What is the role of curriculum? What makes a quality curriculum?

December 6, 2023

In a report released on Monday 27 November, 2023, educational reform consultancy Learning First claims to have conducted the first detailed benchmarking of the content of the Australian science curriculum against seven high-performing and comparable systems around the world.

The claim that this is the first benchmarking activity is just one of many errors in the report, which is rife with unsubstantiated claims, incomplete evidence, and gross assumptions, the most disturbing of which is that more “content” is a key indicator of quality curriculum (with the implication that good teaching is all about transmission of content).

Learning First is a company that claims to “build relationships… based on honesty, integrity and deep experience and expertise” and whose clients “include federal governments in various parts of the world.” Given their activities and clients, this report is worth scrutiny.

Five misconceptions about the curriculum (and what you really need to know)

October 25, 2023

In my work with teachers in curriculum and pedagogy over the years, I have noticed that several misconceptions about our Australian Curriculum: Science continue to be raised.

These misconceptions include:

The Science understanding strand is the only strand that should be planned for, taught, and assessed
Content elaborations must be taught and assessed
Each content description should be taught as a unit across a whole term
The curriculum is the only thing that should be taught
The goal of the curriculum is to prepare students for senior secondary science classes

Each of these statements is not correct! So what is? Let’s see what’s true.

Is jelly a liquid or a solid? And why this is a great inquiry question

February 9, 2023

I’m a big fan of inquiry questions, and some in particular stand out as worth embedding in our teaching. One inquiry question (from the Year 3 year level description in the revised Australian Curriculum: Science) in particular — “Is jelly a liquid or a solid?” — stands out. It’s there to support learning of the Science understanding sub-strand Chemical sciences content description “investigate the observable properties of solids and liquids and how adding or removing heat energy leads to a change of state,” as well as several of the Science inquiry strand content descriptions. Read on to find out why this is such a useful question for driving learning in Year 3…