tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/national-curriculum-3251/articlesNational Curriculum – The Conversation2023-11-30T19:03:29Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2189142023-11-30T19:03:29Z2023-11-30T19:03:29ZThe Australian Curriculum is copping fresh criticism – what is it supposed to do?<p>This week a new <a href="https://learningfirst.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/FULL-REPORT-COMBINED.pdf">report</a> said there was a “curriculum problem” in Australia. Education consultancy group <a href="https://learningfirst.com/about-us/">Learning First</a> found the science curriculum lacked depth and breadth and had major problems with sequencing and clarity.</p>
<p>While the report said it was not “assigning blame directly to the curriculum”, it also noted since the Australian Curriculum was introduced more than a decade ago, “the performance of students in international […] science assessments has fallen by almost a whole year of schooling”.</p>
<p>Headlines followed about a “<a href="https://www.smh.com.au/education/shockingly-poor-how-australia-s-science-curriculum-fails-students-20231122-p5elvz.html">shockingly poor</a>” curriculum and “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/nov/27/australian-education-in-long-term-decline-due-to-poor-curriculum-report-says">long-term decline</a>” in performance. At the same time, <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/teachers-no-option-but-to-make-lessons-up/news-story/cbaf7cdaa48209ed8780d92ffba16797">The Australian reported</a> concerns the curriculum does not provide enough guidance to teachers.</p>
<p>While students’ scores on some international assessments <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/education/alarm-bells-australian-students-record-worst-result-in-global-tests-20191203-p53gie.html">have been falling</a>, is it right to blame the curriculum for these trends? </p>
<h2>What is the Australian Curriculum?</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/about-the-australian-curriculum/">Australian Curriculum</a> is designed for students from the first year of schooling to Year 10. </p>
<p>It sets out:</p>
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<p>the expectations for what all young Australians should be taught, regardless of where they live in Australia or their background.</p>
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<p>It is made up of eight “learning areas”: English, mathematics, science, humanities and social sciences, the arts, technologies, health and physical education, and languages.</p>
<p>It has <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-do-australian-states-need-a-national-curriculum-and-do-teachers-even-use-it-171745">been described as a “map”</a> of all the learning a teacher covers in each year for each particular subject.</p>
<p>Importantly, as <a href="https://theconversation.com/first-its-not-an-instruction-manual-3-things-education-ministers-need-to-know-about-the-australian-curriculum-173058">education experts note</a>, the curriculum was never meant to be prescriptive and nor should it be. Teachers should be able to tailor lessons to particular classes, situations and students. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-do-australian-states-need-a-national-curriculum-and-do-teachers-even-use-it-171745">Why do Australian states need a national curriculum, and do teachers even use it?</a>
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<h2>Who sets the curriculum?</h2>
<p>It is designed by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, in consultation with teachers, academics, parents, business, industry and community groups. It undergoes a review every six years and all updates are subject to ministerial approval.</p>
<p>Commonwealth and state and territory education ministers first approved the curriculum in 2009. It was designed to reflect the priorities of the 2008 <a href="https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED534449.pdf">Melbourne Declaration</a> on the purposes and goals of Australian education. For example, “Australian schooling promotes equity and excellence”.</p>
<p>The curriculum has since been updated four times (as recently as April 2022 under the Morrison government) but remains a <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-is-peter-dutton-trying-to-start-another-political-fight-over-the-school-curriculum-187021">contested document</a>. Common <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-crowded-curriculum-sure-it-may-be-complex-but-so-is-the-world-kids-must-engage-with-157690">criticisms</a> include that the curriculum is overcrowded, too complicated, <a href="https://theconversation.com/teaching-a-hatred-of-australia-no-minister-heres-why-a-democracy-has-critical-curriculum-content-167697">too political</a> and not inclusive enough. </p>
<h2>Teacher shortages and lack of funding</h2>
<p>Given the curriculum has to cover so much diverse content and serve so many purposes, criticism is all but inevitable. </p>
<p>While it is important to scrutinise the curriculum, it does not dictate how students learn or the conditions they learn in. So we should not let “<a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/not-interested-in-picking-fights-new-education-minister-says-curriculum-wars-have-been-settled-20220603-p5aqtb.html">curriculum wars</a>” distract us from other issues hurting Australian schools and education. </p>
<p>Australia is in the midst of a <a href="https://www.education.gov.au/teaching-and-school-leadership/consultations/national-teacher-workforce-action-plan">serious teacher shortage</a>. In <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-10-24/nsw-casual-teacher-shortage-educational-support/103015334">New South Wales alone</a>, 10,000 classes per day are not adequately staffed due to shortages. Teachers are plagued by <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00049441221086654">excessive workloads</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/school-principals-are-reaching-crisis-point-pushed-to-the-edge-by-mounting-workloads-teacher-shortages-and-abuse-201777">abuse</a> and a <a href="https://theconversation.com/no-wonder-no-one-wants-to-be-a-teacher-world-first-study-looks-at-65-000-news-articles-about-australian-teachers-186210">lack of respect</a> for the profession. </p>
<p>Public schools are also battling <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/nov/23/australia-100-wealthiest-schools-earnings-income-data-education-department">dire funding shortages</a>. A <a href="https://www.aeufederal.org.au/news-media/news/2023/how-school-funding-fails-public-schools-report">report</a> for the Australian Education Union recently found private schools were overfunded by about $800 million in 2023, while government schools were underfunded by $4.5 billion. </p>
<p>This is based on the <a href="https://www.education.gov.au/recurrent-funding-schools/schooling-resource-standard">Schooling Resource Standard</a>, which outlines the minimum funding standard required for schools to respond adequately to their students’ needs. </p>
<p>In chronically underfunded schools with staffing shortages, it is no surprise students’ performance will be affected, regardless of teachers’ efforts – or whatever is in the curriculum. </p>
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<img alt="A student works at a desk with a notebook, ruler, phone and books." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562595/original/file-20231130-15-rqbb3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562595/original/file-20231130-15-rqbb3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562595/original/file-20231130-15-rqbb3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562595/original/file-20231130-15-rqbb3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562595/original/file-20231130-15-rqbb3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562595/original/file-20231130-15-rqbb3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562595/original/file-20231130-15-rqbb3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Recent figures show 10,000 classes in NSW are without a teacher per day.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/person-drawing-on-white-sketch-pad-zuQDqLFavI4">Tamarcus Brown/Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<h2>What do schools actually need?</h2>
<p>The curriculum should be revised, challenged and critiqued to ensure it is responsive to the ever-changing needs of Australian students. We should also hold high expectations for quality education in Australia. </p>
<p>But blaming the curriculum for underperformance is a distraction from bigger issues that impact student learning. </p>
<p>What schools really need to succeed is <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-11-20/report-funding-divide-australian-public-private-education-system/103123514">adequate funding</a> and a stable and <a href="https://blog.aare.edu.au/why-restoring-trust-in-teaching-now-could-fix-the-teacher-shortage/">well-supported</a> teaching workforce.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-the-national-school-reform-agreement-and-what-does-it-have-to-do-with-school-funding-202847">What is the National School Reform Agreement and what does it have to do with school funding?</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218914/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jessica Holloway receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephanie Wescott does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Two education researchers argue it is important we don’t let ‘curriculum wars’ distract us from the other issues hurting Australian schools and education.Stephanie Wescott, Lecturer in Education, Monash UniversityJessica Holloway, Senior Research DECRA Fellow, Institute for Learning Sciences and Teacher Education, Australian Catholic UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2148062023-10-18T16:02:41Z2023-10-18T16:02:41ZMost secondary schools don’t have to teach the national curriculum. It should be revised and restored – or discarded<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/554325/original/file-20231017-28-r8dcxu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5754%2C3045&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/classmate-educate-friend-knowledge-lesson-concept-430201606">Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Each year, when new <a href="https://www.bristol.ac.uk/education/study/initial-teacher-education/subjects/english-pgce/">PGCE students</a> arrive at the University of Bristol to start their journey towards becoming English teachers, I ask them to study the national curriculum. This is the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/national-curriculum">statutory document</a> prescribing what children aged from five to 16 are taught at school. </p>
<p>I do this despite that curriculum appearing increasingly irrelevant. It is rarely – if ever – seen in the schools in which our student teachers train, despite it being the only document mandating what <a href="https://www.schoolsmith.co.uk/independent-school-maintained-school-or-academy/">council-maintained</a> schools “<a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/national-curriculum">must teach</a>”. </p>
<p>Academies – self-governing schools receiving direct government funding, rather than being council-maintained – are exempt from the curriculum. As of <a href="https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics">January 2023</a>, 80.4% of secondary schools are academies or free schools, accounting for 80.2% of secondary school pupils. </p>
<p>The importance of the curriculum will change if a Labour government comes to power at the next general election. The party has <a href="https://labour.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Mission-breaking-down-barriers.pdf">promised a review</a> of curriculum and assessment – and that all state schools, including academies, will be required to follow the “core national curriculum”. </p>
<p>It may be, though, that the national curriculum has outlived its usefulness. A more radical approach could be to dispense with it altogether. </p>
<h2>Limits of the curriculum</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://education-uk.org/documents/cox1989/cox89.html">original curriculum</a> only ever covered England and Wales, and iterations published after Welsh devolution in 1998 were solely for England. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own systems. Furthermore, the curriculum has only ever applied to state-funded schools, not independents.</p>
<p>The notion of a “national” curriculum was further undermined when Tony Blair’s government introduced the academies programme. Ironically, it was the lure of independence from the curriculum that encouraged some of the earliest schools to convert. Gordon Brown later <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/feb/10/gordonbrown.education">promoted academies</a> as “engines in disadvantaged areas for social mobility and social justice”, perhaps implying that the curriculum was incapable of achieving this. </p>
<p>Since 2010, the Conservative government has enthusiastically embraced academisation, and schools that do not perform well in Ofsted inspections can be <a href="https://educationhub.blog.gov.uk/2023/05/02/what-are-academy-schools-and-what-is-forced-academisation/">compelled to become academies</a>. This is despite claims that academies do not necessarily <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/mar/31/education-union-criticises-badly-flawed-evidence-behind-academy-drive">perform better</a> than the maintained schools they replace.</p>
<p>Yet despite their apparent freedom from the national curriculum, the programmes of study offered in most academies are remarkably similar. This is the result of an accountability-heavy, performance-centric system, which judges and ranks schools on <a href="https://www.teachingtimes.com/exam-factories_130715/#:%7E:text=This%20report%2C%20commissioned%20by%20The%20National%20Union%20of,pupils%20are%20developing%20stress-related%20conditions%20linked%20to%20testing">exam results</a>. The GCSE exam specifications have become the new national curriculum. </p>
<h2>Teaching to the test</h2>
<p>The pressure of GCSE success in English is such that many schools begin preparing their students for the exams during key stage three (studied by children aged 11 to 14), well before when GCSE study is intended to start. </p>
<p>Research has found that <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/04250494.2022.2085550">key stage three</a> teaching is often influenced by GCSE requirements, such as the study of <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1358684X.2021.1957669">the Victorian novel</a> – a component of GCSE English Literature. This insular literary diet means that pupils lack the opportunity to study a wide range of diverse and contemporary texts, such as the “seminal world literature” that the national curriculum requires.</p>
<p>If schools do make changes to what they teach, they may be prompted more by external influences than a will to adhere to the curriculum. They could be, for instance, responding to issues raised by the Black Lives Matter movement by using resources and reading lists such as <a href="https://litincolour.penguin.co.uk/">Lit in Colour</a> to address the lack of diversity in English Literature. </p>
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<p>It’s possible that <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/national-curriculum">the current curriculum</a> is well past its sell-by date anyway. All five previous iterations (1989, 1995, 1999, 2004, 2007) enjoyed a much shorter shelf life. Today’s curriculum is a decade old.</p>
<p>This milestone is unlikely to be celebrated – at least among English teachers. In contrast to the 1989 original, which was largely welcomed by the profession, today’s curriculum has faced accusations of being devised with <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2012/nov/12/primary-national-curriculum-review">only token consultation</a> of the people who would end up teaching it. </p>
<p>Given the extent of the curriculum’s decline, both in reach and in determining what is taught, it is interesting that it remains frequently cited in government documents, such as the new Department for Education <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1186732/The_reading_framework.pdf">reading framework</a>. </p>
<p>It is used as a standard by Ofsted in inspections: schools must teach a broad range of subjects, as “exemplified by the national curriculum”. But for the majority of schools, it is simply an example of what to teach, not a requirement.</p>
<p>If the national curriculum is to survive, it requires revision. To have a positive impact on learning, that revision should involve a spectrum of educational experts and be open to national debate. And academies should be required to teach it. It is hardly worth revising for a small and dwindling number of schools.</p>
<p>More radically, it could be dropped altogether. <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1478210320967816">Finland</a> and New Zealand have successfully introduced a part-local curriculum, allowing teachers <a href="https://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/Strengthening-local-curriculum/Leading-local-curriculum-guide-series/Local-curriculum#local_curriculum">opportunities to cover</a> topics that respond to the issues and needs of their communities.</p>
<p>One problem, though, is that this would require a complete overhaul of the examination system in England – and so is unlikely to garner political support.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214806/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lorna Smith does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Over 80% of secondary schools are academies, which don’t have to teach the national curriculum.Lorna Smith, Associate Professor in Education, University of BristolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1835202022-05-26T20:38:02Z2022-05-26T20:38:02ZDumbed-down curriculum means primary students will learn less about the world and nothing about climate<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465231/original/file-20220525-22-4w265h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5964%2C3978&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Revisions to the Australian primary school curriculum for geography mean children will learn much less about the world and its diversity than they do at present. They will learn nothing about some significant concepts such as climate. </p>
<p>The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) launched the <a href="https://v9.australiancurriculum.edu.au/">new version</a> of the Australian Curriculum on May 9. ACARA <a href="https://www.acara.edu.au/docs/default-source/media-releases/2022-australian-curriculum-v9-website-media-release.pdf">described</a> it as “a more stripped-back and teachable curriculum that identifies the essential content our children should learn”. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-well-does-the-new-australian-curriculum-prepare-young-people-for-climate-change-183356">How well does the new Australian Curriculum prepare young people for climate change?</a>
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<p>Overall, the new curriculum reduces the number of content descriptions by 21%. These are statements that describe what teachers should teach and what students should learn. In primary school geography, however, 50% of the content descriptions in the Knowledge and Understanding strand have been deleted or had content reduced. </p>
<p>The education ministers of the governments of Australia <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/education/minister-trumpets-return-of-what-it-means-to-be-australian-to-the-curriculum-20220204-p59tz1.html">pressured ACARA</a> to further reduce the content in the primary school humanities and social science learning areas. What is this knowledge that they have decided is no longer essential for our children to learn?</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-do-australian-states-need-a-national-curriculum-and-do-teachers-even-use-it-171745">Why do Australian states need a national curriculum, and do teachers even use it?</a>
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<h2>What knowledge of the world is gone?</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/">previous curriculum</a> had a sequence of content descriptions that gave students some knowledge of the world beyond Australia. The following have been deleted:</p>
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<li><p>the division of the world into hemispheres, continents and oceans (in year 2)</p></li>
<li><p>the main climate types of the world and the similarities and differences between the climates of different places (in year 3)</p></li>
<li><p>a brief study of the continents and countries of Africa and South America (in year 4), and Europe and North America (in year 5)</p></li>
<li><p>differences in the economic, demographic and social characteristics of countries across the world (in year 6).</p></li>
<li><p>the world’s cultural diversity, including that of its indigenous peoples (in year 6).</p></li>
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<p>The only world knowledge retained in the revision is the study of Australia’s neighbouring countries in year 3 and Asia in year 6. As a result, students will learn nothing about four of the continents, or of the environmental, economic, demographic and social differences and similarities between the countries of the world. They will have no sense of the world as a whole, and its diversity. </p>
<p>In an increasingly interconnected world, children need at least to know about the countries we are connected to through history, trade, migration, alliances and government and non-government aid.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-crowded-curriculum-sure-it-may-be-complex-but-so-is-the-world-kids-must-engage-with-157690">A 'crowded curriculum'? Sure, it may be complex, but so is the world kids must engage with</a>
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<h2>What key concepts have been lost?</h2>
<p>Concepts are what we think with, and intellectual development is based on conceptual thinking. The previous curriculum developed children’s understanding of the following key concepts and ways of thinking. </p>
<p>The <strong>concept of place</strong>, including the definition of a place, and an understanding of the importance of places to people. The study of places is the core of primary school geography.</p>
<p>The <strong>concept of location</strong>, including why things are located where they are, and the influence of location and accessibility on people’s activities. These were in the curriculum to get students thinking about the effects of location and distance on their lives, and about where things should be located.</p>
<p>The <strong>concept of space</strong>, including the management of spaces within neighbourhoods and towns. This introduced students to debates about how land should be used and how development conflicts are resolved, and to the idea of town planning.</p>
<p>The <strong>concept of climate</strong>. The difference between climate and weather still confuses debate over climate change, so an understanding of this difference is vital.</p>
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<p>The <strong>concept of a settlement</strong>, including the differences between places in types of settlement and demographic characteristics. This added another concept to students’ knowledge of places, and introduced them to the small area census data that reveal much about Australian communities.</p>
<p>All this content has been removed. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/first-its-not-an-instruction-manual-3-things-education-ministers-need-to-know-about-the-australian-curriculum-173058">First, it's not an instruction manual: 3 things education ministers need to know about the Australian Curriculum</a>
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<h2>What are the impacts on learning?</h2>
<p>The revision of the primary school geography curriculum has done three things:</p>
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<li><p>it has severely reduced children’s knowledge of the world</p></li>
<li><p>it has reduced the level of conceptual thinking that students will be exposed to</p></li>
<li><p>it will leave them less prepared for geography in secondary school, where the curriculum was designed on the assumption that students would know what is in the current one. </p></li>
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<p>If the aim of these deletions has been to make more time for the development of literacy and numeracy skills, it is self-defeating. Children apply and develop these skills and expand their vocabulary through subjects such as geography and history.</p>
<p>Is this the best we can do to help young Australians understand the world? The <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/239044/PRIMARY_national_curriculum_-_Geography.pdf">geography curriculum for England</a> demands much more.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183520/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alaric Maude was the Lead Writer and Writing Coach for the previous Geography curriculum.</span></em></p>The number of content descriptions of what teachers should teach and what students should learn has been cut by 21%. In primary school geography, 50% of these descriptions have gone or been reduced.Alaric Maude, Associate Professor of Geography, Flinders UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1833562022-05-23T04:55:01Z2022-05-23T04:55:01ZHow well does the new Australian Curriculum prepare young people for climate change?<p>You’d be forgiven for not having heard about the long-awaited new <a href="https://v9.australiancurriculum.edu.au/">Australian Curriculum</a>, which was released with little fanfare in the midst of the election campaign. But this update to the national curriculum (9.0), for foundation to year 12 students, is hugely significant. It will guide the education of young Australians for the next six years, which could encompass a child’s whole primary or secondary school education.</p>
<p>Education fundamentally prepares children for life, so it should be expected to address the existential issues of our time. On our current trajectory, climate change will drastically affect children’s <a href="https://www.caha.org.au/future_under_threat_climate_change_and_children_s_health_f9cbpa73my5zigmzlnpeaq#:%7E:text=It%20has%20been%20estimated%20that,these%20health%20risks%20by%202100.">health</a>, <a href="https://www.climatecouncil.org.au/resources/compound-costs-how-climate-change-damages-australias-economy/">wealth</a> and <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-11-02/australian-economy-lose-%243-trillion-climate-change-inaction/12837244">job futures</a>. Today’s children face <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abi7339">up to seven times as many</a> extreme weather events as people born in the 1960s experienced. </p>
<p>If we are to tackle climate change and adapt to the impacts that are already unavoidable, then children need to be educated for a <a href="https://www.climatechangeinaustralia.gov.au/en/">changing future</a>. Until now, however, this subject matter has been <a href="https://theconversation.com/ever-wondered-what-our-curriculum-teaches-kids-about-climate-change-the-answer-is-not-much-123272">largely missing</a> from the Australian Curriculum.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ever-wondered-what-our-curriculum-teaches-kids-about-climate-change-the-answer-is-not-much-123272">Ever wondered what our curriculum teaches kids about climate change? The answer is 'not much'</a>
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<p>We know <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02582-8">young people are overwhelmingly concerned</a> about climate change. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/apr/28/dear-politicians-young-climate-activists-are-not-abuse-victims-we-are-children-who-read-news">Students</a>, <a href="https://www.ap4ca.org/">parents</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/curriculum-is-a-climate-change-battleground-and-states-must-step-in-to-prepare-students-172392">academics</a> have been calling for a greater focus on climate change in all areas of school learning. </p>
<p>Our research project, <a href="https://curiousclimate.org.au/schools/">Curious Climate Schools,</a> has involved 1,300 Tasmanian school students to date in student-led climate literacy learning. It shows current teaching leaves students with many unanswered questions about climate change. And, from our lightning analysis of the new curriculum, it seems it won’t routinely deal with the <a href="https://curiousclimate.org.au/schools/q-a/">kinds of questions students are asking</a>.</p>
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<img alt="A drawing of the Earth, with heat and storms" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464455/original/file-20220520-18-9eef3u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464455/original/file-20220520-18-9eef3u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464455/original/file-20220520-18-9eef3u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464455/original/file-20220520-18-9eef3u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464455/original/file-20220520-18-9eef3u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464455/original/file-20220520-18-9eef3u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464455/original/file-20220520-18-9eef3u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Climate change as seen by students at Margate Primary School, Tasmania.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.curiousclimate.org.au/schools</span></span>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/children-deserve-answers-to-their-questions-about-climate-change-heres-how-universities-can-help-169735">Children deserve answers to their questions about climate change. Here's how universities can help</a>
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<h2>Climate change content has increased</h2>
<p>The good news is that the new curriculum does pay more attention to climate change. The old curriculum had a total of four explicit references to “climate change”. Whether it was covered in the classroom depended on the knowledge and beliefs of teachers. </p>
<p>In the new curriculum we counted 32 references to climate change across diverse subject areas: civics and citizenship, geography, history, science, mathematics, technologies, and the arts. This means students have more opportunities to learn about climate change, and teachers have more direction on where and how to teach it.</p>
<p>For example, in civics and citizenship, secondary school students can now learn about global citizenship by studying the campaigns of youth activists like Greta Thunberg and the work of Indigenous Australian climate campaigner Amelia Telford. They can also learn about global climate governance, including the United Nations <a href="https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/development-agenda/">Sustainable Development Agenda</a> and the UN <a href="https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-convention/what-is-the-united-nations-framework-convention-on-climate-change">Framework Convention on Climate Change</a>. </p>
<p>Climate change is also used in innovative ways in the new curriculum. In maths, for example, it’s presented as a context for teaching students how to use statistical evidence.</p>
<p>However, our analysis of climate change in the new curriculum also reveals it is dominated by a science focus. We counted 21 references to climate change in <a href="https://v9.australiancurriculum.edu.au/teacher-resources/understand-this-learning-area/science">science and technology learning areas</a>, but only nine in <a href="https://v9.australiancurriculum.edu.au/teacher-resources/understand-this-learning-area/humanities-and-social-sciences">humanities and social science learning areas</a> and two in the <a href="https://v9.australiancurriculum.edu.au/teacher-resources/understand-this-learning-area/the-arts">arts learning area</a>. </p>
<p>Our work with students through Curious Climate Schools shows their wide-ranging questions about climate change encompass ethics, politics, their careers and their futures. Students are interested in climate science and projected impacts, but have more questions about the urgency of action and <a href="https://curiousclimate.org.au/schools/what-can-i-do/">what can be done</a>. This illustrates that learning about climate change must be suffused through all subject areas if students are to become climate literate.</p>
<p>Many young people want to contribute their skills and knowledge to climate action in their future careers. We need to show them, through the curriculum, that in whatever subject area their interests lie – health, arts, law, engineering, ecology or many other fields – they will be able to use their talents to tackle the climate crisis.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/curriculum-is-a-climate-change-battleground-and-states-must-step-in-to-prepare-students-172392">Curriculum is a climate change battleground and states must step in to prepare students</a>
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<p>Worryingly, explicit mentions of climate change are still missing from the primary school curriculum. The Curious Climate Schools project found upper primary teachers had the most interest and capacity to bring climate learning into their classrooms, because they were more able to explore the complex and interacting issues of climate change across subject areas.</p>
<h2>Equipping teachers for holistic climate teaching</h2>
<p>Climate change is causing legitimate and increasing anxiety for many young people. Many students leave school <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016718520302748">feeling betrayed and disempowered</a> because their climate concerns are not being heard or taken seriously. The new curriculum does not adequately acknowledge or act on the significant emotional impacts of growing up in a changing climate. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/yes-young-people-are-concerned-about-climate-change-but-it-can-drive-them-to-take-action-171300">Yes, young people are concerned about climate change. But it can drive them to take action</a>
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<p>This leaves teachers, who may become the bearers of bad news to many students, in a difficult position. In our interviews with teachers they told us they don’t feel confident to teach about climate change or to manage their students’ anxiety as they discover how climate change will affect their futures.</p>
<p>Governments and universities have a responsibility to ensure teachers have the knowledge and skills to teach their students holistically about climate change. They can’t be expected to do this without training or resources. </p>
<p>The new curriculum moves towards addressing climate change in the classroom, but climate teaching in schools must be much more ambitious, given the urgency and enormity of the problem. This needs to be supported first by building teachers’ own knowledge about climate change. It also means equipping schools with resources that empower their students to become active citizens in a changing climate.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183356/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kim Beasy received funding from the Centre for Marine Socioecology, the University of Tasmania and the Tasmanian Climate Change Office for the research and engagement reported in this article.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chloe Lucas received funding from the Centre for Marine Socioecology, the University of Tasmania, and the Tasmanian Climate Change Office for the research and engagement reported in this article. She is also funded by the Australian Research Council, and the Tasmanian State Emergency Services. Chloe is a member of the Centre for Marine Socioecology, the Institute of Australian Geographers and the International Environmental Communication Association, and is a member of the Editorial Board of Australian Geographer.
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gabi Mocatta received funding from the Centre for Marine Socioecology, the University of Tasmania and the Tasmanian Climate Change Office for the research and engagement reported in this article. She is co-lead of the Climate Change Communication and Narratives Network, funded by Deakin University, and vice-president of the Board of the International Environmental Communication Association.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gretta Pecl received funding from the Centre for Marine Socioecology, the University of Tasmania and the Tasmanian Climate Change Office for the research and engagement reported in this article. She has also received funding from the Australian Research Council, Department of Agriculture Water and the Environment, Department of Primary Industries NSW, Department of Premier and Cabinet (Tasmania), the Fisheries Research & Development Corporation, and received travel funding support from the Australian government for participation in the IPCC process.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rachel Kelly received funding from the Centre for Marine Socioecology, the University of Tasmania and the Tasmanian Climate Change Office for the research and engagement reported in this article. She is affiliated with the Centre for Marine Socioecology, and the National Environmental Science Programme Climate Systems Hub. </span></em></p>More of the curriculum is devoted to climate change, but it’s still not presented holistically. Teachers also need more training and resources to help them prepare students for a changing climate.Kim Beasy, Lecturer in Curriculum and Pedagogy, University of TasmaniaChloe Lucas, Research Fellow, Geography, Planning and Spatial Sciences, University of TasmaniaGabi Mocatta, Research Fellow in Climate Change Communication, Climate Futures Program, University of Tasmania, and Lecturer in Communication – Journalism, Deakin UniversityGretta Pecl, Professor, ARC Future Fellow & Director of the Centre for Marine Socioecology, University of TasmaniaRachel Kelly, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Future Ocean and Coastal Infrastructures (FOCI) Consortium, Memorial University, Canada, and Centre for Marine Socioecology, University of TasmaniaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1767392022-03-09T16:11:05Z2022-03-09T16:11:05ZHow grammar is taught in England should change<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449260/original/file-20220301-13-2blbzy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5946%2C3214&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/kids-writing-notes-classroom-535799062">goodluz/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The teaching of grammar – the ways that words are combined to make sentences – can be controversial. It often leads to debates about “correct English”, and can result in people being judged if their use of language deviates from this “correct” form.</p>
<p>Language is constantly changing, and this change makes it much more difficult to have straightforward ideas about what is “correct” and “incorrect”. Whether a person communicates in the most appropriate way for their audience is what matters. </p>
<p>England’s current national curriculum, implemented since 2014, introduced lots more grammar teaching to primary schools. It states that “Pupils should develop the stamina and skills to write at length, with accurate spelling and punctuation. They should be taught the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england-primary-curriculum">correct use of grammar</a>”. Learning the technical terms of grammar is seen as a key component in writing well.</p>
<p>Children aged six to seven must be taught not only to write appropriate sentences but also are expected to learn the meaning of grammatical terms, such as <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zbkcvk7/articles/z97r2nb">statement</a>, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zrqqtfr/articles/z8strwx">command</a> and <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zrqqtfr/articles/z3dbg82">tense</a>. They are required to recognise words and phrases that are described by these terms. </p>
<p>My <a href="https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10144257/">new research</a>, conducted with colleagues, investigated whether this new approach to teaching grammar to help writing has been effective. We found that it was not effective to improve six and seven-year-old children’s narrative writing – joining <a href="https://bera-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/berj.3315">previous research</a> that has failed to find a positive impact of a range of ways of teaching grammar to improve writing. These findings indicate that the UK government needs to look again at the teaching of grammar in schools. </p>
<h2>In the classroom</h2>
<p>Our research was the first of its kind worldwide to examine how the writing of pupils in year two (aged six to seven) might benefit from grammar teaching. About 1,700 primary school children and 70 teachers across 70 schools took part in our study. </p>
<p>We split the teachers and their classes into two groups. One carried on with lessons as normal. The other group used a <a href="http://englicious.org">new set of resources</a> for teaching grammar which linked the grammar teaching more closely with the pupils’ practising of writing. </p>
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<img alt="Children raising hands while teacher shows book" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449517/original/file-20220302-27-pitd9k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449517/original/file-20220302-27-pitd9k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449517/original/file-20220302-27-pitd9k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449517/original/file-20220302-27-pitd9k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449517/original/file-20220302-27-pitd9k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449517/original/file-20220302-27-pitd9k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449517/original/file-20220302-27-pitd9k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The research was conducted with year two teachers and pupils.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/elementary-pupils-wearing-uniform-raise-hands-1451264690">Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>Both sets of pupils took writing tests at the beginning of the study and at the end, after 10 weeks of grammar lessons. These tests included a narrative writing test, where they were given a topic, asked to briefly plan a piece of writing then write for about 20 minutes. </p>
<p>The children also took a sentence generation test, where they were given two word prompts which they had to use to generate as many new sentences that contained the words as they could. Our research also included surveys, interviews and observations of teachers’ lessons.</p>
<p>The resources of England’s most recent grammar intervention – called Englicious – use modern linguistics to teach grammar in a fun, hands-on way. For example, pupils can manipulate words, phrases and sentences on a digital whiteboard.</p>
<p>In general, the teachers thought that Englicious was a very good approach which helped them to deliver the national curriculum programmes of study for grammar, and helped with their grammar teaching. However, the test results of the experimental trial did not find an improvement in the pupils’ narrative writing as a result of the grammar intervention. On the other hand, there was a positive effect shown in the sentence generation test, and although the result was not statistically significant it can be seen as encouraging.</p>
<p>At any rate, the lack of impact of grammar teaching on pupils’ writing raises questions about the extensive grammar specifications that are part of England’s national curriculum. </p>
<h2>Focus on grammar</h2>
<p>We know, thanks to the records kept by one of the expert advisers to former Education Secretary Michael Gove, that decisions about England’s current national curriculum were made that <a href="https://www.bera.ac.uk/bera-in-the-news/background-to-michael-goves-response-to-the-report-of-the-expert-panel-for-the-national-curriculum-review-in-england">did not fit</a> with research evidence about curriculum, teaching and assessment. For example, the expert panel advising on the curriculum argued that oral language was as important as reading and writing and should be given the same attention in the programmes of study. It was <a href="https://www.tes.com/magazine/archived/why-spoken-language-key-accessing-curriculum">not given</a> this attention in <a href="https://journals.lwbooks.co.uk/FORUM/vol-57-issue-1/article-6228">the curriculum</a>. </p>
<p>The extensive grammar requirements in the national curriculum, including their link with a particular view of correct English – defined as “standard English” in the national curriculum – represents an unacceptably ideological influence on the curriculum. </p>
<p>There are a <a href="https://bera-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/berj.3315">range of ways</a> of teaching writing that do have a positive impact. These include teaching that focuses on the processes of writing such as doing more than one draft of a piece of writing; teaching writing strategies such as doing an outline plan before starting writing; and using computers to support drafting of writing.</p>
<p>As a result of the findings from our research, and the findings from previous research on grammar and writing, we conclude that a review of the requirements for grammar in England’s national curriculum is needed. The national curriculum needs to reflect robust evidence on what works much more closely. Until such a review is undertaken, children in England are unlikely to be receiving the optimal teaching of writing that they deserve.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/176739/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dominic Wyse received funding from the Nuffield Foundation for the Grammar and Writing research. He also currently receives funding from The Helen Hamlyn Trust and The Leverhulme Trust. He has also just started work on an independent commission on primary assessment funded by the National Education Union. </span></em></p>Our research found that focused grammar teaching didn’t improve children’s writing.Dominic Wyse, Professor of Education, UCLLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1767832022-02-16T18:57:31Z2022-02-16T18:57:31ZThe national history curriculum should not be used and abused as an election issue<p>Everyone has an opinion about what should go into history curriculum. Politicians are especially good at expressing theirs. </p>
<p>The acting federal education minister, Stuart Robert, has <a href="https://ministers.dese.gov.au/robert/doorstop-commonwealth-parliamentary-offices-melbourne">announced</a> a delay in approving the <a href="https://www.acara.edu.au/curriculum/curriculum-review">revised Australian Curriculum</a> until at least April. This means the ongoing debate about Australian history in the curriculum is likely to be dragged out to the eve of the next federal election. History curriculum is political but should not be used as a political plaything at election time. </p>
<p>The federal government and Western Australian government <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/education/minister-trumpets-return-of-what-it-means-to-be-australian-to-the-curriculum-20220204-p59tz1.html">are concerned</a> that the revised history curriculum is “very busy”. Robert <a href="https://ministers.dese.gov.au/robert/doorstop-commonwealth-parliamentary-offices-melbourne">said</a> Western civilisation “is well and truly back in the curriculum, but it remains quite cluttered”. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-crowded-curriculum-sure-it-may-be-complex-but-so-is-the-world-kids-must-engage-with-157690">A 'crowded curriculum'? Sure, it may be complex, but so is the world kids must engage with</a>
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<p>This latest delay comes after the then education minister, Alan Tudge, last year rejected the first draft. Tudge <a href="https://ministers.dese.gov.au/tudge/sky-news-live-first-edition-peter-stefanovic">called for</a> “a positive, optimistic view of Australian history” and more content about Australia’s “Western heritage”. </p>
<p>The draft was the product of an independent review by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (<a href="https://www.acara.edu.au/about-us">ACARA</a>).</p>
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<h2>Delay gives Coalition an election issue</h2>
<p>The delay gives the Coalition the opportunity to control the debate and use history curriculum as a wedge issue in the lead-up to the election. </p>
<p>We saw the way historical narratives get split along political lines last year. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/sep/08/alan-tudge-says-he-doesnt-want-students-to-be-taught-hatred-of-australia-in-fiery-triple-j-interview">Tudge argued</a> for describing Anzac Day as “sacred” rather than “contested”. This was criticised by Labor’s shadow education minister, Tanya Plibersek, who <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/dec/07/tanya-plibersek-to-deliver-riposte-to-alan-tudges-campaign-against-national-curriculum">spoke</a> about the importance of not censoring history. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-past-is-not-sacred-the-history-wars-over-anzac-38596">The past is not sacred: the 'history wars' over Anzac</a>
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<p>Signing off on the revised curriculum close to an election might be a good political tactic. A national history curriculum that promotes a more “patriotic” narrative would appeal to Coalition voters. It would also reinforce an ideological point of difference from Labor. </p>
<p>Around the world governments promote their preferred historical narratives to push their political agendas. And, of course, public discussion about the complexities of Australian and world history is important. So is debate about how and what young people study in history. </p>
<p>However, if these issues are used to divide voters, they are in danger of being simplified and reduced to political rhetoric. We know from past rounds of the “history wars” that the <a href="https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/student-journals/index.php/NESAIS/article/view/1465/1579">black armband versus white blindfold history</a> approach has a dividing effect. </p>
<p>As <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/anna-clark-275704/articles">Anna Clark</a> notes in her latest book, <a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/making-australian-history-9781760898519#:%7E:text=Making%20Australian%20History%20is%20bold,incorporates%20the%20stories%20of%20people.">Making Australian History</a>: </p>
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<p>“History can play a vital role in truth-telling and reconciliation […] Seeking justice, remembering and addressing this nation’s past is an ongoing and necessary condition of individual and collective healing.” </p>
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<p>Expanding our collective historical understanding takes much more than a series of media moments. </p>
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<h2>‘Cluttered’ curriculum claim is overblown</h2>
<p>Attempts to extend debate about “decluttering” history overlook the complexities of curriculum reform. Decisions do need to be made about what topics are included at each year level. However, we cannot apply a Marie Kondo approach to history and keep only the bits that “<a href="https://konmari.com/marie-kondo-rules-of-tidying-sparks-joy/">spark joy</a>”.</p>
<p>The minister’s insistence that history content must be reduced further suggests a neater narrative is needed. </p>
<p>Historians help us to understand that the past is long, messy and requires special skills for interpreting it. For this reason, the approach taken in the <a href="https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/humanities-and-social-sciences/history/">Australian Curriculum</a> places equal emphasis on the skills and knowledge students need to do historical inquiry. </p>
<p>One of the stated aims is to ensure students develop interest in and enjoyment of historical study. Another is to develop understanding of historical concepts: evidence, continuity and change, cause and effect, significance, perspectives, empathy and contestability. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/teaching-a-hatred-of-australia-no-minister-heres-why-a-democracy-has-critical-curriculum-content-167697">Teaching a ‘hatred’ of Australia? No, minister, here’s why a democracy has critical curriculum content</a>
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<p>History curriculums provide maps for teachers and students to navigate a range of topics. Some topics get selected and some do not. </p>
<p>Even after the introduction of the national curriculum, <a href="https://www.deakin.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/428424/Moments-in-Time_FinalReport_May2015.pdf">research shows</a> it still gets adapted at the state and territory level. Teachers in schools then interpret the curriculum in different ways. Local context is seen to be an important factor in selecting content and perspectives. </p>
<p>Therefore, not every point in the curriculum will get covered. So perhaps it does not matter if the history curriculum is “busy”. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/first-its-not-an-instruction-manual-3-things-education-ministers-need-to-know-about-the-australian-curriculum-173058">First, it's not an instruction manual: 3 things education ministers need to know about the Australian Curriculum</a>
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<p>We also know <a href="https://www.oecd.org/education/2030-project/contact/brochure-thematic-reports-on-curriculum-redesign.pdf">from research</a> that students will make their own meanings of curriculum, regardless of how other people might want them to make sense of certain messages. </p>
<p>The government’s attitude to delaying the review process and now inviting “mums and dads to be involved” fails to acknowledge <a href="https://www.acara.edu.au/docs/default-source/curriculum/timeline-f-10-ac-review6e6513404c94637ead88ff00003e0139.pdf">the process</a> of a curriculum review. There was an <a href="https://theconversation.com/proposed-new-curriculum-acknowledges-first-nations-view-of-british-invasion-and-a-multicultural-australia-160011">extended consultation period</a> in 2021. Teachers, subject experts, educational organisations and curriculum professionals have worked hard during that process to improve the existing curriculum. </p>
<p>The government will use the overdue publication of <a href="https://www.acara.edu.au/curriculum#:%7E:text=Once%20approved%2C%20the%20updated%20Australian,be%20known%20as%20Version%209.0.&text=It%20gives%20teachers%2C%20parents%2C%20students,or%20which%20school%20they%20attend.">version 9.0</a> of the Australian Curriculum as an opportunity to stamp its authority on it. But decisions about history curriculum should not be a matter of political opinion.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/176783/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rebecca Cairns does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>By pushing the timing of approval back to April, likely just before the election, the government has put itself in a position to use the curriculum to score political points.Rebecca Cairns, Lecturer in Education, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1662922021-09-15T15:37:46Z2021-09-15T15:37:46ZGrammar still matters – but teachers are struggling to teach it<p>Do you know what a suffix is, or how to distinguish <a href="https://theconversation.com/beware-the-bad-big-wolf-why-you-need-to-put-your-adjectives-in-the-right-order-64982">adjectives from adverbs</a>? If you have a six or seven-year-old, the chances are they do. Or at least, the UK government now says they should – by the end of year 2, to be specific. </p>
<p>In year 3, primary schoolers turn their attention to prefixes and conjunctions. By the time pupils head to secondary school, they are expected to know what determiners and adverbials are. They should be able to recognise a relative clause as a special type of subordinate clause. And their creative writing should showcase modal verbs and the active and passive voice. </p>
<p>Obviously, for all this to happen, teachers need to be comfortable with these terms and the concepts they cover. And if you went to school before 1960, you probably are. However, between 1960 and 1988, English – in England and Wales – was taught in a virtually grammar-free manner. </p>
<p>While grammar made a comeback in 1988, with the introduction of the national curriculum, many teachers today feel ill-prepared to teach it. And that’s because, as I and other language experts have <a href="https://clie.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Bridging-the-KAL-gaps.pdf">pointed out</a>, they themselves were never taught much, if any, grammar. And appropriate teaching support and materials are lacking. </p>
<p>Of course, grammar at school often becomes a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/may/10/michael-gove-grammar">political issue</a>, with liberals rejecting a more <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-grammar-police-belong-in-the-18th-century-lets-not-inflict-their-rules-on-todays-children-57606">conservative insistence</a> on so-called correct grammar. But as a Dutch linguist, my perspective is that learning grammar isn’t about speaking properly. It is about gaining a broader understanding of one’s own language and how to use it creatively. It’s also a useful tool for learning other languages.</p>
<h2>Grammar-free teaching</h2>
<p>Before 1960, the way in which British schools taught English grammar was based on Latin. Categories that had been developed for Latin grammar were imposed on English. That frequently made little sense because English is a very different language. </p>
<p>From the 1920s, this Latinate approach was <a href="http://www.educationengland.org.uk/documents/newbolt/newbolt1921.html">highly criticised</a>, and the argument against English grammar in schools gathered force in the 1940s and 1950s. Studies in <a href="https://bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/j.2044-8279.1947.tb02223.x">Scotland</a> and <a href="https://bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/j.2044-8279.1958.tb01441.x">England</a> in the middle of the 20th century claimed that the subject was essentially too difficult for children. </p>
<p>Research suggests the disappearance of grammar from the English school curriculum in 1960 is also due to an <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/232025628_The_English_Patient_English_grammar_and_teaching_in_the_twentieth_century">increased emphasis</a> on English literature. The idea was that children would pick up the needed grammar more or less as they went along. </p>
<p>The 1970s marked a turning point. The government published <a href="http://www.educationengland.org.uk/documents/bullock/bullock1975.html#26">several critical reports</a>, citing in particular high levels of illiteracy in England and Wales. This led to a U-turn in policy, with grammar gradually returning to the classroom from 1988.</p>
<p>Research in the years that followed <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09500789509541407">showed that</a> student teachers didn’t have the knowledge they needed to teach it, though. The authors of <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09500789509541407">a 1995 study</a> of 99 student teachers in Newcastle noted –- and subsequent researchers <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/09500780008666787">concurred</a> – that without significant input during training, teachers would struggle. </p>
<h2>Why grammar matters</h2>
<p>Teachers’ knowledge about grammar remains problematic. A <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1111/eie.12100">2016 case study</a> of a primary school in the north-west of England (which was rated “good” by Ofsted) analysed data collected over ten months from June 2014 to March 2015 on what teachers knew. </p>
<p>When questioned about the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england-english-programmes-of-study/national-curriculum-in-england-english-programmes-of-study">terms specified</a> in the national curriculum, including adjective, conjunction and determiner, the teachers only got about half of the questions right. Teaching-support staff fared even worse. </p>
<p>Why should we care about whether our teachers are well equipped to teach grammar? In the first instance, we should because they have to. It is crucial that teachers have the knowledge and confidence to support pupils through <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-grammar-police-belong-in-the-18th-century-lets-not-inflict-their-rules-on-todays-children-57606">statutory subjects</a>, on which, in non-pandemic times at least, they will be <a href="https://www.tes.com/news/coronavirus-sats-2021-u-turn-ks1-tests-scrapped">formally tested</a>.</p>
<p>A growing body of evidence also shows that teaching grammar may enhance students’ <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02671522.2011.637640">writing development</a>. This is because knowledge about concepts such as active and passive voice may allow for more precise and productive conversations between teachers and students about textual effects and possibilities. And it may enable students to shape their prose more consciously. </p>
<p>It can also help them <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amn051">learn new languages</a>. If learners already have a conscious awareness of linguistic features such as tenses, that helps them to recognise and discuss what is the same or different in <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-german-language-has-so-many-great-words-55554">another tongue</a>. And though <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/02671522.2018.1493742">more research is needed</a>, some scholars have even suggested that grammar teaching may <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-linguistics/article/why-education-needs-linguistics-and-vice-versa/66F48C7DC73DD7D4BB63FC0C6DD06614">improve general thinking skills</a>.</p>
<p>Many publishers have stepped into the gap left by the government and have produced support materials to help (student) teachers master the <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/244216/English_Glossary.pdf">grammatical terms</a> the curriculum specifies. But publishers operate in a free market without oversight from the Department for Education. Also, the materials have generally not had any input from academic grammarians. As a result, they often contain mistakes. </p>
<p>These are not just typos. For instance, one book aimed at teachers analyses “have” as a modal verb, which it is not, and suggests that modal verbs form tenses, which they do not. Another grammar book categorises “don’t touch!” as an exclamation, while it is actually a straightforward example of a command. Such errors are not dissimilar to the suggestion that seven times seven is 48, when <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/335158/PRIMARY_national_curriculum_-_Mathematics_220714.pdf">all year 4s</a> are of course taught that it is in fact 49. </p>
<p>Furthermore, it is well known that teachers <a href="https://www.nfer.ac.uk/media/3344/teacher_labour_market_in_england_2019.pdf">experience more job stress</a> than other professionals. In this context it may not be reasonable to expect them to have to independently procure and work through professional development materials in a subject area of such importance.</p>
<p>Our baseline argument is that when it comes to recognising the importance of grammar, the curriculum is on point. However, the government should equip its teachers to teach it. It needs to commission research into the exact nature of the gaps in their knowledge. And it should get academic grammarians on board in developing appropriate support materials and training.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/166292/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Willem Hollmann is affiliated with the Committee for Linguistics in Education (CLiE) and with the Education Committee of the Linguistics Association of Great Britain (LAGB). </span></em></p>Grammatical nous has been found to give students a broader understanding of their own language and a key to learning others. The problem is, teachers aren’t being equipped to teach it.Willem Hollmann, Professor of Linguistics, Lancaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1676972021-09-13T20:05:36Z2021-09-13T20:05:36ZTeaching a ‘hatred’ of Australia? No, minister, here’s why a democracy has critical curriculum content<p>Australian Education Minister Alan Tudge <a href="https://ministers.dese.gov.au/tudge/triple-j-hack-interview-avani-dias">says</a> he does not want students to leave school with “a hatred” of their country because the history curriculum for years 7 to 10 “paints an overly negative view of Australia”. The minister is critical of proposed <a href="https://www.acara.edu.au/curriculum/curriculum-review">changes to the Australian Curriculum</a>. He sees teaching about the contested nature of Anzac Day and its commemoration as a particular concern.</p>
<p>Two interwoven threads run through current debates about the minister’s view. </p>
<p>First, public debates about the curriculum like this are arguably a sign of democracy at work. Suggesting that some things, such as Anzac Day, are sacred and beyond critical inquiry is not. </p>
<p>Second, at the heart of this discussion is how children should learn about history and how this relates to their development as Australian citizens. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/gonski-2-0-teaching-creativity-and-critical-thinking-through-the-curriculum-is-already-happening-95922">Gonski 2.0: teaching creativity and critical thinking through the curriculum is already happening</a>
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<h2>What is the Australian Curriculum?</h2>
<p>The Australian Curriculum applies to all primary and secondary schools, affecting over 4 million students. It <a href="https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/about-the-australian-curriculum/">sets</a> “the expectations for what all young Australians should be taught”.</p>
<p>Developed by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA), the curriculum is reviewed every six years. In the current <a href="https://www.acara.edu.au/curriculum/curriculum-review">review</a>, public consultations have ended and the revisions will be finalised by the end of 2021.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/media/7031/hass_history_all_elements_7-10.pdf">history curriculum</a> seeks to promote understanding and use of historical concepts. These concepts include: </p>
<ul>
<li><p><strong>evidence</strong> – obtained from primary and secondary sources to support a hypothesis or to prove or disprove a conclusion</p></li>
<li><p><strong>historical perspectives</strong> – comprising the point of view, beliefs, values and experiences of individuals and groups at the time</p></li>
<li><p><strong>interpretations</strong> – contestable explanations of the past about a specific person, event or development, typically as a result of a disciplined inquiry by historians</p></li>
<li><p><strong>significance</strong> – assigned to an issue, event, development, person, place, process, interaction or system over time and place.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>The minister’s response to the proposed revisions follows <a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-is-only-one-front-in-the-history-curriculum-wars-30888">a recent tradition</a> of objections to aspects of the curriculum. Critical exploration of Australia Day – perspectives of which vary depending on one’s point of view – has been another source of debate.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-is-only-one-front-in-the-history-curriculum-wars-30888">Australia is only one front in the history curriculum wars</a>
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<p>Three related issues arise in relation to Tudge’s concern.</p>
<h2>History is neither static nor unproblematic</h2>
<p>First, history is not static. This means one can expect the curriculum to change as new discoveries, insights and perspectives emerge over time. </p>
<p>Second, we would hope to foster learners who are curious, critical and well-informed about Australia’s rich (and sometimes troubled) history. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/alice-springs-mparntwe-education-declaration">Alice Springs (Mparntwe) Education Declaration</a> outlines education goals for all Australians. These goals include development of critical thinking and intercultural understanding. All education ministers signed the declaration.</p>
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<p>Students should learn about events such as Anzac Day and Australia Day, their historical origins and different meanings when viewed from various perspectives. It’s a valuable way of developing both critical thinking and understanding of people who are different from ourselves.</p>
<p>Acknowledging this to an extent, Tudge told <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/triplej/programs/hack/education-minister-tells-hack-proposed-school-history-curriculu/13532152">ABC Hack</a> he is “not concerned” about the curriculum in relation to “the arrivals of the First Fleet, people should learn about that, and they should learn the perspective from Indigenous people at that time as well”. What he <a href="https://ministers.dese.gov.au/tudge/triple-j-hack-interview-avani-dias">doesn’t like</a> is that certain events are critically explored: </p>
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<p>“Instead of ANZAC Day being presented as the most sacred of all days in Australia, where […] we commemorate the 100,000 people who have died for our freedoms […] it’s presented as a contested idea [but] ANZAC Day is not a contested idea, apart from an absolute fringe element in our society.” </p>
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<p>Setting aside who that “fringe element” might be (some historians?), this implies a settled, uncritical view of history. Tudge suggests the curriculum is “asking people to, instead of just accepting these for the things which they are, such as ANZAC Day, to really challenge them and to contest them”. </p>
<p>Commemorating sacrifice is compatible with critically reflecting on the conditions in which that sacrifice occurred and how that sacrifice is memorialised. Further, the assertion that the challenging of ideas produces hatred is as problematic as uncritically accepting things for whatever the minister thinks “they are”. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-past-is-not-sacred-the-history-wars-over-anzac-38596">The past is not sacred: the 'history wars' over Anzac</a>
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<p>“We’ve got a lot to be proud of,” Tudge said, “and we should be teaching the great things that have happened in Australia, as much as we should our weaknesses and flaws and some of the historical wrongs.”</p>
<p>History is often a messy contestation and confluence of violence and discovery. Pride has its place too, but pride can withstand critical inquiry, and perhaps even be strengthened by it. </p>
<p>Tudge says he wants “to make sure there’s a balance” of perspectives. That’s precisely the point of the revised curriculum. </p>
<h2>Debate is a good thing</h2>
<p>Finally, having a robust and vibrant debate about the curriculum, in which people take an active interest in what is taught, is a sign of healthy democracy. Such debate can only be strengthened when young people are encouraged to recognise that people have different points of view and history is not set in stone, as the curriculum seeks to do. It’s one key dimension of developing active, informed citizenship. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/young-people-remain-ill-equipped-to-participate-in-australian-democracy-153536">Young people remain ill-equipped to participate in Australian democracy</a>
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<p>The <a href="https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/about-the-australian-curriculum/">Australian Curriculum is founded on the idea</a> that:</p>
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<p>“Education plays a critical role in shaping the lives of young Australians and contributing to a democratic, equitable and just society that is prosperous, cohesive and culturally diverse.”</p>
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<p>The minister’s objection to proposed changes to the curriculum inadvertently illustrates why it should be taught: it’s not about hatred, but a sign of healthy democracy while meeting Australia’s educational goals.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/167697/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lucas Walsh does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Public debates about the Australian Curriculum are arguably a sign of democracy at work. Suggesting that some things, such as Anzac Day, are sacred and beyond critical inquiry is not.Lucas Walsh, Professor and Director of the Centre for Youth Policy and Education Practice, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1429382020-07-21T16:00:25Z2020-07-21T16:00:25ZTeachers have been let down by a decade of inaction on digital technologies<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348597/original/file-20200721-37-19txs3r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C8688%2C5774&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/teacher-giving-lesson-tablet-computer-classroom-441376753">wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The coronavirus pandemic has led to significant disruption to school education in England. Teachers have made a concerted effort to use digital technology and <a href="https://www.techuk.org/insights/opinions/item/17240-covid-19-online-learning-a-teachers-perspective">remote teaching and learning</a> to lessen the impact of this disruption on their students. </p>
<p>However, thanks to a decade of unambitious government policy, many have faced an uphill struggle. A general lack of preparedness for digital technology in England has left many children without the tools they need to access and benefit from remote learning.</p>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0360131519302891?via%3Dihub">recent research</a> shows that teachers have been hampered by weak policies surrounding technology supported learning, and by the research behind these policies. To unlock the educational potential of digital technologies in the future, teachers need support which focuses on innovation and practice.</p>
<h2>A decade stood still</h2>
<p>The importance of using digital technology in teaching, and some of its associated challenges, were established well <a href="https://dera.ioe.ac.uk/1573/">over a decade ago</a>. </p>
<p>However, the coalition government of 2010 brought in policies that increasingly neglected the role of digital technologies in education. It began with the closure of the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/dfe-to-close-arms-length-bodies-to-improve-accountability">British Educational and Communications Technology Agency</a> in 2011. </p>
<p>This organisation faced some <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13540600802661303">justified criticism</a>, including for its tendency towards uncritical adoption of educational technology. But it did play an important role, supporting schools in their attempts to acquire and integrate digital technologies in the classroom.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Teacher and teenagers using tablet and laptops." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348603/original/file-20200721-31-1m1lj8h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348603/original/file-20200721-31-1m1lj8h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348603/original/file-20200721-31-1m1lj8h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348603/original/file-20200721-31-1m1lj8h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348603/original/file-20200721-31-1m1lj8h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348603/original/file-20200721-31-1m1lj8h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348603/original/file-20200721-31-1m1lj8h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Teachers develop their own methods for using digital technologies.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/teenage-students-teacher-class-756316333">SpeedKingz/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>In 2013, the National Curriculum for England was <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/national-curriculum-review-new-programmes-of-study-and-attainment-targets-from-september-2014">reviewed</a>. Changes included the end of the expectation, <a href="https://dera.ioe.ac.uk/18150/">established in 1999</a>, that the critical use of digital technologies in education was an important key skill, and that it should be supported both through the subject of information and communications technology (ICT) and in pupils’ <a href="https://dera.ioe.ac.uk/18150/">use of ICT across the curriculum</a>.</p>
<p>Past standards required trainee teachers to develop their knowledge and skills in ICT in their teaching practice and <a href="https://dera.ioe.ac.uafk//8005/">wider professional work</a>. However, all reference to the use of digital technologies for teaching and learning were removed from the 2010 <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/teachers-standards">Teacher Standards</a> which trainees need to demonstrate to gain Qualified Teacher Status in England.</p>
<p>These policies, as well as an era of <a href="https://www.ifs.org.uk/publications/14369">real-term cuts in education funding</a>, have left many schools’ access to digital technologies weakened. It is not surprising that many, though not all, have found the move to remote and digitally-supported learning during the coronavirus pandemic challenging.</p>
<h2>Unlocking future potential</h2>
<p>Research on the use of ICT in schools has an important role to play, involving teachers in identifying what works and what doesn’t. But the research used to inform government policy on ICT over the last decade has failed in this regard. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/evidence-summaries/teaching-learning-toolkit/digital-technology/">Education Endowment Foundation (EEF)</a>, funded by the Department for Education, has produced research which only adds very high level, comparatively common sense insights, such as that the use of <a href="https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/evidence-summaries/teaching-learning-toolkit/digital-technology/">technology should not be an end in itself</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/4151887.pdf">Back in 2004</a> we already knew that effective teachers make their own critical judgements about how to use digital technologies. They do this by blending their knowledge about their subject, their knowledge of how learners understand it, and how the features of digital technologies relate to such knowledge. But a lack of support for teachers to hone these practices means that this knowledge is not passed on or developed. </p>
<p>The education sector has to constantly re-learn lessons about the unique challenges of integrating technologies into education. Different levels of access, as well as different attitudes towards or ways of using digital technology, can have an impact on the effectiveness of teaching and learning. But many trainee teachers are left to develop this understanding by chance. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Teacher and girl looking at computer tablet." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348601/original/file-20200721-33-hze0xl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348601/original/file-20200721-33-hze0xl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348601/original/file-20200721-33-hze0xl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348601/original/file-20200721-33-hze0xl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348601/original/file-20200721-33-hze0xl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348601/original/file-20200721-33-hze0xl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348601/original/file-20200721-33-hze0xl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Teachers may develop innovative ways of using ICT which are not then improved or passed on.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/teacher-young-schoolgirl-using-tablet-classroom-735971875">Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>The <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/initial-teacher-training-itt-core-content-framework">Core Content Framework</a> for Initial Teacher Training in England, which sets out the minimum entitlement for those in initial teacher education, perpetuates this shortcoming. It makes no reference to technology-supported learning. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0360131519302891?via%3Dihub">our research</a>, we introduced the idea of “pedagogical provenance”. This means valuing teachers’ stories of how methods of teaching using digital technologies came to be used – like understanding the history of an object or artefact. This could include how <a href="https://media.nesta.org.uk/documents/decoding_learning_report.pdf">video conferencing</a> has been used to explore art exhibitions, or how text messaging among pupils can improve literacy and spelling. </p>
<p>Knowing the purpose and the context of how a particular teaching method or digital tool was introduced helps guide teachers’ future decisions about how to adapt them to their own classroom. But this kind of detail is so often absent. </p>
<p>For instance, a review of research on the use of <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jcal.12123">tablet devices</a> in education found that there was a lack of detailed explanations provided to teachers “as to how, or why, using tablets within certain activities can improve learning”.</p>
<p>Teachers need to be supported by policy and research to help them develop expert knowledge on the use of digital technologies. Failure to do so may simply mean re-learning the same lessons over and over again. To help teachers prepare for the unknown challenges ahead we must build on the lessons of the past.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/142938/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Keith Turvey received funding from the Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA) between 2006 - 2010. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Norbert Pachler received research funding from Becta between 2008 and 2010. </span></em></p>The education sector has to constantly re-learn lessons about using digital technologies in teaching.Keith Turvey, Principal Lecturer in Education, University of BrightonNorbert Pachler, Professor of Education and Pro-Vice-Provost: Digital Education, UCLLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1256032019-10-22T12:36:52Z2019-10-22T12:36:52ZMichael Gove’s grammar: former education minister is gonna rue the day he used Nonstandard English<p>Tensions are running high. The battle for Brexit is reaching its climax. The need for government ministers to sound decisive and determined is tantamount. So why does government minister Michael Gove suddenly sound like he’s <a href="https://twitter.com/BBCPolitics/status/1184796948617781248">speaking in someone else’s voice</a>?</p>
<p>In a recent interview with BBC Politics Live, the host Andrew Neil asked Michael Gove what the government would do if Labour succeeded in getting a referendum amendment attached to the deal. Gove’s answer was short and blunt: “That ain’t gonna happen … There ain’t gonna be no second referendum.” </p>
<p>Gove’s answer used two grammatical constructions of <a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-nonstandard-english-1691438">Nonstandard English</a> (any structured variety of English which differs from <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/003368828101200201">Standard English</a>): “ain’t” (instead of Standard English “isn’t”) and a construction referred to as a double negative (or as an instance of multiple negation, or <a href="https://www.jbe-platform.com/content/journals/10.1075/eww.38.2.02pal">negative concord</a>). Double negatives use two negative elements in a sentence instead of one (compare: “There ain’t gonna be no second referendum” with “There isn’t going to be a second referendum”). </p>
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<p>These constructions are regularly and systematically used in <a href="https://www.lexico.com/en/explore/standard-and-non-standard-dialects">Nonstandard dialects</a> (that is to say, <a href="https://www.tes.com/news/talkin-proper-standard-english-snobbery-schools">there are grammatical rules</a> about when and where they can be used in the varieties that use them – they aren’t just “mistakes”). But they never appear in Standard English – the variety of English that most closely describes how Gove would normally speak.</p>
<h2>Going a bit ‘street’</h2>
<p>So why does Gove use them? Nonstandard negative constructions are most often found in the speech of people with working-class backgrounds, so their <a href="http://all-about-linguistics.group.shef.ac.uk/branches-of-linguistics/sociolinguistics/research-in-sociolinguistics/jenny-cheshire/">use is often linked</a> to the social characteristics associated with working-class people. Depending on who you are (and what you think about working-class people), rightly or wrongly, this can include characteristics such as “straight-talking” and “resilient”. </p>
<p>We also know that repetition in English can be associated with emphasis. So the use of two negative elements, instead of one, might also help to intensify the strength of what is being communicated. </p>
<p>In this way, Gove’s use of nonstandard negative constructions might communicate his attempt to portray himself as “straight-talking” and “resilient”. It also aims to stress his commitment to what he is saying – to emphasise his belief that there will be no second referendum. Of course, whether or not we read that in his message depends upon what we believe about Gove and precisely what we, as individuals, infer when we hear instances of nonstandard negation.</p>
<p>The fact that Gove doesn’t normally speak like this contributes to how we interpret what he’s saying. So, we might understand that he’s trying to sound “tough” but we might read this as disingenuous or fake, because he doesn’t sound like himself.</p>
<h2>Keeping up standards</h2>
<p>What has all of this got to do with the National Curriculum? Well, in 2014, a new National Curriculum in English in England was introduced. It was designed and launched by Gove as education minister. The new National Curriculum for English placed increased emphasis on the importance of children using Standard English – not just in writing, but also “in a range of formal and informal contexts of speech”. </p>
<p>While everyone expects Standard English to be the norm in writing, it is not the norm in speech for the majority of English children (or, indeed, adults). Many of us use the nonstandard features of our local dialect all of the time when we are speaking, but we often interchange them with features of Standard English.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298106/original/file-20191022-28088-1lzvpv9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298106/original/file-20191022-28088-1lzvpv9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298106/original/file-20191022-28088-1lzvpv9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298106/original/file-20191022-28088-1lzvpv9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298106/original/file-20191022-28088-1lzvpv9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298106/original/file-20191022-28088-1lzvpv9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298106/original/file-20191022-28088-1lzvpv9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The National Curriculum discourages all use of Nonstandard English.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Undrey via Shutterstock</span></span>
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<p>In many cases, this is not because we don’t know how to speak in Standard English, but because using our local variety signals the many positive associations we have to our local area. It can also help us to communicate more nuanced messages about the content of what we say – that we are being “emphatic”, “determined” or “tough” when we use an instance of nonstandard negation. </p>
<p>In this way, nonstandard grammatical items can be very useful because they allow us to communicate our feelings or stances concisely. Saying: “I ain’t done nothing” is a quick way to say: “I haven’t done anything, I’m strongly telling you this, and I don’t agree with what you have said.” How people use Nonstandard English in this way shows us how useful it can be. </p>
<p>Gove’s <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england-english-programmes-of-study">National Curriculum</a> policy suggests that Nonstandard English is never useful because Standard English “<a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/244216/English_Glossary.pdf">covers most registers</a>”. This has led to criticisms that schools are teaching grammar as <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02671522.2011.637640">inflexible and fixed</a>: there are right and wrong ways to use language – and Standard English is always the right way. But as Gove himself has shown, sometimes Nonstandard English can be <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/saying-no-to-gizit-is-plain-prejudice-8488358.html">the right way to speak</a> – it communicates a message quickly, efficiently and directly, and it does so better than a Standard English “equivalent” might.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1181455629237530626"}"></div></p>
<p>This doesn’t mean that Nonstandard English is appropriate in formal writing (or that we shouldn’t be teaching children to write in Standard English) but it does suggest that attempts to remove Nonstandard English from speech will not necessarily result in more efficient, interesting and effective communication. </p>
<p>In this way, Gove’s use of nonstandard negative constructions in speech not only exposes the flexibility of grammatical variation and its rich social meaning potentials, it also exposes the flaws in his National Curriculum policy. In two small statements about Brexit, Gove has been hoisted by his own petard.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/125603/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emma Moore receives funding from the British Academy. She is a British Academy Mid-Career Fellow. </span></em></p>The former journalist raised eyebrows recently when he lapsed into Nonstandard English which is frowned upon in his National Curriculum.Emma Moore, Professor of Sociolinguistics, University of SheffieldLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1121362019-02-26T05:33:04Z2019-02-26T05:33:04ZKids need to learn about cybersecurity, but teachers only have so much time in the day<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/260584/original/file-20190224-195886-1kvknyk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The curriculum is already overcrowded. Can we really ask teachers to take this on too?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Last week, the personal informational of thousands of clients of a large ASX listed company was <a href="https://www.computerworld.com.au/article/657662/landmark-white-blames-exposed-api-data-breach/">inadvertently leaked</a> to the dark web. A few days later, our very own parliament house computer system <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-02-19/parliament-house-computer-network-hacked/10827252">was hacked</a>. </p>
<p>Among this increasingly hostile data environment came the announcement of <a href="https://aca.edu.au/projects/cyber-challenges/">a new cybersecurity program</a> that aims to raise high school students’ awareness of online personal data risks and how to manage them. Footing the <a href="https://www.opengovasia.com/cyber-challenges-to-educate-australian-high-school-students-on-cybersecurity/">A$1.35 million bill</a> for the project is the four big banks, <a href="https://au.educationhq.com/news/57112/cyber-security-to-be-taught-in-classrooms-from-2019/">AustCyber</a> and <a href="https://aca.edu.au/projects/cyber-challenges/">British Telecom</a>. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-state-actor-has-targeted-australian-political-parties-but-that-shouldnt-surprise-us-111997">A state actor has targeted Australian political parties – but that shouldn't surprise us</a>
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<p>While we do need more education on cyber security, the school curriculum is already overflowing, and teachers are expected to take on this program voluntarily. It seems schools are routinely being expected to manage more societal issues - road safety, teeth brushing, and how to have sex safely. We need to carefully consider whether we can ask teachers to take this on too.</p>
<h2>Understanding data</h2>
<p>The way we use the internet has changed a lot in recent years. Entering our personal data online to join a dating website, sign up for newsletters, social media accounts, or sell used furniture has become the norm. </p>
<p>The data generated as a result is astonishing, and expected to <a href="https://www.igi-global.com/chapter/risk-based-privacy-aware-information-disclosure/213821">double every two years</a>. This presents as an increasingly tempting financial gain for hackers who can make money off people’s personal data. It has led to many data breaches already and there will be many more.</p>
<p>Understanding why companies want our data, what they do with it, and the implications for us is new basic knowledge everyone needs.</p>
<h2>Pros</h2>
<p>The new cybersecurity program in high schools is a step in the right direction in ensuring young people know more about the dangers posed to them by the internet. As part of the program, students will take part in <a href="https://aca.edu.au/projects/cyber-challenges/">four challenges</a> focusing on online personal safety, cryptography (data representation, and secure online communication), networking and SQL injections (web application security and hacking techniques). </p>
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<p>Importantly, this shifts cybersafety education beyond privacy and prevention of unwanted behaviour (such as cyberbullying), to include new risks facing today’s youth such as fake emails and text messages that look real but aim to steal personal and financial information from you. </p>
<h2>Cons</h2>
<p>On the downside, this program places even more pressure on the already overstretched resources of schools and teachers. The program is designed to be opt-in. It’s hoped schools will incorporate the challenges into their classes, and use them to deliver parts of the <a href="https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/technologies/digital-technologies/">Digital Technologies curriculum</a>, or weave them into other subjects. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/decluttering-the-nsw-curriculum-why-reducing-the-number-of-subjects-isnt-the-answer-96853">Decluttering the NSW curriculum: why reducing the number of subjects isn't the answer</a>
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<p>But the current school curriculum is already <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/000494411105500307">overcrowded</a> and there’s no guarantee this program will become part of mainstream curriculum. When schools have high numbers of imperatives such as <a href="https://www.nap.edu.au/">NAPLAN</a> and the <a href="http://educationstandards.nsw.edu.au/wps/portal/nesa/11-12/hsc/about-HSC/!ut/p/z1/lZHBboJAEIafpQeOZWZxXdDbmlgWbEIaJeJcDBi6kiBrkJb07UswMdFQq3ObyfdNZv8FggSoSr8LnTaFqdKy6zcktjxQiCN03v2VEihnH74KFQbLEGHdA45kginOFuh6DOWK88X4DZnvcqCn_Mjv_YgJJ3SdKB4_5uMfJfEx_w5A99evgXrk8gLvnIBg0Xwy65aKW2AgomtgIIP_rgiBdGmy84fJKht5GqjOP_M6r-2vuhvvm-Z4mlpoYdu2tjZGl7m9MwcLh5S9OTWQXJNwPMRxnGARvFL208qXX6pxMCU!/dz/d5/L2dBISEvZ0FBIS9nQSEh/">Higher School Certificate</a> (HSC), this program is likely to remain a lunchtime extra-curricula club. This impacts the time that can be given to teaching the program and also the learning students will take from it. </p>
<p>And teachers are not cybersecurity experts, nor should we expect them to be. This content is not part of university teacher training. In order to teach the program, teachers would likely need to attend multiple professional learning seminars on their own time, and unpaid. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/260585/original/file-20190224-195879-9s9lfe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/260585/original/file-20190224-195879-9s9lfe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/260585/original/file-20190224-195879-9s9lfe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/260585/original/file-20190224-195879-9s9lfe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/260585/original/file-20190224-195879-9s9lfe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/260585/original/file-20190224-195879-9s9lfe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/260585/original/file-20190224-195879-9s9lfe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Teachers are not taught about cybersecurity in teacher education courses, so we shouldn’t expect them to be cyber experts.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
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<p>Unfortunately, this is a recurrent scenario for teachers. A common strategy for solving new social issues is to offload it to schools for teachers to deal with. </p>
<p>Improving and changing current information-security behaviours <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/1901.02672">requires more</a> than providing teachers with information to teach. Teachers must be able to understand and apply the advice, and they must be motivated and willing to do so. </p>
<p>If we’re really serious about cybersecurity education in schools, it needs to become part of the school curriculum, and teachers need to be supported in a meaningful way to teach it. </p>
<h2>Parents need to pitch in too</h2>
<p>Cybersecurity is something new for most of us, so parents also have some learning to do, to make sure their kids learn as much as possible. Enabling parents to become familiar with the information themselves supports them to be more able to guide their children in informed ways. </p>
<p>Parents need to stay ahead of potential risks so they know how to <a href="https://www.edx.org/course/cyber-security-basics-a-hands-on-approach-0">safely manage their kids’ online data</a>. Errors in putting in too much information or including highly personal information to untrustworthy sources can affect a child over the course of their lifetime. </p>
<p>If parents are unsure of a source it’s best to err on the side of caution and not enter any personal information. Parents can <a href="https://www.connectsafely.org/wp-content/uploads/securityguide.pdf">learn more</a> from trusted sources such as the <a href="https://www.acsc.gov.au/">Australian Cyber Security Centre</a>. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-public-has-a-vital-role-to-play-in-preventing-future-cyber-attacks-95141">The public has a vital role to play in preventing future cyber attacks</a>
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<p><em>This article has been updated to clarify the correct funders of the Cyber Challenges.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/112136/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joanne Orlando does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>While shifting cyber safety education beyond privacy is a step in the right direction, teachers already have to contend with an overcrowded curriculum.Joanne Orlando, Researcher: Technology and Learning, Western Sydney UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/959222018-05-02T20:22:57Z2018-05-02T20:22:57ZGonski 2.0: teaching creativity and critical thinking through the curriculum is already happening<p>David Gonski’s <a href="https://docs.education.gov.au/node/50516">report</a> on Australia’s schooling system identifies three key weaknesses and proposes a set of pathways towards improvement. </p>
<p>These weaknesses include decline in student achievement over time, age-based rather than developmental approaches to differentiation in learning goals, and failure to prepare students for a complex and rapidly changing world.</p>
<p>On the third of these issues, the report argues more attention to general capabilities such as problem-solving, social skills and critical thinking is essential in preparing students for an uncertain future. </p>
<h2>A zero-sum game?</h2>
<p>Early critiques of the report have asserted <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/critical-thinking-trumps-knowledge-in-gonski-20/news-story/6d53a7ac89d3c661c509c3264302d8c1">critical thinking has taken over from knowledge</a> in the latest Gonski review. And also that an increased focus on general capabilities means a <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/opinion/gonski-legacy-to-dumb-down-the-curriculum/news-story/a77c837ffc7fe6be7fbd0544fe319aac">decreased focus on knowledge and skills</a> in school subjects such as history and science. </p>
<p>This approach treats the school curriculum as a zero-sum game. More of one thing must mean less of another. What the report actually recommends is a positive-sum. A more structured approach to general capabilities within the established learning areas would better prepare students to succeed in a changing world:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>Recommendation 7</strong></p>
<p>Strengthen the development of the general capabilities, and raise their status within curriculum delivery, by using learning progressions to support clear and structured approaches to their teaching, assessment, reporting and integration with learning areas. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The detail of the report argues general capabilities “cannot be taught in isolation”. It argues there should be a structured and consistent approach to teaching, assessing and reporting on the general capabilities. Without this, teachers cannot be expected to integrate them into subject-based learning.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217206/original/file-20180502-153873-1k7kc0d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217206/original/file-20180502-153873-1k7kc0d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217206/original/file-20180502-153873-1k7kc0d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217206/original/file-20180502-153873-1k7kc0d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217206/original/file-20180502-153873-1k7kc0d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217206/original/file-20180502-153873-1k7kc0d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217206/original/file-20180502-153873-1k7kc0d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Gonski 2.0 argues the development of general capabilities should underpin subject-based learning.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/teaching-how-to-think-is-just-as-important-as-teaching-anything-else-46073">Teaching how to think is just as important as teaching anything else</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The curriculum wars</h2>
<p>The role of general capabilities in a subject-based curriculum has been a recurring theme in Australian curriculum history. </p>
<p>The 1990 <a href="http://www.voced.edu.au/content/ngv%3A42925">Finn Report</a> identified six key areas of competence essential for all young people in preparation for employment: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>language and communication </p></li>
<li><p>maths </p></li>
<li><p>scientific and technological understanding </p></li>
<li><p>cultural understanding </p></li>
<li><p>problem solving</p></li>
<li><p>personal and interpersonal characteristics. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>The 1992 <a href="http://www.voced.edu.au/content/ngv%3A28045">Mayer Report</a> identified seven similar key competencies and proposed a set of nationally consistent principles for assessing and reporting on them.</p>
<p>This theme was taken up in the 1999 <a href="http://www.scseec.edu.au/archive/Publications/Publications-archive/The-Adelaide-Declaration.aspx">Adelaide Declaration of National Goals for Schooling in the Twenty-First Century</a>, which identified eight general competencies in addition to the knowledge and skills in key learning areas such as literacy and numeracy. </p>
<p>It was reiterated in the 2008 <a href="http://www.curriculum.edu.au/verve/_resources/National_Declaration_on_the_Educational_Goals_for_Young_Australians.pdf">Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians</a>. It characterised successful learners as creative users of technology, logical thinkers, creative and resourceful problem-solvers, and able to collaborate, work in teams and communicate ideas. </p>
<p>The 2010 <a href="https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/">Australian Curriculum</a> organised the school curriculum across three related dimensions: </p>
<ol>
<li><p>learning areas </p></li>
<li><p>cross-curriculum priorities</p></li>
<li><p>general capabilities. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>The <a href="https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/about-the-australian-curriculum/">general capabilities</a> were expected to be addressed <em>through</em> the learning areas. The detailed syllabus materials identify opportunities for each of the general capabilities in context. For example, in year eight curriculum content descriptions, critical and creative thinking are a part of the requirements for <a href="https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/humanities-and-social-sciences/history/?year=12319&strand=Historical+Knowledge+and+Understanding&strand=Historical+Skills&capability=ignore&capability=Literacy&capability=Numeracy&capability=Information+and+Communication+Technology+%28ICT%29+Capability&capability=Critical+and+Creative+Thinking&capability=Personal+and+Social+Capability&capability=Ethical+Understanding&capability=Intercultural+Understanding&priority=ignore&priority=Aboriginal+and+Torres+Strait+Islander+Histories+and+Cultures&priority=Asia+and+Australia%E2%80%99s+Engagement+with+Asia&priority=Sustainability&elaborations=true&elaborations=false&scotterms=false&isFirstPageLoad=false">Historical Knowledge and Understanding</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>Renaissance Italy (c.1400 – c.1600)</strong></p>
<p>The way of life in Renaissance Italy (social, cultural, economic and political features) and the roles and relationships of different groups in society</p>
<p><strong>Critical and Creative Thinking</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Inquiring – identifying, exploring and organising information and ideas</li>
<li>Organise and process information</li>
<li>Identify and clarify information and ideas</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<p>The <a href="https://docs.education.gov.au/documents/review-australian-curriculum-final-report">Review of the Australian Curriculum</a> in 2014 acknowledged widespread support for the inclusion of general capabilities, but took issue with their ability to be developed outside the context of specific subject areas. The review recommended literacy, numeracy and ICT competencies be maintained in the curriculum. The other four general capabilities were to be taught only where they are relevant in academic subjects. </p>
<p>The Australian government’s <a href="https://docs.education.gov.au/documents/review-australian-curriculum-initial-australian-government-response">response</a> to the review did not take up this recommendation. The general capabilities remain within the revised Australian curriculum.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217209/original/file-20180502-153895-1gq9f8s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217209/original/file-20180502-153895-1gq9f8s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217209/original/file-20180502-153895-1gq9f8s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217209/original/file-20180502-153895-1gq9f8s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217209/original/file-20180502-153895-1gq9f8s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217209/original/file-20180502-153895-1gq9f8s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217209/original/file-20180502-153895-1gq9f8s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Preparing students for a complex and rapidly changing world is an important feature of the Gonski 2.0 report.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/gonski-review-reveals-another-grand-plan-to-overhaul-education-but-do-we-really-need-it-93119">Gonski review reveals another grand plan to overhaul education: but do we really need it?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What’s different about the Gonski 2.0 proposal?</h2>
<p>The place of general capabilities in the school curriculum is one of the never-ending stories of Australian education. The old curriculum warriors such as Kevin Donnelly <a href="https://www.2gb.com/education-expert-slams-gonski-2-0-as-a-waste-of-time/">continue to protest</a> that capabilities are subject specific, not general, but there is widespread agreement about their importance. </p>
<p>What’s different about the Gonski 2.0 proposal is the recommendation that fine-grained learning progressions be developed for the general capabilities. Students will now be expected to demonstrate progress from year to year. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/data-collected-about-student-behaviour-doesnt-help-improve-teaching-or-learning-57793">Data collected about student behaviour doesn't help improve teaching or learning</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>It proposes, to begin with, two general capabilities - critical and creative thinking, and personal and social capability. In each case, progressions are expected to underpin subject-based teaching and learning and provide for feedback, measurement and reporting. </p>
<p>Developing the new progressions is not without risk. Existing progressions in literacy and numeracy build on a century of research on <a href="https://www.routledgehandbooks.com/doi/10.4324/9780203840412">reading</a> and <a href="https://www.routledgehandbooks.com/doi/10.4324/9780203930236">mathematics</a> learning. The new progressions in creativity and social skills will need to be underpinned by new scientific work. Without that detailed work, we can expect another 30 years of reviews and critiques on the role of general capabilities in schooling.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/95922/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bill Louden has received funding in the past from state and federal governments. He was previously on the board of the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA).</span></em></p>The role of general capabilities in a subject-based curriculum has been a recurring theme in Australian curriculum history.Bill Louden, Emeritus professor, The University of Western AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/931192018-04-30T05:15:25Z2018-04-30T05:15:25ZGonski review reveals another grand plan to overhaul education: but do we really need it?<p>Today’s release of <a href="https://docs.education.gov.au/system/files/doc/other/662684_tgta_accessible_final.pdf">the report</a> from the Review to Achieve Educational Excellence in Australian Schools (also known as Gonski 2.0) proves sceptics both right and wrong. In many ways, the report reflects a smorgasbord of popular ideas that have been doing the rounds for some time.</p>
<p>These include <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=021nSIhhrj8">Professor John Hattie’s mantra</a> that young people should gain “a year of learning growth from a year of schooling”, along with other claims about the importance of quality teachers, early years learning and school leadership. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/gonski-review-attacks-australian-schooling-quality-and-urges-individualised-teaching-approach-95764">Gonski review attacks Australian schooling quality and urges individualised teaching approach</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>One could be forgiven for seeing these arguments as yawn-worthy: not because they’re wrong, but because they have been repeated <em>ad nauseam</em>. </p>
<p>Despite this, the report is also deeply radical in scope and vision, especially in its focus on overhauling core aspects of curriculum, assessment and reporting. </p>
<p>In doing so, it places significant faith in the power of data, evidence, technology and personalisation of learning to drive improvement, and help the nation cast off the shackles of its “industrial model” of schooling.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216787/original/file-20180430-135825-nhuvip.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216787/original/file-20180430-135825-nhuvip.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=805&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216787/original/file-20180430-135825-nhuvip.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=805&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216787/original/file-20180430-135825-nhuvip.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=805&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216787/original/file-20180430-135825-nhuvip.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1012&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216787/original/file-20180430-135825-nhuvip.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1012&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216787/original/file-20180430-135825-nhuvip.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1012&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Conversation/Federal government</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<h2>A radical rethink of curriculum, assessment and reporting</h2>
<p>While the report makes recommendations across a variety of areas, its most radical lie in the areas of curriculum, assessment and reporting. Central to these is an argument that the current <a href="https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/">national curriculum</a>, which is organised into year levels rather than levels of progress, leaves some students behind, fails to extend others, and limits opportunities to maximise student learning growth.</p>
<p>This strongly echoes <a href="https://research.acer.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1017&context=ar_misc">recent work</a> by Professor Geoff Masters. He has argued for a re-visioning of the way we assess students to better focus on student growth. </p>
<p>The report portrays the traditional year level curriculum as a relic of the 20th century industrial model of schooling, ill-suited to producing adaptive and personalised learning experiences. Instead, it argues for a shift away from the year level curriculum. It recommends that over the next five years, the national curriculum be reformed to present both learning areas and general capabilities as “learning progressions”.</p>
<p>This will ensure, the report argues, individual student achievement can be better understood and catered for, rendering schools more agile and adaptive to personal needs.</p>
<p>Accompanying this major change is a recommendation to introduce new reporting arrangements that not only focus on attainment, but also highlight “learning gain”. This is designed to ensure young people and parents don’t just have information on where young people sit relative to so-called “lockstep” level years. They would get more tailored information about individual progress.</p>
<h2>What else does it recommend?</h2>
<p>The report makes a number of other recommendations to supplement these major changes, including but not limited to:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Establish a national research and evidence institute to coordinate and disseminate best practices. This is essentially identical to Labor’s promise to create an <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/feb/16/labor-pledges-280m-research-institute-to-take-politics-out-of-the-classroom">Evidence Institute for Schools</a> if elected.</p></li>
<li><p>Develop an online and on-demand formative assessment tool, to be based on revised national curriculum learning progressions. This would help teachers monitor student progress in real time and better tailor teaching.</p></li>
<li><p>Introduce a national Unique Student Identifier for all students to be used throughout schooling. This would enable the consistent tracking of students if they move between schools or systems.</p></li>
<li><p>Prioritise literacy and numeracy, particularly in the early years, to ensure young people have the necessary foundations. </p></li>
<li><p>Conduct a comprehensive national review into years 11 and 12, with a focus on objectives, curriculum, assessment provisions and delivery structures.</p></li>
</ul>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/an-education-research-institute-wont-take-politics-out-of-the-classroom-92037">An education research institute won't take politics out of the classroom</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>These proposed changes, particularly those resting on technological advancements, will powerfully open the door to edu-businesses. They will also create new opportunities for edu-preneurs whose work seeks to profit from translating “what works” into action in the classroom.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216796/original/file-20180430-135848-185v3du.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216796/original/file-20180430-135848-185v3du.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216796/original/file-20180430-135848-185v3du.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216796/original/file-20180430-135848-185v3du.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216796/original/file-20180430-135848-185v3du.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=586&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216796/original/file-20180430-135848-185v3du.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=586&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216796/original/file-20180430-135848-185v3du.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=586&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">We need to be careful not to stray too far from addressing inequalities in Australian schooling through re-distributive funding.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Do we need another grand plan?</h2>
<p>The idea that a radical national overhaul of curriculum, assessment and reporting is the primary way to stop Australia’s declining student achievement feels a bit Groundhog Day.</p>
<p>This was exactly the logic that drove <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02680939.2016.1202452">the creation of the national curriculum in the late 2000s</a>, and led to other unprecedented national reforms. These include <a href="https://www.nap.edu.au/">NAPLAN</a>, the My School <a href="https://www.myschool.edu.au/">website</a>, and <a href="https://www.aitsl.edu.au/docs/default-source/apst-resources/australian_professional_standard_for_teachers_final.pdf">national teaching standards</a>.</p>
<p>The problem is, despite time, resources and investments committed to revolutionising Australian schooling, these grand designs have <a href="https://theconversation.com/educating-australia-why-our-schools-arent-improving-72092">done nothing to stop declining student achievement</a>. </p>
<p>So, before we charge forth into the reform wilderness, serious debate should be had about whether these radical plans pass muster, and whether it’s worth the investment to put Australian schooling under another round of major surgery when the last round had minimal impact. </p>
<p>As part of this, we need to (once again) question whether the contemporary reform fever does any more than treat symptoms while deeper structural conditions continue to ensure, as <a href="https://docs.education.gov.au/documents/review-funding-schooling-final-report-december-2011">the original Gonski report put it</a>, <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/parliamentary_business/committees/senate/school_funding/school_funding/report/a03">unacceptable links</a> between young people’s socioeconomic backgrounds and levels of achievement.</p>
<p>We need to be careful not to stray too far from where the first Gonski report started out. That is: addressing inequalities in Australian schooling through re-distributive funding.</p>
<p>This is not to suggest pursuing personalised or adaptive learning is a fruitless endeavour. But all the personalisation in the world means nothing without a commitment to equality of opportunity for all young people.</p>
<h2>Oh… and will it ever actually happen?</h2>
<p>There are significant political hurdles to be overcome before <a href="https://docs.education.gov.au/system/files/doc/other/662684_tgta_accessible_final.pdf">the report’s</a> recommendations can be translated into action.</p>
<p>This endeavour will begin on Friday, when federal education minister Simon Birmingham will meet state and territory education ministers to discuss the report. Nearly all the recommendations relate to state responsibilities. The federal government needs to secure their support to translate the recommendations into a national response. </p>
<p>Birmingham faces state ministers, not to mention senior bureaucrats, who are already suffering reform fatigue from the last decade of national reform – many who have limited appetite for further major changes. It’s also very likely for resistance to come from within schools, where long-standing habits and cultures are difficult to break. </p>
<p>Ultimately, the whole Gonski debate started with money, and that may very well be where it ends. The federal funding of schools will be a crucial tool in Birmingham’s bargaining kit and will largely determine whether the report’s recommendations come to fruition.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-passage-of-gonski-2-0-is-a-victory-for-children-over-politics-79828">The passage of Gonski 2.0 is a victory for children over politics</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>That said, even money might not be enough this time around. What is now at stake is not just some tinkering at the edges, but a monumental rethink of the teaching and learning process.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/93119/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Glenn C. Savage receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>The recently released Gonski 2.0 report focuses on overhauling core aspects of curriculum and reporting, and proposes a move away from the industrial model of education towards individualisation.Glenn C Savage, Senior Lecturer in Education Policy and Sociology of Education, and ARC DECRA Fellow (2016-19), The University of Western AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/727962017-06-11T20:30:31Z2017-06-11T20:30:31ZHistory textbooks still imply that Australians are white<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/160838/original/image-20170315-10178-1c9ggmb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Who is portrayed as Australian? 'Opening of the first parliament' Tom Roberts c.1903</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Australia_(1901%E2%80%9345)">Wikipedia</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>In <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/are-we-making-progress-on-indigenous-education-39329">this series</a>, we’ll discuss whether progress is being made on Indigenous education, looking at various areas including policy, scholarships, school leadership, literacy and much more.</em> </p>
<hr>
<p>Despite improvements to their content over time, secondary school history textbooks still imply that Australians are white. </p>
<p>Textbook depictions of Australianness are not only relevant to experiences of national belonging or exclusion. <a href="https://www.qcaa.qld.edu.au/downloads/approach2/indigenous_schooling_brayboy.pdf">Research has shown</a> that students who aren’t represented in textbooks perform worse academically. </p>
<p>My PhD research analysed portrayals of Australianness in secondary school history textbooks from 1950 to 2010. </p>
<p>This time frame covers a period of significant social change in Australia, symbolised by the transition from the White Australia era of the 1950s and 1960s, to multiculturalism, which has existed since. Textbooks reflect these broad social changes.</p>
<h2>1950s and 1960s – a celebratory narrative</h2>
<p>Textbooks published in the White Australia era openly taught a celebratory version of history in which Aborigines were either absent or derided. </p>
<p>White people were portrayed as the developers of the nation. This can be seen in the following extract from the preface of <a href="http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/2233488">A Junior History of Australia</a> by A. L. Meston, published in 1950: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The object of this little book is to tell the wonderful story of our own country. Fewer than one hundred and fifty years ago no white man lived in our land. In so short a space of time by the pluck, hard work, and energy of our grandmothers and grandfathers, and of our mothers and fathers, a splendid heritage has been handed down to us.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This extract assumes the reader is white. Aboriginal students are overlooked. Similarly, Aboriginal contributions to each and every stage of <a href="http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/551080">national development</a> are ignored.</p>
<p>Aborigines are only mentioned occasionally in textbooks from this era. When Aborigines are included, the portrayals are usually negative, as shown in the drawing below. </p>
<p>The caption from this image endorses the derisive perception of Aborigines reported by English explorer William Dampier, who first visited north-western Australia in the late 17th century.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/163013/original/image-20170328-3798-6ddtsg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/163013/original/image-20170328-3798-6ddtsg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=948&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/163013/original/image-20170328-3798-6ddtsg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=948&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/163013/original/image-20170328-3798-6ddtsg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=948&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/163013/original/image-20170328-3798-6ddtsg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1191&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/163013/original/image-20170328-3798-6ddtsg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1191&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/163013/original/image-20170328-3798-6ddtsg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1191&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This image from a textbook published in 1950 was titled ‘One of Dampier’s miserablest people’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">A Junior History by A L Meston</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Has anything changed since the 1960s?</h2>
<p>The White Australia Policy was replaced by multiculturalism in the 1970s. </p>
<p>Subsequent changes to textbooks reflected this broader social change: Aborigines and non-white immigrants featured more prominently and were portrayed more respectfully. </p>
<p>For example, most history textbooks published from the 1970s onwards have an initial chapter on pre- and/or post-colonial Aboriginal life and a later chapter on post-war immigrants.</p>
<p>Despite improvements such as these, history textbooks still imply that Australians are white. This occurs due to inconsistencies between what is written (the explicit content) and the underlying messages or meanings (the implicit content). </p>
<p>For example, initial chapters that discuss Aboriginal life prior to colonisation are followed by others on European “discovery” and “exploration”, which imply that the continent was vacant and unknown prior to the arrival of Europeans. </p>
<p>There are also inconsistencies in who is considered Australian. Aborigines are named as Australian in initial chapters on Aboriginal life. However, this description of Aborigines as Australian is contradicted by the exclusion of Aborigines from notions of Australianness in the remainder of the text. </p>
<p>The main narrative describes the experiences of white Australians in various eras such as the gold rushes, Federation, the Depression and the world wars. This implies that Australian history is white history and that Australians are white. By excluding Aborigines from these sections, whites are framed as normative or “real” Australians. </p>
<h2>21st-century textbooks</h2>
<p>Current textbooks show further, albeit, minor improvements compared to those published in the latter decades of the 20th century. For example, Europeans are portrayed as arriving in Australia, rather than “discovering” it. </p>
<p>Another improvement is that references to Aboriginality are no longer restricted to the initial “Aboriginal” chapter. However, Aborigines appear only momentarily in the main narrative. When contrasted with the detailed coverage of white experiences, the cursory treatment of Aborigines implies that Australian history is the story of white Australians.</p>
<p>This pattern is evident in chapters on the gold rushes. The painting below frequently appears in these chapters in textbooks published in the 2000s. This painting, which depicts white people searching for gold, represents the overall focus of these chapters on white people. Aborigines are absent. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/160843/original/image-20170315-10192-c234qb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/160843/original/image-20170315-10192-c234qb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160843/original/image-20170315-10192-c234qb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160843/original/image-20170315-10192-c234qb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160843/original/image-20170315-10192-c234qb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=587&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160843/original/image-20170315-10192-c234qb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=587&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160843/original/image-20170315-10192-c234qb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=587&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘An Australian gold diggings’ Edwin Stocqueler c.1855.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikipedia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Representations of Aboriginality in these chapters are limited to a throwaway line on the impact of the gold rushes on Aborigines, with no mention of Aboriginal responses. </p>
<p>Some 21st-century textbooks also include fleeting references to Aboriginality in chapters on national identity. </p>
<p>Descriptions of nationalism in these texts often include a section on late 19th-century Australian art. This section typically cover iconic artists such as Tom Roberts and Frederick McCubbin. </p>
<p>However, some textbooks published this century also include an example of Aboriginal art in this section, typically William Barak’s painting “Figures in possum skin cloaks”.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/160850/original/image-20170315-10183-1qok283.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/160850/original/image-20170315-10183-1qok283.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160850/original/image-20170315-10183-1qok283.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160850/original/image-20170315-10183-1qok283.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160850/original/image-20170315-10183-1qok283.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160850/original/image-20170315-10183-1qok283.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160850/original/image-20170315-10183-1qok283.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Figures in possum skin cloaks’ William Barak c.1898.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">National Gallery of Victoria</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The belated inclusion of Aborigines in chapters on Australian national identity is a welcome improvement. Nevertheless, this inclusion is momentary.</p>
<h2>Who’s responsible for textbook content?</h2>
<p>According to the Australian Constitution, responsibility for school education resides with the states rather than the federal government. </p>
<p>The first steps in the development of a national curriculum were taken in the 1980s. However, it wasn’t until the development of a <a href="https://theconversation.com/national-curriculum-review-experts-respond-26913">national curriculum</a> in 2013 that textbooks began to be marketed on the basis of meeting curriculum guidelines.</p>
<p>The cross-curricular priorities in the current version of the Australian curriculum state that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students should be able to see themselves, their identities and their cultures <a href="http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/crosscurriculumpriorities/aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-histories-and-cultures/overview">reflected in the curriculum</a>. This is supported <a href="http://researchdirect.westernsydney.edu.au/islandora/object/uws:21067">by research</a> which shows that embedding Aboriginal perspectives within the curriculum improves educational outcomes. </p>
<p>Australian history textbooks have made considerable progress towards presenting more inclusive and balanced narratives. However, this progress has stalled. My research shows that Australian history textbooks continue to portray Australians as white. Further work is needed to ensure textbooks adequately represent all Australians. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>• <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/are-we-making-progress-on-indigenous-education-39329">Read more articles</a> in this series.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/72796/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robyn Moore's doctoral research was supported by an Australian Postgraduate Award. </span></em></p>Despite improvements to their content over time, secondary school history textbooks still imply that ‘real’ Australians are white.Robyn Moore, Graduate reseach assistant, School of Social Sciences, University of TasmaniaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/645362016-08-29T20:06:29Z2016-08-29T20:06:29ZWant to improve NAPLAN scores? Teach children philosophy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135711/original/image-20160829-17887-an2orp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Children taking part in a philosophical discussion at Buranda State School in Brisbane.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Steve Gray/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-08-03/naplan-results-show-literacy-numeracy-skills-have-stalled/7683244">Latest figures show</a> that student scores in reading, writing, language and numeracy have failed to improve despite schools receiving <a href="https://theconversation.com/does-more-money-for-schools-improve-educational-outcomes-57656">record funding</a> over the past few years. </p>
<p>The National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (<a href="http://www.nap.edu.au/naplan">NAPLAN</a>) is an annual assessment designed to check whether students are developing the basic skills necessary to progress in school and life. </p>
<p>The most <a href="http://www.nap.edu.au/_resources/2015_NAPLAN_national_report.pdf">recent report</a> reveals that nationally, these skills have largely stagnated since 2008.</p>
<p>The government response was swift, with the opposition claiming this stagnation provided evidence <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-08-03/should-we-be-worried-about-the-naplan-results/7684656">that more funding is needed</a>, specifically by committing to the full measures proposed by the Gonski report. </p>
<p>The current Australian government instead took this as an indication that rather than providing more money, the focus should be on <a href="http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2016/08/02/naplan-results-show-no-significant-improvement-despite-funding-increases">finding better “evidence-based measures”</a>. </p>
<p>While some have argued these results are not concerning because <a href="https://theconversation.com/naplan-data-is-not-comparable-across-school-years-63703">NAPLAN scores are not comparable across years</a>, our education outcomes have been <a href="http://research.acer.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1015&context=ar_misc">stagnant or dropping for quite some time</a> across a range of different measures.</p>
<h2>So what can be done?</h2>
<p>As it turns out, teaching children philosophy can dramatically increase student learning outcomes in <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/schools/teaching-primary-school-children-philosophy-improves-english-and-maths-skills-says-study-10378958.html">literacy and numeracy</a>.</p>
<p>Philosophy for Children (P4C) – a program that sees student-led discussions being facilitated by a trained teacher – started in America in the 1970s and has been implemented in countries <a href="http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/children/">including the UK, Austria, Brazil, Mexico, Spain, Singapore and Taiwan</a>. </p>
<p>Open, philosophical questions stimulate the students’ imaginations as they engage critically with ideas such as whether a healthy heart should be donated to someone who hasn’t looked after their body; if it is ever acceptable to deprive someone of their freedom; and whether it’s fair that male tennis players receive more sponsorship than female players.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-children-should-study-philosophy-23404">benefit of philosophical dialogue</a> is that students explore different answers, examining the strengths and weaknesses for each, and critically reflect on assumptions along the way. </p>
<p>This improves their problem-solving abilities, as well as encourages compassionate respect for the perspectives of others.</p>
<p><a href="https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/public/files/Projects/EEF_Project_Report_PhilosophyForChildren.pdf">A randomised controlled trial</a> in 2013 found P4C delivers positive results for very little cost. </p>
<p>The study involved 1500 children across 48 schools in the UK and <a href="https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/pdf/generate/?u=https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/pdf/project/?id=162&t=EEF%20Projects&e=162&s=">found</a> that, on average, children who took part in P4C saw two months of progress in their reading and maths outcomes.</p>
<p>Even more impressive was that disadvantaged students’ writing ability improved by two months, their math skills by three months, and their reading abilities by four months. </p>
<p>These gains were achieved with the program being delivered for one hour per week at a total annual cost of £16 (A$27) per pupil. </p>
<p>Such results add to the growing <a href="http://www.sapere.org.uk/Portals/0/SAPERE%20P4C%20Research%20map%20-%20first%20draft%20June%202011.pdf">number of studies</a> showing that philosophy programs can <a href="https://www.pdcnet.org/pdc/bvdb.nsf/purchase?openform&fp=thinking&id=thinking_1997_0013_0002_0011_0016">improve scientific reasoning</a> and <a href="https://eppi.ioe.ac.uk/cms/Portals/0/PDF%20reviews%20and%20summaries/t_s_rv2.pdf?ver=2006-03-02-125128-393">overall learning and cognitive measures</a>, which are sustained <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/263219634_Benefits_of_Collaborative_Philosophical_Inquiry_in_Schools">years after the original program ends</a>.</p>
<h2>Why philosophy?</h2>
<p>Philosophy may seem a surprising solution to the NAPLAN problem. </p>
<p>It is often seen as too difficult for children, far too theoretical and abstract, with little relevance to the real world.</p>
<p>Yet the results from P4C programs make sense once people realise what philosophy actually teaches: critical thinking. </p>
<p>Philosophical thinking skills are transferable skills that assist a child to do well on tests as well as in the real world. </p>
<p>Rather than simply delivering information, philosophy helps children to think for themselves.</p>
<p>Critical thinking is a tool we use every day. Students use their critical discernment when deciding which job or career they want. </p>
<p>Distinguishing between important information and political rhetoric in the media requires critical thinking. Understanding complex ideas such as how policies might affect the economy, how certain drugs will affect certain patients, or how to design software all require critical thinking. </p>
<p>This is especially important given the <a href="https://www.education.gov.au/inspiring-all-australians-digital-literacy-and-stem">increasing proportion of jobs available in STEM fields in the future</a>.</p>
<p>Students who study philosophy also achieve better results overall. </p>
<p>In the US, philosophy majors score the highest out of all disciplines in the <a href="https://www.buffalo.edu/content/dam/cas/philosophy/phi15-16/phi-LSAT.pdf">LSAT</a> and <a href="http://philosophy.cornell.edu/upload/Best-Majors-for-GRE-Scores-in-2013-2.pdf">GRE</a>, tests used for admissions into law school and graduate programs respectively. </p>
<p>The benefits of philosophical training extend beyond doing well on tests, as philosophy majors then go on to have the highest non-STEM earnings of any major, and even earn <a href="http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/info-Degrees_that_Pay_you_Back-sort.html">more than accountants</a>. Not bad for a degree which may be dismissed <a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/lowres.cartoonstock.com/education-teaching-recession-graduate_opportunity-graduate_scheme-graduate-postgrad-bven153_low.jpg">as not</a> having an obvious vocational application.</p>
<h2>What next?</h2>
<p>Philosophy should be included in the national school curriculum. <a href="http://fapsa.org.au/curriculum/national-curriculum/">The Federation of the Australasian Philosophy in Schools Associations</a> (FAPSA) submitted such a recommendation to the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) in 2009, but this has not been acted on. </p>
<p>In the meantime, philosophy in Australian primary and high schools continues to grow, with FAPSA and state-based associations offering professional development and training workshops to teachers.</p>
<p>Some schools have adopted a whole school approach to teaching philosophy using the Community of Inquiry (CoI) in all subject areas. </p>
<p>Buranda State School in Queensland is one such success story, with student test scores improving from well below average to <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=kmeUS0jG_g0C&lpg=PA266&ots=W50AqxstND&dq=Hinton%20%26%20Davey%20Chesters%202013&lr&pg=PA271#v=onepage&q&f=false">“above the state mean in everything tested” in only five years</a>. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00131857.2013.771444">Many states</a> have philosophy available as an elective in the final years of schooling. </p>
<p>Philosophy events called <a href="http://fapsa.org.au/philosothon/">Philosothons</a> have also become popular. But most programs have been adopted on an individual basis, rather than the product of a sustained systemic change.</p>
<p>In the meantime, individual schools and teachers can incorporate P4C pedagogy into existing classes. To improve students’ reading, writing and arithmetic, we should teach them the fourth R: reasoning. </p>
<p>Any measure which delivers an extra two months of progress in only an hour per week sounds like a good idea to us.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/64536/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Laura D'Olimpio is Chairperson of the Federation of Australasian Philosophy in Schools Associations (FAPSA) and the Association for Philosophy in Schools, Inc. W.A. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adam Piovarchy does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Teaching philosophy for just one hour a week can improve children’s progress in writing, maths and reading.Adam Piovarchy, PhD Candidate, Department of Philosophy, University of SydneyLaura D'Olimpio, Senior Lecturer in Philosophy, University of Notre Dame AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/625722016-07-21T10:18:44Z2016-07-21T10:18:44ZIs proposed strategy on childhood obesity really ‘pathetic’?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/131237/original/image-20160720-31134-nnf4cv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/s/overweight+child/search.html?page=2&thumb_size=mosaic&inline=148110578">bikeriderlondon/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>If the UK’s obesity epidemic is not reversed, many people will endure avoidable illness and early death, at a huge cost to the NHS. The UK therefore urgently needs an obesity strategy. A draft of the government’s childhood obesity strategy, promised for <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-35640299">last autumn</a>, has just been leaked to a campaigning group called <a href="http://www.actiononsugar.org/index.html">Action on Sugar</a>, revealing that a few small steps forward may be proposed. But they will be far from sufficient. A bucket of water can’t put out a forest fire.</p>
<p>The problem of obesity first came to the attention of British government ministers in the early 2000s. It was not the Department of Health that was worried; it was the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/hm-treasury">Treasury</a>. Ministers realised that much of the extra resources allocated to the NHS were being used to treat a growing number of overweight and obese people. But the prime minister, Tony Blair, assumed that the problem could be left to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jul/25/tesco-blair-hubris-power-delusional">supermarkets to put right</a>. </p>
<p>When Gordon Brown became prime minister, he wanted to initiate <a href="http://www.foodsecurity.ac.uk/assets/pdfs/cabinet-office-food-matters.pdf">fundamental reforms</a> to the UK food system, so in 2008 he commissioned a report. By the time the report was finally published, a coalition government, led by Conservative David Cameron, was in power. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.foodsecurity.ac.uk/assets/pdfs/cabinet-office-food-matters.pdf">The report</a> was in two parts: the first showed that the UK food system was ecologically, economically and nutritionally unsustainable. The second sketched a delightful future in which all problems had been solved. What was missing was any plan to get from here to there. Coalition ministers were not interested in the report’s contents. Within a month of its publication, they had forgotten about it. </p>
<h2>Education and information are not enough</h2>
<p>The Conservative health secretary, Andrew Lansley, promised the food industry he would not impose regulations they disliked. Instead of requiring the food industry to provide significantly healthier foods and drinks, in 2011 he invited them to participate in “<a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/public-health-responsibility-deal-announces-new-food-pledge">a responsibility deal</a>”, under which food companies pledged to reduce calories in their products. </p>
<p>Many signed up, but <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/may/12/food-industry-responsibility-deal-little-effect-health-study">very little was accomplished</a>. The government’s approach assumed that obesity could and should be solved by providing the public with <a href="http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20130107105354/http://www.dh.gov.uk/prod_consum_dh/groups/dh_digitalassets/@dh/@en/documents/digitalasset/dh_4105709.pdf">education and information</a>. </p>
<p>Food labelling was slightly more informative than previously, especially with so called front-of-pack labelling. While consumers preferred traffic light labelling on the front of many food and drink packs, firms did not want <a href="http://adage.com/article/global-news/marketers-split-u-k-s-traffic-light-food-labeling-system/243054/">red warnings</a> on their products. They preferred numerical estimates of <a href="http://www.foodwatch.org/en/what-we-do/topics/traffic-light-labels/more-information/10-arguments/">nutrient levels in neutral colours</a>. Lessons on healthy eating were introduced into the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england-design-and-technology-programmes-of-study/national-curriculum-in-england-design-and-technology-programmes-of-study">national curriculum</a> and advice on healthy eating was available on government websites. </p>
<p>Some restrictions were also introduced on the advertising of junk food during <a href="http://www.sustainweb.org/childrensfoodcampaign/junk_food_marketing/">children’s television programmes</a>, but similar restrictions did not apply to family programmes, such as soap operas, which many children watch. </p>
<p>Those measures were insufficient to reduce rates of overweight and obesity among children. The number of school-age children receiving treatment for obesity and related problems, such as type 2 diabetes, <a href="http://www.hscic.gov.uk/catalogue/PUB16988/obes-phys-acti-diet-eng-2015.pdf">continued to rise</a>. Small amounts of education and information were clearly insufficient, especially for children. </p>
<h2>Leaked strategy</h2>
<p>Reluctantly, ministers conceded that while their approach to adults would continue to focus on education and information, children need more. So a <a href="http://www.nationalhealthexecutive.com/Health-Care-News/ticking-time-bomb-childhood-obesity-strategy-delayed-to-summer">childhood obesity strategy</a> was promised, but has not yet been delivered.</p>
<p>The leaked strategy focuses mainly on one type of change, namely reformulation by manufacturers of processed foods, to cut the calories their products deliver. The draft only suggests a voluntary 20% reduction in added sugar by 2020, but consumer campaigners had been calling for a compulsory <a href="https://twitter.com/actiononsugar?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">50% reduction in sugar and for 20% less fat</a>. </p>
<p>The draft fudged the issue of introducing more effective controls on advertising and promotions of junk foods to children. It merely suggests another consultation, delaying further any action. </p>
<p>Reformulation may help a bit, but far more fundamental changes will be needed. Agricultural policies in the UK and Europe have encouraged the over-production of fats and sugars, and food processors have made a lot of money from buying cheap, plentiful and nutritious ingredients, and transforming them into relatively scarce, expensive and nutritionally impoverished products. Solving the problem of obesity in the UK will require far more than reformulation to cut sugars and fat by 20% or even 50%. </p>
<p>Action on Sugar has called David Cameron’s draft strategy “pathetic”. That description is not misleading, and my concern now is whether anything less pathetic will emerge from Theresa May’s government. Many who argued for Brexit want regulations weakened not strengthened, but that would mean the problems of obesity getting worse, not better.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/62572/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Erik Millstone has received funding from the European Commission, and the Foresight division of the Government Office for Science. He is affiliated with numerous consumer and public health organisations.</span></em></p>Action on Sugar doesn’t think much of David Cameron’s childhood obesity strategy, but will May do any better?Erik P Millstone, Professor of Science Policy, SPRU, University of Sussex Business School, University of SussexLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/578612016-04-18T10:53:24Z2016-04-18T10:53:24ZWhen it comes to computing, rural schools are at risk of being left behind<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/118798/original/image-20160414-2629-83old1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Rural schools don't always have the latest tech.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Monkey Business Images/Shuttertock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>On our way to a school just outside the small Cumbrian village of Wigton to run a computing session, we were delayed by a tractor and a herd for cows crossing the road. </p>
<p>The school we were heading to has a total of 67 pupils across six years, where <a href="http://theconversation.com/are-mixed-grade-classes-any-better-or-worse-for-learning-38856">mixed age</a> classes are a necessity. This is a fairly typical school for the area, even the laptops the teachers are using are old and slow, as is the internet connection. </p>
<p>Rural schools such as the one we were visiting face distinct challenges when it comes to teaching computing — many schools in rural locations are struggling to even know how to get started. These schools feel very removed from the “<a href="http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/research/xrcprogrammes/digital/">digital economy</a>” which the computing curriculum is supposed to be preparing our pupils for. </p>
<p>These schools are below the radar when it comes to developing materials for the new curriculum. Resources tend to focus on single age classrooms of moderate size, taking it as given that the computers available are capable of at least running <a href="https://scratch.mit.edu/">Scratch</a> – an educational program used to create animations, games and stories – with the assumption also given that students will have access to iPads for coding apps such as <a href="http://www.scratchjr.org/">scratch JR</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/118895/original/image-20160415-11167-15ymxm5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/118895/original/image-20160415-11167-15ymxm5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/118895/original/image-20160415-11167-15ymxm5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/118895/original/image-20160415-11167-15ymxm5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/118895/original/image-20160415-11167-15ymxm5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/118895/original/image-20160415-11167-15ymxm5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/118895/original/image-20160415-11167-15ymxm5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Teachers toolkit.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sunny studio/Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These remote areas are even more prone to have the teacher skills gap, which has been recognised a major challenge for <a href="http://theconversation.com/gove-departs-just-as-disaster-looms-for-computing-in-schools-29123">computing curriculum</a>. Where in more populous areas there may be opportunities for twilight sessions or bringing in external contractors to support teaching, these sorts of resources are just not available in these more rural locations. </p>
<p>There are no “specialist” teachers in small schools, and when faced with the specialist language of computing teachers can quickly feel out of their depth.</p>
<p>For both teachers and students computers are often more a source of frustration rather than creativity. More than once it has been reported to me that computing lessons can be taken up by turning on the laptops, logging-on, helping the kids find the right program – just these steps can take the whole hour.</p>
<p>In these areas schools don’t always know where to look for support. Although <a href="http://www.teachprimarycomputing.org.uk/the-resources/">Computing At Schools</a> (CAS) has been busily developing resources for primary schools even finding CAS can feel like a big step. </p>
<p>In rural schools, there are also fewer opportunities to bring in volunteers from the community through schemes such as after school <a href="https://www.codeclub.org.uk/">code clubs</a>. This is revealing in that it shows yet another resource that is not available to these schools, and also demonstrates that there are fewer high tech jobs among parents of these children. </p>
<h2>Joining the dots</h2>
<p>The challenges faced by rural schools need be to be addressed, because although, the spotlight of the digital future might currently be on topics like “smart cities”, rural areas are not going to be left behind in the “digital economy” — as the <a href="http://www.abovederwent.org.uk/broadband.html">Cumbria fibre role-out</a> demonstrates. loin</p>
<p>The more remote places will soon be <a href="http://www.connectingcumbria.org.uk/">just as connected</a> and with connection speed no longer a barrier to competition, those living in the remotest parts of the UK will have no choice but to be part of the coming digital economy. </p>
<p>These school falling further and further behind is not inevitable, these schools have the potential to soon be demonstrating some of the most exciting ways of teaching computing to the youngest pupils. </p>
<p>These schools may not have great access to technology tools but they do still tend to have a school field, so learning how to adapt <a href="http://csunplugged.org/">unplugged approaches</a> to teaching computing can make the computing curriculum more tangible. Teaching computing without computers becomes a great way for kids to really grasp the fundamentals of computing.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/118903/original/image-20160415-11155-1ixe049.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/118903/original/image-20160415-11155-1ixe049.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/118903/original/image-20160415-11155-1ixe049.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/118903/original/image-20160415-11155-1ixe049.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/118903/original/image-20160415-11155-1ixe049.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/118903/original/image-20160415-11155-1ixe049.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/118903/original/image-20160415-11155-1ixe049.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Using hands-on tools instead of screens and keyboards can engage pupils imagination.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Authors provided.</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Teachers working in mixed age classrooms are in a prime position <a href="http://theconversation.com/why-schools-need-to-introduce-computing-in-all-subjects-53793">to introduce computing across the curriculum</a> – teachers are with the same pupils for much of the day and have the flexibility to integrate computing across a range of subjects. </p>
<p>As the pupils we worked with in Wigton can tell you “an algorithm” is a set of instructions, and primary schools are full of instructions. With the pressures on time and resources computing could be taught in all parts of the school day, from art and reading, to play time. </p>
<p>I have found that once you ensure teachers have a solid understanding of the curriculum itself they begin to see opportunities to teach computing — for example, writing an algorithm for tidying up the art area. </p>
<p>The pupils we worked with in Wigton really enjoyed using Scratch Jr on the iPads we brought in, but also learned a great deal about algorithms and debugging by playing with Lego. Which just goes to show that with the right resources targeted at these sorts of schools, these pupils will be ready for the digital economy, despite the remoteness of their surroundings.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/57861/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Benjamin Wohl receives funding from RCUK digital economy theme. </span></em></p>The Government changed the curriculum in 2014 so that all school children would be taught coding, but two years on this is far from reality.Bea Wohl, PhD student, Lancaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/469332015-09-23T02:00:54Z2015-09-23T02:00:54ZWhat will changes to the national curriculum mean for schools? Experts respond<p>Last week the states agreed to the implementation of changes to the national school curriculum brought about by the <a href="https://theconversation.com/national-curriculum-review-experts-respond-26913">National Curriculum Review</a> undertaken last year. </p>
<p>Of the 30 recommendations, the government ultimately followed through on only <a href="http://www.acara.edu.au/verve/_resources/20150508_IMPROVING_AUST_CUR_v_2_2.pdf">four</a>: </p>
<ol>
<li>Reduce curriculum crowding</li>
<li>Increase parent accessibility</li>
<li>Address the needs of students with intellectual disabilities</li>
<li>Increase phonics in the curriculum</li>
</ol>
<p>So what does this mean for what our kids are learning in schools?</p>
<hr>
<p><strong>Misty Adoniou, Senior Lecturer in Language, Literacy and TESL, University of Canberra</strong></p>
<p>A year ago Messrs Donnelly and Wiltshire published the results of their <a href="http://www.studentsfirst.gov.au/review-australian-curriculum">review of the Australian Curriculum</a>. They made 30 recommendations for changes to the curriculum - including <a href="https://theconversation.com/national-curriculum-review-experts-respond-26913">more emphasis on a Judaeo-Christian heritage and more phonics</a>, of which four were implemented and agreed by the states.</p>
<p>A year on, where are we? </p>
<p>For a start, we have a new education minister in Simon Birmingham - a young minister who backed Malcolm Turnbull in the Liberal leadership coup and was rewarded with the ministry. A Liberal progressive, Birmingham thinks the ousted Liberal leadership was <a href="http://www.senatorbirmingham.com.au/Latest-News/ID/2830/Interview--ABC-News-24--Capital-Hill">not future-oriented</a>, so it seems unlikely he will be as fixated on ancient cultural references and back-to-the-‘50s phonics programs as his predecessor was.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, in what turned out to be his final act as minister, Christopher Pyne did manage to get aspects of his sponsored curriculum review ratified by the state education ministers last week.</p>
<p>The curriculum has become “uncrowded” by combining history, geography, civics and citizenship, and economics and business into one subject - which is what everybody had been doing anyway. So not much innovation there, just a bit of smoke and mirrors. The state education ministers did, however, do a bit of curriculum “re-crowding” by <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/education/phonics-faith-and-coding-for-primary-school-kids/story-fn59nlz9-1227534083014?sv=2f37b94f8cac5b5fff430d9cafd1ef41&6b63427eb90a986a5f30daf959aa549e">adding a domestic violence strategy</a> to the curriculum mix. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/95607/original/image-20150921-31531-kxbd16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/95607/original/image-20150921-31531-kxbd16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/95607/original/image-20150921-31531-kxbd16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/95607/original/image-20150921-31531-kxbd16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/95607/original/image-20150921-31531-kxbd16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/95607/original/image-20150921-31531-kxbd16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/95607/original/image-20150921-31531-kxbd16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/95607/original/image-20150921-31531-kxbd16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Phonics ensures kids know the sounds, but do they know what the words mean?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?lang=en&language=en&ref_site=photo&search_source=search_form&version=llv1&anyorall=all&safesearch=1&use_local_boost=1&autocomplete_id=&searchterm=phonics&show_color_wheel=1&orient=&commercial_ok=&media_type=images&search_cat=&searchtermx=&photographer_name=&people_gender=&people_age=&people_ethnicity=&people_number=&color=">from www.shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Parent accessibility to the curriculum has been addressed by a somewhat imperceptible website redesign. Adapting the curriculum for students with intellectual disabilities is a worthy but challenging task, which is going to take another year or two to materialise. </p>
<p>And that leaves us with phonics - there will be even more phonics in the English curriculum. We can be assured Australian children will most definitely know their sounds. Whether they will learn to read with comprehension is <a href="https://theconversation.com/lost-for-words-why-the-best-literacy-approaches-are-not-reaching-the-classroom-19561">an entirely different matter</a>. </p>
<p>So, all in all, the curriculum review was much ado about nothing much - just an exercise where a newly incumbent government sprays a policy from a previous government so that it smells more like them. </p>
<p>I wonder what the review recommendations would have been if we had asked the “consumers”, the ones who have this curriculum done unto them - the students. Heaven forbid they’d know what works for them but let’s suppose for a moment they did. I suspect they might have wanted things that never feature in any curriculum - relevance, purpose, excitement, humour. </p>
<p>Of course, these are not curriculum content descriptors; they are not knowledge to be learned. However, they would make worthy cross-curriculum priorities - threads that run through all the subject areas. I’d even be happy with a footer on each page of the Australian Curriculum that said something like </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Don’t forget the joy of learning.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Now <em>that</em> would be an innovative curriculum reform.</p>
<hr>
<p><strong>Bill Louden, Emeritus Professor of Education, University of Western Australia</strong></p>
<p>Australia’s national curriculum has now been <a href="https://www.pyneonline.com.au/media-centre/media-releases/a-new-national-curriculum-from-2016">endorsed</a> in eight learning areas by the Ministerial Education Council. The result of thousands of consultation meetings since 2007, hundreds of draft versions across the many learning areas, dozens of Ministerial Council meetings and a major rewrite following the Donnelly/Wiltshire <a href="http://www.studentsfirst.gov.au/review-australian-curriculum">review</a> in 2014, the national curriculum will now be implemented in all Australian schools from 2016.</p>
<p>The great achievement is that the curriculum matter has been settled: nationally, we have agreed to stop arguing the toss about curriculum content for a while and get on with the more important work of implementation.</p>
<p>This is important, because it provides a common structure for resource development. Textbook publishers can focus on a larger national market, rather than one segmented by state and territory borders. Australia’s wonderful collection of digital educational <a href="http://www.ndlrn.edu.au/default.asp">resources</a> can be indexed back to a common structure. And teacher-made materials and units of work can be shared nationally, building the quality of resources available and reducing workload for people teaching similar groups of children in different locations.</p>
<p>In schools, a settled Australian curriculum is just the start. Schools still need the things that matter most: leaders who focus on classroom teaching rather than what is in the principal’s in-tray; school-based scope and sequence plans for each term and year; close attention to achievement data; fine-grained achievement targets for individual students; peer observation and in-class coaching of teachers; and teaching practices supported by rigorous research evidence.</p>
<hr>
<p><strong>Glenn Savage, Senior Lecturer in Education Policy, Melbourne Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne</strong></p>
<p>The design of the Australian Curriculum has emerged out of complex debates about the kinds of knowledge and skills young people need in an increasingly globalising and changing world. </p>
<p>In an attempt to reconcile competing arguments about curriculum design, the curriculum seeks to blend three distinct dimensions, each reflecting a different way of understanding curriculum:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>The discipline-based “Learning Areas” are the traditional school subjects, or what students need to <em>know</em>. There are strong arguments for maintaining disciplines at the heart of a curriculum.</p></li>
<li><p>“General Capabilities” outline the skills or attributes that are seen to be relevant to young people, or what students need to be able to <em>do</em> in our increasingly globalised 21st century.</p></li>
<li><p>“Cross-Curriculum Priorities” require teachers to engage with contemporary issues not necessarily made explicit in the school subjects. These are currently Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures; Sustainability; and Asia and Australia’s Engagement with Asia.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Through attempting to blend these three dimensions, the Australian Curriculum responds to a number of different and potentially competing arguments about what students “should know and be able to do”, by marrying traditional disciplinary knowledge with 21st-century skills and contemporary political priorities.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/95608/original/image-20150921-31492-1ju5z60.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/95608/original/image-20150921-31492-1ju5z60.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/95608/original/image-20150921-31492-1ju5z60.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/95608/original/image-20150921-31492-1ju5z60.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/95608/original/image-20150921-31492-1ju5z60.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/95608/original/image-20150921-31492-1ju5z60.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/95608/original/image-20150921-31492-1ju5z60.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/95608/original/image-20150921-31492-1ju5z60.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">What actually happens in schools is the most important bit.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The latest Education Council changes to the curriculum have not flagged a change to this three-dimensional structure, although the exact nature of change remains to be seen. </p>
<p>At the end of the day, however, it’s what gets “put into practice” that matters most. We can argue about the “content” of a curriculum until the cows come home – and these are clearly important arguments to have – but the truth remains that the “real” curriculum is always that which is put into practice in Australian schools.</p>
<p>When curriculum ideas and priorities get translated into practice, the curriculum often manifests in diverse and sometimes unexpected ways, sometimes producing outcomes quite different from those the curriculum writers set out to achieve. </p>
<p>There’s also a good argument to be made that Australia doesn’t really have a national curriculum yet. Instead, our federal system of governance has ensured multiple interpretations and enactments of the curriculum have emerged across states and territories.</p>
<p>In Victoria, for example, the AusVels curriculum (last week renamed the <a href="http://victoriancurriculum.vcaa.vic.edu.au/overview/about">Victorian Curriculum</a>) has emerged, which represents a hybrid of the Australian Curriculum (Aus) and the previous Victorian Essential Learning Standards (Vels). </p>
<p>The emergence of state and territory hybrids means there are now multiple versions of the Australian Curriculum operating across the nation, rather than one homogenous version. </p>
<p>Despite what we might “want” a curriculum to look like, what we “get” is the result of multiple actors, at multiple levels of government, and in multiple schools and sectors, who enact the curriculum in different ways.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, ongoing debates about the content of schooling are not only inevitable, but are an essential condition of a healthy schooling system and democracy. As the recent federal review suggests: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>There is little as controversial in education as determining what it is that young people should be able to know, understand and be able to do following their time at school.</p>
</blockquote><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/46933/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Misty Adoniou works for the University of Canberra. She has received funding to research and evaluate Teacher Standards and the teaching of English as an Additional Language.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bill Louden was a foundation board member of the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Glenn C. Savage does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond the academic appointment above.</span></em></p>Last week the states agreed to the implementation of changes to the national school curriculum brought about by the National Curriculum Review undertaken last year.Misty Adoniou, Senior Lecturer in Language, Literacy and TESL, University of CanberraBill Louden, Emeritus Professor of Education, The University of Western AustraliaGlenn C Savage, Senior Lecturer in Education Policy, Melbourne Graduate School of Education, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/442262015-07-03T07:02:59Z2015-07-03T07:02:59ZRational, modern sex education is a must for all Aussie kids<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/87255/original/image-20150703-11327-96d8wa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Presenting misinformation to our children about sex, sexual health and relationships is a risky practice</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com.au</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/christian-sex-education-program-at-fairhills-high-school-tells-schoolgirls-that-too-much-sex-will-break-their-chemical-bond-20150702-gi3o7g.html">Recent reports</a> revealed a Victorian school allowed a Christian group to teach sex education using materials of scientifically dubious origins which would certainly be offensive to many.</p>
<p>The misinformation, including that females have chemicals that make them more needy and if they have too many relationships they will be less likely to form bonds with future partners, reinforces the need for consistent sex education for all Australian schools. </p>
<p>Information about sex and sexuality is often plagued by irrational fears when children and young people are involved. Sex and sexuality are sometimes viewed as taboo subjects in schools. When they are discussed, there are times when rational discussion becomes elusive. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/">The Australian national curriculum</a> aimed to achieve some sense of conformity across states, so that students across the country were receiving similar messages about sex, sexuality and healthy relationships. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/health-and-physical-education/rationale">The Australian Curriculum Health and Physical Education</a> addresses how factors such as human biology, gender and sexuality influence the health, well-being and physical activity patterns of individuals, groups and communities.</p>
<p>There are some barriers to consistent messages about gender, sexual health and identity, sexuality, and safe-sex being transmitted to young people. </p>
<h2>Anti-discrimination exemptions for religious organisations</h2>
<p>Each state and territory has its own anti-discrimination laws. In Victoria, despite the <a href="http://www.legislation.vic.gov.au/Domino/Web_Notes/LDMS/PubLawToday.nsf/a12f6f60fbd56800ca256de500201e54/5c0e606e76b324c7ca25796d0014de79!OpenDocument">Equal Opportunity Act 2010</a> making it against the law to discriminate against people, it also suggests that discrimination may be justified in certain circumstances. <a href="http://www.humanrightscommission.vic.gov.au/index.php/exceptions-exemptions-and-special-measures/exceptions">Even in 2015</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Religious bodies and religious schools can discriminate on the basis of a person’s religious belief or activity, sex, sexual orientation, lawful sexual activity, martial status, parental status or gender identity where the discrimination conforms to the doctrines, beliefs or principles of the religion.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>That religious schools can still legally discriminate against staff and students who may be engaging in legal – but “unacceptable” – behaviour remains remarkably uncontroversial. </p>
<p>That myths are still being presented as “facts” in an attempt to scare young people away from sex outside of marriage is disturbing. But it is not surprising while religious schools still have exemptions to anti-discrimination legislation.</p>
<h2>Sex misinformation presents risks to young people</h2>
<p>Sexuality is a poignant topic for young people and warrants attention and space for discussion in the classroom. It’s important that young people are educated about sex, sexuality and gender in an appropriate and honest way. There is too much at risk for young people not to be aware of their own biology, sex, sexuality and awareness about safe-sex. </p>
<p>Sexually transmissible infections are on the rise in Australia among young people. <a href="https://www.afao.org.au/library/topic/youth/HIVA-11-1-ONLINE.pdf">The Kirby Institute</a> estimates the chlamydia diagnosis rate in the age groups 10–14 years, 15–19 years and 20–24 years, increased every year over the past ten years, from 2002 to 2011.</p>
<p>Young people need facts about sex education and sexuality, to enable them to make informed decisions and to develop healthy relationships. Wrapping messages about sex and sexuality in vague and negative metaphors is unhelpful. </p>
<p>Extreme examples like that <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/christian-sex-education-program-at-fairhills-high-school-tells-schoolgirls-that-too-much-sex-will-break-their-chemical-bond-20150702-gi3o7g.html">seen in Victoria</a> are dangerous: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Having multiple sex partners is almost like tape that loses its stickiness after being applied and removed multiple times. So the more you have the harder it is to bond to the next.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As a society we are grappling with issues related to violence against women, largely perpetrated by men, with staggering statistics about <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/domestic-violence-in-australia">domestic violence, sexual assault and sexual harassment</a>. We also seem to find it challenging to conceive of two persons of the same gender being legally allowed to marry. Australia seems caught in a time-warp of sexual and gender taboos.</p>
<p>The road to progress can only come through rational, honest and accurate educational information.</p>
<p>It is perhaps time that religious exemptions to the anti-discrimination acts in each of the Australian states and territories were ended. There are problems with misinformation and fear-mongering. </p>
<p>If one parent at one school had the courage to come forward and openly expose the misinformation that is being transmitted, then it can be imagined that this propaganda is being transmitted elsewhere.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/44226/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Rhodes does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Religious exemptions to the anti-discrimination act should end to ensure fear mongering and misinformation are not present in our schools.David Rhodes, Senior Lecturer Faculty of Regional Professional Studies, Edith Cowan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/381392015-03-02T06:22:19Z2015-03-02T06:22:19ZThere is no dastardly EU plot to hijack the history curriculum<p>Some of Britain’s most <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/11432847/Millions-of-children-being-taught-distorted-view-of-European-history-to-push-further-EU-integration.html">eminent historians</a>, worried about the growth and future direction of the EU, have spoken out against what they believe is an attempt to subject millions of British school children to <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/11435270/The-EU-is-in-thrall-to-a-historical-myth-of-European-unity.htm">skewed history lessons</a> designed to lead them into unthinking support for the creation of a single, pan-Europe state. </p>
<p>The spokesman for the Historians for Britain group, Cambridge historian David Abulafia, argues that the EU is systematically promoting a determinist view of European history in which European unity is presented as the inevitable outcome of the historical process itself. </p>
<p>This insidious message, he claims, is being planted in the minds of the continent’s youth through biased and suspect history textbooks. No doubt it had UKIP leader Nigel Farage spluttering over his morning pint. But I’d argue that these historians are skewing the facts themselves. </p>
<h2>British history at the centre</h2>
<p>Anyone who has had contact with history teaching in this country will find the claim of a dastardly EU plot to hijack it surprising to say the least. Few countries can beat the British for putting their own history at the heart of the school curriculum. British history was a <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england-history-programmes-of-study">major thrust</a> of former education secretary Michael Gove’s revision of the national curriculum. </p>
<p>Whether it is the conditions of the industrial revolution or the horrors of the trenches, British children are overwhelmingly taught only about the experience of their own country. The only major exceptions to the rule are Nazi Germany and Stalin’s Russia, neither of them exactly designed to whet the appetite for greater involvement with the continent. As the European Association of History Teachers, <a href="http://www.euroclio.eu/new/index.php">Euroclio</a>, has often found, national history is still the dominant feature of school curricula across the continent.</p>
<p>Of course, there are those who promote integration, but they wield relatively little influence over European school curricula and have met with resistance. Napoleonic War re-enactors were <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/meeting-their-waterloo-again-1590689.html">outraged a few years back</a> when their Battle of Waterloo reconstruction culminated in the flying of the European flag instead of the Union Jack. </p>
<p>In 1992, a <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/title/histoire-de-leurope/oclc/37609068">European history textbook</a> was put together by a team of academics drawn from across the continent, each writing one chapter. The book never caught on (it was never translated into English, for one thing), but the idea is still <a href="http://www.dw.de/call-for-european-history-book-as-education-ministers-meet/a-2370988">aired from time to time</a>, usually by politicians with no experience of actually teaching in a classroom.</p>
<p>Abulafia is clearly right that the question of our relationship with Europe needs to be seen in the context of our history, but the argument that our children are somehow being brainwashed into a Euro-outlook by their history teachers simply won’t wash. Even if it did, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-european-fear-of-islam-from-paris-to-dresden-36242">rapid growth of Euroscepticism</a> even in the EU’s French and German heartlands suggests a strangely ineffective plot. In fact, the claim misrepresents the very valuable work that has indeed gone on at a European level to turn history teaching from the fuel of conflict into a basis for peace.</p>
<h2>Absolute objectivity impossible</h2>
<p>All history teaching works to an agenda, whether the patriotic jingoism of the days of Empire or today’s liberal consensus. Absolute objectivity is difficult for academic historians and it is even harder with a young audience, who need their attention grabbed and held on a sunny Friday afternoon. </p>
<p>But all too often this can feed negative perceptions of other people. Since the 1950s, the Council of Europe <a href="http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/education/historyteaching/default_en.asp">has been promoting</a> the use of history teaching to combat bias, prejudice and national stereotypes. The Council’s recent project on <a href="http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/education/historyteaching/Projects%5CImage%5CImageIntro_en.asp">The Image of the Other</a> looked at this question through a series of bilateral studies: after all, Germans can legitimately grouse if the only image British children receive of them is as Nazis. </p>
<p>The best way round such stereotyping is not to promote European integration but to encourage teachers and children to see history from more than one national perspective.</p>
<p>Some years ago, the Council of Europe funded an exercise I organised which involved bringing students from different countries together to <a href="http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/education/historyteaching/Source/Notions/Simulation/RerunningPast1997_en.pdf">recreate the 1919 Paris Peace Conference</a>. It would have been easy to go for a fuzzy “Euro” approach, but we didn’t. We brought the differences of the past into the open and my students found that, beneath the fashions and music they all had in common, deep national divisions still remained. </p>
<p>I am now working with children at Sawston Village College on a <a href="http://ww1journeys.org/">World War I project</a> which is tracing three soldiers’ stories with local links. To their surprise, one was a German. By looking at familiar war experiences from his point of view their understanding of the whole war was transformed. And not an EU flag in sight.</p>
<p>Historians for Britain are right to resist attempts to hijack the subject for the purposes of integration, or for any political purpose. It does not follow, however, that every European initiative is necessarily aiming at further integration, still less that it should be denounced in favour of an exclusively British focus.</p>
<hr>
<p>Next read: <a href="https://theconversation.com/school-history-exams-shouldnt-just-be-a-test-of-britishness-25799">School history exams shouldn’t just be a test of Britishness</a></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/38139/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sean Lang is affiliated with the Better History Forum, an independent group of teachers and academics which promotes debate about change in the school history curriculum.</span></em></p>Claims by a group of eminent British historians that Eurohistory is taking over the school curriculum are unfounded.Sean Lang, Senior Lecturer in History, Anglia Ruskin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/371362015-02-04T12:51:37Z2015-02-04T12:51:37ZOfsted must routinely inspect outstanding schools too<p>In what Ofsted has hailed as some of the most radical changes to school inspection in England in its history, the schools regulator has <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/400625/Better_inspection_for_all_consultation_response_FINAL_2_.pdf">published the results</a> of a consultation into changes due to be introduced from September 2015. It is a pity that it has given no ground on its <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/consultation-on-radical-changes-to-inspection">original proposals</a>, but its current stance does at least represent a welcome cultural shift compared with previous policy – though not as great as some of us would wish.</p>
<p>Most disappointing is that Ofsted has decided not to routinely inspect those schools it judges to be outstanding. Outstanding schools stand to benefit from dialogue with skilled inspectors who can disseminate information and insights into “good” practice. They should be inspected not in order to prescribe authoritatively what improvement should look like, but so as to inform even these outstanding schools about other possibilities. </p>
<p>Inspectors need to routinely visit outstanding schools so they have the full range of experience on the basis of which to calibrate their judgements of all the schools they inspect. Ofsted’s response to questions raised in its consultation about this is short-sighted, concluding: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Any change of approach would require legislative change. As a result, we will continue not inspecting outstanding schools routinely, although we retain the powers to inspect if performance drops or other concerns are raised. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Sensible for the most part</h2>
<p>The main thrust of the reforms is that Ofsted will be introducing frequent but shorter inspections – with schools judged good to be inspected approximately every three years, instead of every five or six years under the current system. This change seems sensible, proportionate and economical. Such visits should not be confined to dialogue with senior leaders and interrogation of data but should also involve visits to classes to get a feel of the school. </p>
<p>In a <a href="https://theconversation.com/ofsted-reforms-will-mean-better-inspection-for-all-except-some-private-schools-32768">previous article</a> I gave cautious welcome to Ofsted’s over-arching proposals for school inspection. Ofsted’s response to the consultation was as predictable as the questions it asked. </p>
<p>The first paragraph of the executive summary to the report contains two telling sentences. The first states: “The reforms we will introduce in September 2015 are intended to enable us to inspect the right things in the right way.” This assumes that there is one right way and that Ofsted embodies it – a hubristic and highly contentious proposition which will not endear the organisation to its many critics. </p>
<p>The second represents a welcome, surprising, honest but unsettling admission: “We will ensure that our inspections are of increasingly rigorous quality and value to the profession and the public, are more proportionate and have greater impact.” This implies that up until now inspections have not been sufficiently rigorous, proportionate or impactful – and this after almost a quarter of a century of Ofsted inspections. </p>
<h2>Greater focus on the curriculum</h2>
<p>Ofsted’s decision to report more on the curriculum is long overdue. The curriculum was not one of the focuses of inspection agreed with former education minister Michael Gove, despite being the medium through which understanding, skills and qualities are fostered. That blatant omission is now to be rectified. Ofsted will now “place a greater emphasis on the breadth and suitability of the curriculum and the type and range of courses and opportunities offered by providers.” </p>
<p>But questions remain over why the quality of the curriculum in its own right is not being inspected, rather than – as is now proposed – under the effectiveness of leadership and management judgement. It’s also still unclear to many what Ofsted means by contentious terms such as “<a href="https://theconversation.com/debate-over-national-values-is-a-threat-to-the-education-system-34635">British values</a>”, “breadth”, “balance” and “relevance”. </p>
<h2>Next step, implementation</h2>
<p>The jury is still out on whether the <a href="https://theconversation.com/plans-to-renationalise-school-inspectors-under-ofsted-could-help-assure-quality-27459">planned return to a system</a> where inspectors will be directly contracted with Ofsted instead of outsourced to private companies will bring about “the necessary quality, control and flexibility” in Ofsted’s workforce to deliver its proposed reforms.</p>
<p>Ofsted has agreed to introduce a new Common Inspection Framework. This is only “common” in the same weak sense as the national curriculum is “national” – the framework will not apply to the <a href="https://theconversation.com/ofsted-reforms-will-mean-better-inspection-for-all-except-some-private-schools-32768">whole gamut of independent schools</a>. The use of that framework is, however, a useful step if it means that inspectors can make graded and hopefully comparable judgements on the same areas for all but privileged independent schools. But devising such a framework will not be easy given the characteristics of different phases and of different types of school as well as schools’ inevitable idiosyncrasies. </p>
<p>It will be interesting to read how the proposed inspection handbooks, which will accompany the new common framework, deal with such issues and with the delineation of revised inspection criteria, some of which are <a href="https://news.tes.co.uk/b/opinion/2015/01/07/ofsted-s-criteria-for-outstanding-teaching-are-outstanding-nonsense-and-here-s-why.aspx">suspect and even nonsensical</a> as they currently stand.</p>
<p>Perhaps the most surprising fact about Ofsted’s consultation is that the school’s inspectorate has been prepared to rethink inspection in a changing educational climate. Ofsted does need to acknowledge the contestable nature of the inspection process. Despite the confident claim in the executive summary to its latest report, there is no one “right” way of inspecting schools, though experience since Ofsted’s inception in 1992 suggests there have been a number of wrong ones.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/37136/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Colin Richards worked as a government inspector of schools from 1983 to 1996, including four years in Ofsted.</span></em></p>In what Ofsted has hailed as some of the most radical changes to school inspection in England in its history, the schools regulator has published the results of a consultation into changes due to be introduced…Colin Richards, Emeritus Professor of Education, University of CumbriaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/369262015-01-30T14:54:46Z2015-01-30T14:54:46ZExplainer: why reforms to school league tables have caused such controversy<p>The shockwaves from the latest round of school league tables are still reverberating across staff rooms up and down the country. The headlines have been about a <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/jan/29/english-schools-failing-gcse-targets-doubles">drop in the proportion of pupils</a> achieving five A* – C GCSEs and an increase in the number of schools failing to meet minimum targets. But it’s important to put these changes into context of a wide-ranging reform to the way the government calculates school performance measures at GCSE. </p>
<p>The changes followed <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/180504/DFE-00031-2011.pdf">recommendations made</a> by Alison Wolf of King’s College London in 2011 that the league tables should include a narrower range of qualifications. She also recommended that the tables needed to be more rigorous in how they count non-GCSE qualifications and only count the student’s first attempt at a qualification, so as to discourage students from repeatedly attempting the same examination. </p>
<p>The aim of all these changes was to prevent schools from apparently “gaming” the system to improve their league table position. The government wanted to stop schools encouraging their students to take less academically rigorous qualifications that may help the school’s league table position, but do not necessarily help students proceed on to higher-level study or do well in the labour market. </p>
<p>To <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-ebacc-effect-pushes-pupils-into-more-academic-subjects-thats-a-good-thing-29931">incentivise schools</a> to encourage their students to opt for a more “academic” curriculum, the league tables <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2011/jul/20/school-league-tables-vocational-qualifications">now exclude some qualifications</a> that previously counted – in fact around 3,000 qualifications no longer count towards the performance measure. Additionally, no non-GCSE qualifications can now count for more than one GCSE. In the past some BTEC diplomas equated to four GCSEs – now they can only count for one in the league tables. Only two non-GCSE qualifications now count on the league tables for each student. </p>
<p>Another change means that whereas in the past, students could attempt multiple retakes, now the first attempt a student makes at an exam is the one that counts, meaning they are <a href="https://theconversation.com/shift-from-sitting-gcses-a-year-early-wins-guarded-support-29869">discouraged from taking exams</a> a year early.</p>
<h2>Fall in five A* – C grades</h2>
<p>The Department for Education has helpfully <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/399238/SFR_02_2015-revised_GCSE_and_equivalents.pdf">provided an analysis</a> that gives us some insight into the impact of these quite substantial reforms. </p>
<p>Following the changes, 56.6% of pupils in state-funded schools achieved five or more GCSE A* – C or equivalent, including English and mathematics, in 2013-14. On the face of it this is a significant reduction from 2012-13 when it was 60.6%. But as these numbers are not comparable, the change is not meaningful. </p>
<p>The reforms to the league tables were expressly designed to reduce the proportion achieving that threshold, because it was felt that the previous ways of measuring pupil achievement at GCSE were overstating pupils’ real achievement. Bearing that in mind, the reduction in the percentage achieving this threshold may actually be somewhat smaller than expected. </p>
<p>The government’s analysis points to how the reforms affected the drop in GCSE results – and it’s clear that taking retakes out had the most significant impact. There was a slightly smaller impact of removing some “unregulated” International GCSEs – or IGCSEs – from the statistics, and also because schools changed their entry policies in response to the exam regime change. </p>
<h2>Lower-achieving pupils hit hardest</h2>
<p>The purpose of these reforms was to reduce the number of schools entering their pupils in for qualifications that were less academically rigorous. This has meant the reforms <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/jan/29/gcse-gap-rich-poor-widens">had a greater effect on lower-achieving pupils</a>. </p>
<p>As a consequence, the changes had very little impact on the more academically oriented performance measure, the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/english-baccalaureate-information-for-schools">English Baccalaureate</a> (EBacc), in which pupils are encouraged to take five core subjects: English, mathematics, history or geography, the sciences and a language. In 2013-14, 24.2% of the cohort achieved the EBacc. This was quite similar – even if not not directly comparable – to the 2012-13 figure of 23%.</p>
<p>But perhaps the biggest upset from these league tables is the impact that the changes have had on the number of schools below the minimum floor targets set by the government. The criteria for this relates to the percentage of students achieving 5 A*-C GCSE or equivalent, including mathematics or English and the proportion of students making expected progress. The number of schools below the floor has increased from 154 in 2012-13 to 330 in 2013-14, representing just over one in ten schools. </p>
<p>By reducing the value of many of the qualifications taken by lower-achieving pupils, the reforms to the league tables have particularly affected schools where those pupils make up a higher proportion. They will also have hit schools that may have not responded quickly enough to the reforms and continued putting their students in for examinations that no longer count. One would imagine that schools will change their strategy in the future, though undoubtedly achieving the floor target has been made harder by these changes.</p>
<h2>Private schools set apart</h2>
<p>The data for private schools is far more problematic because a large number of private schools take many IGCSEs that no longer count in the statistics. This has rendered the data for the private sector virtually unusable for schools that had a significant proportion of their cohort taking these excluded qualifications, and it is this issue that has led to the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-31023685">most controversy</a>. </p>
<p>The difference that the exclusion of IGCSEs makes to the private sector’s results is perhaps surprising. But it suggests the importance of these alternative qualifications for that sector. Despite the incentives created by the league table reforms, many have clearly decided not to exclude these IGCSEs from their curriculum. If private schools continue to take these qualifications, it would seem that this problem will persist, making comparisons between the two sectors highly problematic.</p>
<hr>
<p>Next read: <a href="https://theconversation.com/reforms-based-on-pisa-tests-alone-wont-fix-gcse-standards-25251">Reforms based on Pisa tests alone won’t fix GCSE standards</a></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/36926/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anna Vignoles has received funding from the Department for Education to examine the achievement of socio-economically disadvantaged students in the English education system.</span></em></p>The shockwaves from the latest round of school league tables are still reverberating across staff rooms up and down the country. The headlines have been about a drop in the proportion of pupils achieving…Anna Vignoles, Professor of Education, University of CambridgeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/369192015-01-30T06:23:55Z2015-01-30T06:23:55ZNicky Morgan’s pursuit of knowledge is diluted by the obsession with ‘British values’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/70483/original/image-20150129-22311-f5jln4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Do you 'dare to know?'</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/number10gov/15975711972/sizes/l">Prime Minister's Office</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Those who have agitated for subject knowledge, rather than skills, to be the focus of the national curriculum, may have been pleased to hear the secretary of state for education, Nicky Morgan, following in her predecessor Michael Gove’s footsteps in <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/nicky-morgan-why-knowledge-matters">a recent speech</a> at the think tank <a href="http://www.politeia.co.uk/">Politeia</a>. </p>
<p>Morgan said that the government’s education reforms have at their heart “a determination to place knowledge back at the core of what pupils learn in school” over the previously prioritised “development of skills”. She said that “it’s impossible for young people to gain the skills and attributes that we all prize, without the knowledge base to put those skills into action”. She went on to argue: “A rich corpus of knowledge should be the equal right of every child.” </p>
<p>Some may question her commitment to that, as the head of a department that just last year announced it <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-28108153">was dropping the knowledge-rich</a> International GCSEs – IGCSEs – from its league tables, effectively leaving them as a resource for independent schools. That move <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-31023685">has now caused anger</a> at those independent schools who appear to have slipped down league tables as a result. </p>
<h2>Winning the argument for knowledge</h2>
<p>It’s true that the new national curriculum has more knowledge in it, put in by people committed to <a href="https://theconversation.com/on-the-subject-of-subjects-27035">subject-based education</a> – where teachers are experts in their subjects and use this as the bedrock of their teaching, rather than focusing on children’s soft skills. </p>
<p>Morgan may also have been thinking about <a href="http://www.pimlicoacademy.org/">Pimlico Academy</a>, the <a href="http://www.westlondonfreeschool.co.uk/">West London Free School</a> and the <a href="http://eastlondonscienceschool.co.uk/">East London Science School</a> – all excellent examples of knowledge-based schools. </p>
<p>The problem is you can’t just say that knowledge is important. You have to win the argument for knowledge. Morgan fails to do that because she is still thinking about knowledge in a way that those who “prized the development of skills” such as the New Labour government always did. That administration was obsessed with <a href="http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/features/skills-and-new-labour-inside-education-policymaking/2011549.fullarticle">skills policies</a>.</p>
<p>She thinks about knowledge as instrumental – as important for some other reason, such as trying to create greater social mobility. Yet knowledge doesn’t “matter” in the way she presents the case for it. Knowledge is an end in itself.</p>
<h2>Not part of a social engineering project</h2>
<p>I would argue that knowledge is not something we value, it is a value. It also carries with it a range of other epistemological values including freedom of speech, honesty, consistency, and the constant questioning of assumptions that are the foundation of knowledge. These are not external values imposed from the outside, but are values internal to the pursuit of knowledge. These values do not have to be taught separately. They are integral to the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake.</p>
<p>You can’t win the argument for knowledge if, like Morgan and many others who formally support a knowledge-based curriculum, you support it because it will do some social engineering in the name of “fairness and social justice”. Morgan is capitulating to the skills argument by saying we will get the skills we need if children have knowledge. </p>
<p>She wants to help the disadvantaged and underachieving by giving them knowledge. In this way, she hopes to increase social mobility. She wants to produce well-rounded children, <a href="https://theconversation.com/to-build-childrens-character-leave-self-esteem-out-of-it-35506">develop character</a> and support what she considers to be the core “British values” of “democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, tolerance and respect”. Even “freedom of speech” gets a mention as a “British value” at the end of her speech. </p>
<h2>Moral leadership?</h2>
<p>The authoritarian tone is clearly there – no school will be exempt from imposing whatever the <a href="https://theconversation.com/debate-over-national-values-is-a-threat-to-the-education-system-34635">government determines is a “British” value</a>. In this speech Morgan moves from a defence of knowledge to the imposition of values in order to regain “moral” leadership.</p>
<p>The argument about what constitute “British values” is already turning into a bitter and confusing one. Morgan needn’t have gotten into it if she really understood what knowledge is: a universal value that has been the basis of all great cultures. In ancient Greece, Islamic countries at their highest point, and in Enlightenment Europe, the desire for knowledge was the over-riding value. </p>
<p>The philosopher Immanuel Kant said the motto of the Enlightenment was “<em>Sapere aude</em> – Dare to know!” and he started his famous essay “<a href="http://www.columbia.edu/acis/ets/CCREAD/etscc/kant.html">What is Enlightenment?</a>” with this powerful statement: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his self-imposed nonage. Nonage is the inability to use one’s own understanding without another’s guidance. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Teachers and pupils do not need government guidance about how to live – they need a real commitment to knowledge. All of the other social engineering initiatives, especially the requirement to teach “British values” will be counter-productive and will take away the emphasis on knowledge.</p>
<p>If Morgan really wanted to undo the infantilisation of the teaching profession and ensure that a knowledge-based curriculum was possible for every pupil, she should adopt Kant’s motto and simply say to them: “Dare to know!”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/36919/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Those who have agitated for subject knowledge, rather than skills, to be the focus of the national curriculum, may have been pleased to hear the secretary of state for education, Nicky Morgan, following…Dennis Hayes, Professor of Education, University of DerbyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/351652014-12-09T19:36:05Z2014-12-09T19:36:05ZParing back the curriculum would be a difficult and unnecessary task<p>This week the ministers of education for the states and territories will consider recommendations from federal Education Minister Christopher Pyne to revise the Australian curriculum. These recommendations are likely to follow the <a href="https://docs.education.gov.au/node/36267">Australian government’s initial response</a> to the findings of the <a href="http://www.studentsfirst.gov.au/review-australian-curriculum">National Curriculum Review</a>, written by business academic Ken Wiltshire and education researcher Kevin Donnelly.</p>
<h2>How to resolve the overcrowded curriculum</h2>
<p>One of the main messages in the review, and the government response to the review, was that the curriculum is overcrowded. The review described the curriculum as having:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>far too much content than can be reasonably delivered by our schools and teachers, impacting on the quality of learning of our students.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This was particularly thought to be a problem in the early years of primary schooling, because it reduced the time that could be devoted to literacy and numeracy. To address this perceived problem the Wiltshire-Donnelly report identified two different ways of reducing content — two because the reviewers could not reach an agreement on a single proposal. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/66696/original/image-20141209-6723-2xrhaw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/66696/original/image-20141209-6723-2xrhaw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/66696/original/image-20141209-6723-2xrhaw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/66696/original/image-20141209-6723-2xrhaw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/66696/original/image-20141209-6723-2xrhaw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/66696/original/image-20141209-6723-2xrhaw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1132&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/66696/original/image-20141209-6723-2xrhaw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1132&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/66696/original/image-20141209-6723-2xrhaw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1132&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Everything in the curriculum has been put there for a reason - simply taking it out wouldn’t be wise.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Wiltshire recommended that in the Foundation Year and Years 1 and 2 the curriculum have only two components — literacy and numeracy. More subjects would be added in Year 3 and again in Year 7. </p>
<p>In Donnelly’s model, maths, English, science and history would be compulsory from Foundation to Year 10. All other subjects would be electives. In other words, he advocates the same structure of compulsory and elective subjects for all years. </p>
<p>Both these recommendations involve major changes to the curriculum that is currently being introduced into schools across the country.</p>
<p>The assumption is that other subjects take time away from the teaching of literacy and numeracy. However, the recommendation to remove the cross-curriculum “general capabilities” to make room for literacy and numeracy makes little sense because these are capabilities that span a range of subjects, <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-if-we-had-asked-teachers-to-do-the-curriculum-review-33027">not actual content</a>. Wiltshire recognises this by recommending that in the early years: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>teachers would use relevant content from disciplines as they develop literacy and numeracy content and skills.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Yet his model still proposes to remove this content from the curriculum.</p>
<h2>Is the curriculum actually overcrowded?</h2>
<p>The belief that the primary school curriculum is overcrowded is questionable. The international comparisons used by the Wiltshire-Donnelly review as benchmarks against which to judge the Australian curriculum do not support it.</p>
<p>In the first year of primary school in England <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/381344/Master_final_national_curriculum_28_Nov.pdf">the compulsory subjects are</a> English, mathematics, science, art and design, computing, design and technology, geography, history, music and physical education. These continue throughout the primary years, with a second language being added in Year 3.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.moe.gov.sg/education/primary/curriculum/">Singapore</a> and <a href="http://www.oph.fi/english/curricula_and_qualifications/basic_education">Finland</a>, two other benchmark countries, have a similar breadth of content. So while there is scope to reduce the content of some subjects in the Australian curriculum, international comparisons do not suggest a need to reduce the number of subjects in the primary school years.</p>
<p>Wiltshire’s curriculum model further reduces content in these years by integrating history, geography and civics and citizenship into a combined humanities and social sciences subject. This is a surprising recommendation, because it would mean a return to Studies in Society and Environment (SOSE), which is being phased out as the Australian curriculum is progressively implemented. </p>
<p>This integrated subject gained a reputation for lack of rigour and depth and in the new Australian curriculum was split into its constituent disciplines. A reversion to SOSE is at odds with the final report’s support of a more rigorous curriculum based on discipline knowledge.</p>
<p>In the secondary school years, Wiltshire’s curriculum model makes a wide range of subjects compulsory up to the end of Year 10. Donnelly’s model, on the other hand, makes only four subjects compulsory from Foundation to Year 10, and the rest electives. No explanation is provided for the choice of the four subjects, and particularly for the choice of history as the only compulsory humanities and social sciences subject. </p>
<p>At present, SOSE, or its equivalent, is or has been a compulsory subject in most jurisdictions up to Year 10, and in Queensland up to Year 9. Whatever its failings, SOSE did teach students something about the contemporary world through elements from geography, economics and sociology. In Donnelly’s model this knowledge is seen as optional, and students’ understanding of the world around them would suffer as a consequence.</p>
<p>In narrowing the core curriculum, Donnelly appears to be advocating a different direction to many high-performing school systems in other countries. A recent report for the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/175439/NCR-Expert_Panel_Report.pdf">Review of the National Curriculum in England</a> examined the structure of the curriculum in 12 countries or states/provinces, and concluded:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>International evidence supporting the provision of focused breadth at Key Stage 4 [i.e. Years 10 and 11] is extremely strong and it appears that England narrows its curriculum earlier than many of the high-performing jurisdictions. This has the consequence at Key Stage 4 of depriving many young people of access to powerful forms of knowledge and experience at a formative time in their lives, and foreclosing on some pathways and choices.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Depriving young people of information seems to be the exact opposite of what we want from a quality education system and a well-thought-out curriculum.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/35165/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alaric Maude was employed by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority as Lead Writer and Writing Coach for the Australian geography curriculum.</span></em></p>This week the ministers of education for the states and territories will consider recommendations from federal Education Minister Christopher Pyne to revise the Australian curriculum. These recommendations…Alaric Maude, Associate Professor of Geography, Flinders UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/338782014-11-12T19:29:49Z2014-11-12T19:29:49ZWill the curriculum review make it in to schools? It’s a political waiting game<p>The <a href="https://docs.education.gov.au/system/files/doc/other/review_of_the_national_curriculum_final_report.pdf">Review of the Australian Curriculum</a> was released last month and the initial responses by the <a href="https://docs.education.gov.au/node/36267">federal government</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/national-curriculum-review-experts-respond-26913">others</a> soon followed. So what happens now for this review, an analysis of the national school curriculum by the government’s two appointed reviewers? Is it likely to have action messages for schools or state and territory systems? </p>
<p>The political process has not yet swung into action. State and territory education ministers and the federal minister, Christopher Pyne, are to discuss its recommendations at an Education Council meeting in December.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.liberal.org.au/latest-news/2014/10/12/curriculum-review-and-initial-government-response-released">Pyne noted in the government response</a> that he’d be consulting with his colleagues over the next few months:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>This is an opportunity for my state and territory colleagues to work with me to ensure the curriculum is delivering the outcomes we want for our students.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>While this appears to centre his own role, the tone of the initial response invites discussion. That is essential in a context where states and territories retain control of the curriculum for their schools.</p>
<p>Most of the states and territories will have their curriculum authorities or policy branches developing briefings about response options for their ministers to take to Canberra. Each authority already has a well-developed strategy for dealing with the national curriculum, which started being adopted in 2011 in some jurisdictions. </p>
<p>ACARA (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority) oversees the development of the Australian Curriculum. An overview of the implementation timelines adopted by education jurisdictions to date on can be found on the <a href="http://www.acara.edu.au/verve/_resources/State_and_Territory_Senior_Secondary_Integration_and_Implementation_Plans.pdf#search=imPlementation%20timeline">ACARA website</a>. Even without the latest review, the Australian Curriculum is up to Version 7.2. </p>
<p>The smallest educational jurisdiction - ACT - fully adopted the national curriculum, given its tiny departmental infrastructure. Larger states such as NSW and Victoria adapted elements within their state curriculum frameworks. The diversity among the state, territory, Catholic and independent school sectors indicates that negotiations to date have not been straightforward.</p>
<h2>So when will the decisions be made?</h2>
<p>Decision-making on the national curriculum is quite convoluted because education remains a state responsibility. Currently, the ACARA board makes recommendations to the Australian Education, Early Childhood Development and Youth Affairs Senior Officials Committee (made up of the director-generals/secretaries/chief executives for school education and early childhood education and care in Australia) and the Standing Council on School Education and Early Childhood (made up of all Commonwealth, state and territory education ministers). The standing council, not ACARA, makes any final decision to endorse a curriculum document. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64180/original/q4rndcpf-1415667462.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64180/original/q4rndcpf-1415667462.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64180/original/q4rndcpf-1415667462.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64180/original/q4rndcpf-1415667462.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64180/original/q4rndcpf-1415667462.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64180/original/q4rndcpf-1415667462.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64180/original/q4rndcpf-1415667462.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64180/original/q4rndcpf-1415667462.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">From review to blackboard, there’s a lot of politicking in between.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/vblibrary/10432227963">Flickr/Enokson</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>As ACARA makes clear in its important <a href="http://www.acara.edu.au/verve/_resources/STATEMENT_Review_of_the_Australian_Curriculum_20140324.pdf">background statement to inform the review</a>, states and territories determine timelines for any implementation. These take into account the needs of their systems, schools and teachers. </p>
<p>Once the ministers have had their formal discussion in December, and presuming there is an agreement which will not founder on states’ rights by allowing for a sufficient variety of approaches, then the standing council is likely to refer its recommendations back to ACARA for further development. </p>
<p>This will be the tricky part that tests ACARA’s political and curriculum acumen, and its ability to turn any accepted review recommendations into curriculum documents. The review’s recommendations challenge the expert and professional processes ACARA has used for ensuring a good curriculum design. The recommendations include significant cutbacks to a small mandatory core for each subject, and the reduction of the “general competencies” and cross-curriculum priorities, which have been central to the current curriculum. </p>
<p>Making these complicated processes even more complex, the review also recommended major changes to ACARA’s mandate. The Australian government seemed to accept these recommendations in broad terms. Its response suggested it would use the legislatively mandated six-month review of ACARA starting in December to canvass the options and potentially change the legislation.</p>
<p>Thus it may be possible that only some of the recommendations – if agreed by the ministers – will be referred to ACARA for further work, awaiting the outcome of the federal government’s review of governance. Or maybe all recommendations will be held off.</p>
<p>ACARA has not made public statements about the review or the the government’s initial response. Like the ACARA board, the education community will need to wait and see what happens at the education ministers’ meeting in December. It is highly unlikely that any major changes will happen before 2016.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/33878/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marie Brennan receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>The Review of the Australian Curriculum was released last month and the initial responses by the federal government and others soon followed. So what happens now for this review, an analysis of the national…Marie Brennan, Professor of Education, Victoria UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.