The Australian Curriculum Unpacking achievement …ais.act.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/Unpacking-achievement...Essential aspects of the Curriculum There are two essential aspects of

The Australian Curriculum –Unpacking achievement standards

and levels of performance

Independence | Choice | Diversity | Collegiality | Respect | Fairness

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Australian Curriculum

Design of the Australian Curriculum



Three-Dimensional

Preparing students to live and work successfully in the 21st century



General capabilities comprise an integrated and interconnected set of knowledge, skills, behaviours and dispositions that students develop and use in their learning across the curriculum, in co-curricular programs and in their lives outside school.

General capabilities



Cross Curriculum Priorities

Tailored specially for Australian students and designed to locate students temporally and spatially in the world they live in.

• a deep and understanding of Australia’s past and the strong connection Australia’s first peoples have to country, place, sky and water ways

• An appreciation of where Australia is located in the world and our extensive engagement with Asia in social, cultural, political and economic spheres

• An understanding of how they can shape the future



Learning areas

Learning areas Subjects Expected to be taught

English F-10*

Mathematics F-10*

Science F-10*

Humanities and Social Sciences

F-6/7 HaSSYears 7-10 HistoryYears 7-10 GeographyYears 7-10 Civics and CitizenshipYears 7-10 Economics and Business

F-6F-10*F-8F-8F-8

The Arts Dance, Drama, Media Arts, Music, Visual Arts F-62 Art forms in 7-8

Technologies Design and TechnologiesDigital Technologies

F-8F-8

HPE F-10*

Languages 18 Languages and Frameworks 3-8



Australian Curriculum

Unpacking the Australian Curriculum



Unpacking the Australian Curriculum



Aspects of the Australian Curriculum



Essential aspects of the Curriculum

There are two essential aspects of the Australian Curriculum:

• What students will be taught – Content descriptions

• What students will learn – Achievement standards

• The curriculum is written FOR educators to develop programs for TEACHING (content descriptions) and LEARNING (achievement standards)



Current practice and criticism

The structure of the curriculum lends itself to a ‘checklist’ mentality (Ditchburn, 2012, p. 353) whereby teachers feel obliged to ‘tick off’ the content requirements for their year level.

Recently reported in Education Today, Vol 17 (2) Term 2, 2017



The ‘checklist mentality’



Begin with expected achievement



Achievement standards structure

Unpacking the structure of achievement standards



What are achievement standards?

Statement of expected learning

Describe the depth of conceptual understanding and the sophistication of skills expected of students

Describe a broad sequence of learning from F-10



Achievement standards structure

There are two exceptions:• English • Languages

Typically, two paragraphs of prose Second paragraph is

skills – what students are expected to be able to do

First paragraph is understanding –what students are expected to understand



The structure within a standard

Typically, for each learning area, each paragraph is organised by the strands and sub-strands.



Secondary example



Exceptions – Concepts

When there are no sub-strands, the achievement standards are organised by concepts (History and Geography) or organising ideas (Civics and Citizenship and Economics and Business)



Exceptions – Organising ideas



Your turn

Activity 11. Select a learning area and year level from the

selection on the tables.

2. For each statement in the achievement standard, highlight the corresponding sub-strand or concept you think it relates to. There may be more than one sub-strand represented in each sentence. If so, highlight both sub-strands in the box.

3. If you have time, discuss any patterns or relationships you identified.



Achievement standards

Unpacking achievement standards at sentence level



Unpacking achievement standards at sentence level

EVERY sentence has:

• A verb that indicates the cognitive process that is to be deployed (cognitive process)

• The object of action (content)

By the end of Year 4, students recognise strategies for managing change.

MOST sentences include:

• A modifier to describe complexity, quality, depth or conditions.

By the end of Year 3, students identify different views on how to respond to an issue or challenge.



Examples



Further examples

These three elements are not always presented in the same order as shown in the following examples:



Your turn

Activity 21. Select a learning area and year level worksheet

on your table

2. Highlight the elements of the standard• Green (process)

• Blue (modifier)

• Pink (content)



Standards-based

• Unpacking the ‘standard’



What is standards-based?

Outcomes-based education Standards-based

Systems of instruction, assessment, reporting based on

Goals (outcomes). By the end of

the educational experience, each student

should have achieved the goal.

• Identifies celebrations and

commemorations of significance in

Australia and the world

• Applies skills of communication

(NSW History Syllabus, Stage 2)

Describe the what and not how well

Students demonstrating understanding and

skills they are expected to learn as they

progress through their education.

• By the end of Year 3, students

identify individuals, events and

aspects of the past that

have significance in the present.

• Students communicate their ideas,

findings and conclusions in oral,

visual and written forms using

simple discipline-specific terms.

Describe ‘the depth’ of understanding

Describe the ‘sophistication’ of skills



EVERY sentence describes:

1. The cognitive process/es or observable action/s (verb)

2. The object of action (content)



Other aspects

Many sentences also describe:

• Expectations of quality

• Complexity

• Breadth

• Depth

• Conditions



Descriptions of quality

Cognitive process (typically adverbs)



Descriptions of quality

Content (typically adjectives)



Descriptions of complexity

Process



Descriptions of complexity

Content



Descriptions of breadth and depth



Describing conditions



Let’s recap

• Achievement standards describe what students are expected to understand and do – the non-negotiables

Students:

• read texts

• communicate ideas

• design solutions

• group objects

• present findings



They can also describe ‘the standard’

• level of quality expected in terms of the cognitive process and the content that the process is deployed on

• level of complexity in relation to the cognitive process and content

• the breadth and depth of learning students are expected to demonstrate

• conditions in which students demonstrate their learning



Your turn

Activity 3• Match the phrases from the Australian Curriculum

achievement standards to one of the following modifiers:

• quality of process

• quality of content

• complexity of process

• complexity of content

• depth and breadth of learning

• conditions of learning



Levels of performance

Developing levels of performance



Levels of performance

The achievement standard is a standard which has

up to 5 levels of achievement that students can

demonstrate.

The work of students that is above or below

satisfactory MUST be described within the

achievement standard for that year level or band

(unless the student is operating at a lower year level

achievement standard, or being accelerated ie has

an ILP).



Equity of access

• ALL students are entitled to achieve the standards (understanding and skills) as described in the curriculum.

Therefore:

• A D-grade or an E-grade does not mean the expectations of learning are fundamentally different, rather that can be qualitatively different, or the expectation of understanding and skills are the same, but to a lesser level of quality, or have been achieved with support.



Entitlement

Students:

• read texts

• communicate ideas

• design solutions

• group objects

• present findings

ALL levels of performance should include at the very least the non-negotiables – Every student’s entitlement.



Cognitive

process

Object (Content) Modifier

(Qualities,

levelness)

Object (Content) Cognitive

process

Object (Content) Modifier

(Qualities

levelness)

ABOVE describe how people, places, communities and environments are diverse and

locally and globally

interconnected and

identify the causes and effects of these interconnections

over time

AT describe how people, places, communities, and environments are diverse and

globally interconnected and

identify the effects of these interconnections

over time

BELOW identify how environments are diverse and

interconnected

Example of poor description of LOA

Providing more content to keep high performing students ‘busy’

A low level of achievement is not less content

Altering the intention of the standard, or setting an ‘easier’ standard is not ensuring equity of access



A way forward

Ok, so how do we discriminate between levels of performance or achievement?



Complexity of process

A

Evaluate

B

Analyse

C

Recognise and explain

Level ‘C’ reflects what every student must be able to understand and do

Increase the challenge level for A and B



Other ways to discriminate

• The quality of the process or content

• The contexts in which the process is deployed – eg the range of contexts (number, frequency)

• The type or complexity of content the action is applied to

• Conditions under which the student performs



Begin with the ‘C’

In the following example, the cognitive process and the object have been qualified to describe the level of performance.



Using modifiers to discriminate



A secondary example



Your turn

• Select a primary or secondary worksheet

• Using this standard as a benchmark for ‘C’, draft an A. B. D and E level of performance. (use the example as a guide).

• When drafting these levels of performance, ensure that each level is qualitatively different from the level above and below



Possible response - Primary



Possible response - Secondary



The process revisited1. Begin with the achievement standard statement (pitched at a

‘C)

2. Determine the observable action (verb) and whether the demand can be changed for A and B levels of performance

3. Determine how the achievement expectations might change for A, B, D and E in relation to the ‘negotiables’, ie quality, complexity, depth and breadth and conditions

4. Combine these elements to write each level of performance



Now you have:

• clarified the important elements of the Australian Curriculum and reaffirmed the centrality of achievement standards

• debunked the myth (currently in the media) that teachers are treating the curriculum as a ‘checklist’ of what is to be taught’

• unpacked achievement standards in relation to their structure at a paragraph and sentence level

• tools for discriminating between levels of performance

• WHAT NEXT?

SO WHAT NOW?



Key message – begin with the end in mind



Imagine …



and not …



A program of professional learning

Workshop

2Workshop 3

Building understanding

Unpacking achievement

standards and levels of

performance

Catering to all students

The Australian Curriculum and

differentiationLiteracy and numeracy

Using the National Literacy

and Numeracy Progressions to

differentiate

Planning for success

Standards based planning and

assessment

Workshop 1

Program of

professional

learning

Workshop 5



Posters are available at:

• www.australiancurriculumresources.com

• [email protected]

• #acrforteachers

30% discount for AISACT teachers!

http://www.australiancurriculumresources.com/

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The Australian Curriculum Unpacking achievement …ais.act.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/Unpacking-achievement...Essential aspects of the Curriculum There are two essential aspects of