envision a coherent curriculum that would do justice to the integrity of each subject and also bring each to bear on all the others in a way that reflects an integrated, as opposed to compartmentalized, approach to real life. Educational goals for young Australians Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs, National Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians, December 2008, pp. 8–9. Successful learners… • develop their capacity to learn and play an active role in their own learning • have the essential skills in literacy and numeracy and are creative and productive users of technology, especially ICT, as a foundation for success in all learning areas • are able to think deeply and logically, and obtain and evaluate evidence in a disciplined way as the result of studying fundamental disciplines • are creative, innovative and resourceful, and are able to solve problems in ways that draw upon a range of learning areas and disciplines • are able to plan activities independently, collaborate, work in teams and communicate ideas • are able to make sense of their world and think about how things have become the way they are • are on a pathway towards continued success in further education, training or employment, and acquire the skills to make informed learning and employment decisions throughout their lives • are motivated to reach their full potential.
20 EFFECTIVE MIDDLE SCHOOLING: Julie Boyd 2010
