edna.edu.au

Issues research

21st century issues in secondary school curriculum
A quick survey of South Australian secondary school teachers raised the following list of topics which they believe are not well covered in existing online (or print) resources at a level appropriate to or readily discoverable by students.
This is a challenge for those developing materials to support student research. While material such as statistics, newspaper articles, journals, television and radio interviews is available, the skills required to locate sources that represent the multiple viewpoints required are complex.

Note: these are topics set usually by teachers. It will be interesting to compare this to topics chosen by students undertaking the SACE Board Research Project in coming years.

CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN AUSTRALIAN SOCIETY
For most of these topics students are asked to investigate a combination of the following elements

•  overview of the issue
•  historical background
•  Australian context
•  case studies
•  legal aspects
•  ethical issues
•  social benefit/cost comparison
•  making informed choices

 

Seeking source material for the following curriculum topics...

SCIENCE and MEDICINE
 stem cell research
 IVF issues at various stages, eg pre-implantation
 organ transplantation
 gene technology

PERSONAL HEALTH
 nutrition, diet and disease
 lifestyle choices
 breastfeeding
 
TECHNOLOGY
communications technologies, particularly mobile

GEOGRAPHY
 water management issues
 coastal management
 climate change
 
SPORT
 law
 women in sport
 advertising in sport
 drugs in sport
 clothing
 history of popular sports: eg football, motor racing

FINANCIAL LITERACY
Planning and budgeting
Gambling

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION
 religious/faith communities in Australia
 history and impact of religious orders in Australia
  - Jesuits, Josephites, Mercy sisters, Loreto, Christian Brothers
 people of faith and contribution to community
 ethics
 religious art
 sacred texts
 contemporary religious symbols and expressions
 Australian spirituality
 
ART
 Australian women artists: eg Tracy Moffatt, biographical information and their works
 photographers
 indigenous art

SOCIAL JUSTICE

INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIANS 

ADOLESCENT ISSUES
 cars and learning to drive, hooning
 alcohol
 drug use
 homelessness

CAREERS
 future of work
 volunteering
 
AUSTRALIAN IDENTITY

Please add your own 'hard to find' contemporary Australian issues in the comments area below.

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Tags: research project curriculum libraries
Posted at 10:22PM Aug 04, 2009 by Pru Mitchell  |  Comments[0]

Paul Kiem

A conference plenary session from History Teachers Association of Australia conference providing a discussion and overview of the process of the national curriculum development by Paul Kiem, HTAA President.

Lots of great issues raised, starting with the dilemma of  addressing:

What the learner MUST learn vs What the learner WANTS to learn vs What we are CAPABLE of teaching.

The agendas of many people have been thrown at national curriculum history shapers. Paul observed that these groups all seem to see Year 9-10 curriculum as the crucial place to be, eg:

• Australian history
• ancient history
• Asian literacy
• Holocaust
• World history
• European heritage
• Indigenous history
• sustainability
• Archaeology
• Social and cultural
• 21st century skills
• local history
• etc

Positives of the process so far

• avoidance of history wars
• professionalism of all involved
• manageable, flexible brief for K-10
• acceptance of the need for mandatory, optional and school developed topics
• acceptance of engagement as vital
• acceptance that repetition is a turn-off

Key question: Will essay writing survive?
Will the foundations be there at the end of Year 10? Why should it survive: 21st century skill. Literacy is a MAJOR emphasis - literacy divorced from context is an issue. Promotes understanding in depth, and brings together the skills. Essay writing disciplines the inquiry process, and preserves narrative.

Concerns about the process so far

TIME: will courses be given the time they are written for?

COHESION: what is the unifying philosophy? Does there need to be one?

SENIOR COURSES: not adequately addressed as yet, nor answers/resources given to do this.

WHAT IS BEYOND ACARA'S REMIT?

Teacher pre-service training: !

• Professional development: grassroots, teacher level, professional associations need to demand this
  
• Resourcing: pool what is best from around the country. Develop templates.Who is going to do this without duplicating 8 lots of state curriculum resources?
  

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Tags: national curriculum htaa curriculum history teachers
Posted at 08:20AM Jul 17, 2009 by Pru Mitchell  |  Comments[0]

HTAA 2009

Today I am at Moorabbin for the national History Teachers Assocation of Australia conference,

Getting started with a beautifully simple welcome to country by Aunty Joy of the Wurudjeri people talking about her father's service in WWI and current project with children's choir singing in her language.

Keynote speaker is Professor Stuart Macintyre, Professor of History at University of Melbourne and shaper of the National History curriculum paper.

He raised a number of concerns:

We start from a low base in terms of qualified, experienced history teachers to implement a national compulsory history curriculum. Only 16 teacher education faculties offer teaching in history method, of these 10 are in New South Wales - the only state to list history as compulsory in 7-10.

With hindsight, he admits that the national curriculum process may have been somewhat over-engineered - the risk of a bland, over elaborate result, but so much better than the secret approach of the previous government. Stuart recognises the hard work of Julie Roberts,SA and Darren Taylor, NSW in coordination of the process.

Major decision points faced:

* addressing the false dichotomy of inquiry based curriculum vs factual knowledge/content driven curriculum.
* taking a world history perspective rather than an Australian-specific perspective - a decision well supported by the consultation process. Reasons for world history perspective:

1. history assumes we go beyond our own experience
2. students don't like Australian history: it's boring, repetitive and uncomfortable with the moralistic way it is often taught
3. by learning about other people's history we understand our own history better.
   

* his recommendation not to mandate % of Australian history in year levels as this artificially divides 'a curriculum pie' rather than integrating the impact on Australia of world events, however this is still there, eg 40% Australian history in Year 9

Questions:

Why has original optimism been diluted? ACARA's remit is limited, its resourcing is quite limited? Who is going to staff and resource the history curriculum? What is federal government going to require in terms of commitment from states/territories? Assessment outcomes will drive this to some extent. It will assume certain minimum hours spent in history.

It's one thing to produce an expensive blueprint but that does not ensure it is going to be taught in every class. Are the states/territories going to resource history? Balancing the needs of inexperienced teachers with the engaged, creative teachers. 

Selection of schools who will be trialling national curriculum will be by random selection, not just enthusiasts.

Sequencing issues in implementation: can't implement all in one year, but no clear guidance on how to implement.

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Tags: conferences curriculum history teachers htaa national curriculum
Posted at 12:59PM Jul 16, 2009 by Pru Mitchell  |  Comments[0]