Developing 21st century competencies through disciplines of knowledge

Barry McGawVice-Chancellor’s Fellow, University of MelbourneChair, Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority

Education and 21st Century Competencies National Symposium

Muscat, Sultanate of Oman22-24 September 2013

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Simultaneous treatment of disciplines and 21st century skills Presenting the curriculum electronically Linking resources to the curriculum for teachers

Outline of presentation

Simultaneous treatment of disciplines and 21st century skills

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Cisco/Intel/Microsoft Assessment and Teaching of 21st century skills project White paper defining 21st century skills

• Ways of thinking– Creativity and innovation– Critical thinking, problem solving and decision making– Learning to learn and metacognition

• Ways of working– Communication– Collaboration and teamwork

• Tools for working– Information literacy– ICT literacy

• Living in the world– Citizenship – global and local– Life and career– Personal and social responsibility

21st century skills for the 21st century

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Are they uniquely 21st century? Most have been important for centuries The technology-rich environment is new

Nomenclature General capabilities not 21st century skills Literacy Numeracy Information and communication technology capability Critical and creative thinking Personal and social capability Ethical understanding Intercultural understanding

Key questions Do we have developmental continua for these capabilities? What content would be required for their development?

Australian Curriculum view of 21st century skills

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28ATC21S Australian CurriculumWays of thinking

Creativity and innovationCritical and creative thinking

Critical thinking, problem solving & decision making

Learning to learn and metacognition Personal capability

Ways of working

Communication Literacy

Collaboration and teamwork Social capability

Tools for working

Information literacyICT capability

ICT literacy

Numeracy

Living in the world

Citizenship – global and local Intercultural understanding

Life and career Ethical understanding

Personal and social responsibility Personal and social capability

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Central place for content Preserving the disciplines

• Disciplines are the result of several millennia of human effort• Research on expertise shows importance of deep, domain-specific

knowledge Attending to some current, cross-curriculum priorities

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures• Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia• Sustainability

Form of curriculum content Content descriptions setting out learning entitlements Content elaborations for teachers who would like more details Achievement standards with annotated samples of student work

Can the same content serve the general capabilities?

Australian Curriculum view of knowledge disciplines

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28Structure of the Australian Curriculum

Critica

l and Creative

Thinking

ICT Capabiity

Ethica

l Und

erstan

ding

Intercultu

ral Underst

anding

Personal a

nd Social C

apability

NumeracyLiteracy

7 General Capabilities

Sustainability

Asia and Australia’sLinks with Asia

Aboriginal and Torres StraitIslander Histories and Cultures

3 Cross-curriculum Priorities

Can general capabilities be covered in the cells?

Many cells will be empty.

Lang

uage

s

Civ

ics

and

Citi

zens

hip

Eco

nom

ics,

Bus

ines

s

The

Arts

Hea

lth a

nd P

hysi

cal E

duca

tion

Tech

nolo

gies

Geo

grap

hy

His

tory

Sci

ence

Mat

hem

atic

s

Eng

lish

11 Disciplines/Learning areas

Presenting the curriculum electronically

F-10• English, mathematics,

science, history, geography available.

• Rest due by end of 2013.

This button opens curriculum by learning area, general capability, cross-curriculum priority and year (grade) level.

Icons indicate general capabilities and cross-curriculum priorities for which the content descriptions are relevant.

Filter by year (grade) levels,strands, general capabilities, cross-curriculum priorities.

Icons for general capabilities and cross-curriculum priorities

Use this view to display content and content elaborations.

Foundation year selected.

General capability & cross-curriculum priority icons.

Display filtered on:Grade/year

4Strand

Science understandingGeneral capability

Critical & creative thinking

Organising elements

The Critical and creating thinking learning continuum is organised into four interrelated elements, each detailing differing aspects of thinking. The elements are not a taxonomy of thinking. Rather, each makes its own contribution to learning and needs to be explicitly and simultaneously developed.

Inquiring – identifying, exploring and organising information and ideas

Generating ideas, possibilities and actions

Reflecting on thinking and processes

Analysing, synthesising and evaluating reasoning and procedures.

Six levels cover the years F to 10. Level 1 – Foundation Level 2 – Years 1-2 Level 3 – Years 3-4 Level 4 – Years 5-6 Level 5 – Years 7-9 Level 6 – Years 9-10

In this display, 3 levels can be seen at a time, either 1-3 or 4-6.

Asking why events make people happy or sad.

Asking who, when, how and why about a range of situations and events.

Linking resources to the curriculum for teachers

Website of resources linked by meta-tags to the Australian Curriculum

Filtered on:Grade/Year 4Critical & creative thinking

Now select:View elaborations and matching resources

Resources for students and teachers help with personalisation of learning for students.

The resources can be filtered by type.

182 resources listed below.

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Australian Curriculum Includes 21st century skills as general capabilities Is also, very importantly, organised by disciplines/learning areas. Provides developmental continua for both

Electronic presentation Allows users to filter the curriculum in various ways. Allows ready connection with a database of electronic resources

Powerful confluence of developments that is supporting a major curriculum change in Australia.

Review and conclusion

Thank you.