Your essay should include reference to these four themes:
·Educational reforms and their influence
- this relates to three main themes: (a) what has improved (and on what
basis you believe it is an improvement); (b) the relationship between
'content' (e.g. sequential core knowledge) and 'process' (e.g. 21st
century education) in this time period; and (c) the presence or lack of
recognition of the Judeo-Christian heritage of our liberal democracy.
·T
he ACARA curriculum
reforms and theNESA syllabus documents-when
this came to be, why, and what it does know - strengths and concerns.
How might this reflect changes in the purposes of education in
Australia, and the structure of curriculum in Australia.
·A Key Learning Area
of
your choice and how it is taught in Christian and alternate school
contexts - that is, choose a topic from a NESA syllabus that you are
likely to teach, and 'interrogate' it with reference to
·Specific Christian educators / theoriststhat
support your opinions - use the authors and material as indicated below
(Graduate stage: 1.1.1; 1.2.1; 1.3.1; 2.1.1; 7.1.1; 7.2.1; 7.3.1;
7.4.1).
SUPPORT NOTES FOR THIS TASK
How would you help a student with a formal assessment task?
That
question is another 'bread and butter' question for teachers. We wish
to demonstrate what is called 'scaffolding' to demonstrate what it can
look like. Note that there are certain principles in scaffolding
assessment tasks, but how that is expressed will depend on the personal
style of the teacher.
This is what we call 'having common
principles but individual expression'. If we make thewaywe express
principles too tight, we fall into a dry legalism. If we forget the
principles and just act dependent on our personal style, then we fall
into sentiment. Much of teaching revolves around both of these aspect of
life in a community - that is, grace (how we relate) and truth (what is
good).
For us as Christians, it is no accident that twice in the
first chapter of John's gospel we read that Jesus came in
graceandtruth - not one or the other.
THE KINDS OF TASKS WHEN SCAFFOLDING
We
normally move from simple to complex, concrete to abstract across a
course of work or in a test. You will notice in this course you start
with short reflections, then move to a minor piece of essay writing, to a
more comprehensive one at the end, The reason for this is to check that
you are learning what the course is set up to teach.
So, doing
your weekly reviews of the core readings will help your lecturer know if
you are understanding those important building blocks.
This task will see if you understand what curriculum is about, as another foundation idea and tool in professional teaching.
Your final task will ask you to bring together what you have read as a personal synthesis and application.
BACK TO THIS TASK
How do I break down a task into manageable bits?
Sometimes
when we read a task before us, we can feel overwhelmed. That also
happens to some (many?) of your students. Here is one way to break it
into smaller, more manageable concepts"
·What is
the content of the task?One way of answering this question is to go
through the question and underline everynounthat you are asked to
engage with in the task. For example, in this task, the nouns (and
clarifying adjectives) are:
·Changes - this means you are looking for material to help you understand any developments in curriculum
·School curriculum - you do not need to consider TAFE or university
·Australian context - international studies may be a distraction, unless it helps understand Australia
·World War II - this gives you a time frame for your review
2.What
is the action for the task?Once I have my information on the topic,
what am I to do with it? The verbs help us understand this expectation:
·Explain - you do not have to analyse, synthesize, or necessarily apply. But you need to do more than describe
3.Other
Information -you have been given four contextualizing themes which
will help you to target your response - go through these and again
identify the nouns and verbs.
4.Key Resources [also see
below]-where might I look for information? We will help with this, your
first writing task. Your first resource is the attached article which
is chapter 1 of the last substantial review of our National Curriculum
(by Donnelly and Wiltshire, 2014).
Then there is ACARA itself - which you can find here:https://acara.edu.au/curriculum- this includes the history and a 2020 review (not as substantial as the 2014 one)
A
key curriculum area - this is inviting you to give examples from a
subject area in which you may teach. You can find these on the NSW
Education Standards Authority (NESA - this used to be called 'BOSTES' -
if you see this term on any document, replace it with NESA) site here:
https://educationstandards.nsw.edu.au/wps/portal/nesa/11-12/Understanding-the-curriculum/syllabuses-a-z
5.The Assessment rubrics -always keep these in mind - for this task, it is as follows:
·Reviewing how well you understand the changes you are explaining = 50%
·Understanding how ACARA works in terms of curriculum across Australia = 20%
·Reflections
on the relationship between curriculum and how students learn that
includes a faith level of understanding = 20% (use your core weekly
readings for this)
·How well you present, which means do you use APA7 well? = 10%
REMEMBER -
You must use the key literature from the course!
And -
Contact your lecturer sooner rather than later if the task is not making sense to you!
RESOURCES:
Look for readings that give you an historical perspective, plus help you explain where education is currently focused.
For example:
TILE
ON HISTORY - the changes from more theistic to less theistic have had
an impact on the content of our educational curriculum since WWII. this
shift can be described through the language of Poplin; theologically,
buy using the concepts from Watkin (Biblical theory is no longer
dominant); noting the different technique explained in "Whatiflearning";
and a couple of other readings in the tile on History
TILE
ON TEACHING HISTORY - look at the historical summaries from the section
in 'the last hundred years or so" and see if you can identify any
influences in current education from these thinkers; the article on
Character notes how the basis of developing character (now called
'wellbeing' or 'flourishing') has shifted; the Dangerous Idea describes
the impact of 'selfism'; and there is a copy of the full CARDUS report,
the summary of which you looked at in your weekly readings
TILE
ON STRATEGIES - the first chapter of the 2014 curriculum review is also
posted here, and is very important for this task; the CECE best
practice article describes what is currently described as essential for
effective teaching; Sweller's article on why inquiry approaches ('21st
century education) may not be helpful is also on this tile (because he
believes since WWII the trend has gone too much to an emphasis on
process, and not enough attention has been paid to sequential core
knowledge)
TILE ON CURRICULUM - the definitional
article by curriculum can help you define what you mean by the term; the
John Hopkins article reflects on probable impacts of sequential core
knowledge; the Donnelly book extract is a summary of the full 2014
report (if you find that a bit long / technical)
TILE
ON NATIONAL PRIORITIES - this explains the structure of the National
Curriculum; it also offers some quotes to critique the relative
meaningfulness of the cross-curriculum priorities.
·
Also check out your Class Forum Readings - e.g. the "Dumb and
Dumber' article suggests that old ideas are having an impact on current
teaching practice (and not in always good ways); likewise, the Peter
Hitchen's article on his "dangerous idea"
· It is better to explain core ideas more deeply,
than the spread yourself too thinly.
What
might that mean?- take time with some core articles (e.g. Poplin and
worldviews; the move from philosophy to curriculum to practice in
Wiltshire and Donnelly; general social shifts that align with this
-Hitchens; Joseph; an example of a current 'debate' - 21st century
education and /or the basis for character): all of this easily takes
you to 1750 words.
Grace and peace.
The Education Team