These learning outcomes comprise the mandatory element of the Curriculum Framework which ALL schools in Western Australia must implement.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The information
on this page is derived
from the
Curriculum Council
.
Detailed information about any aspect can be found on their
website.
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE CURRICULUM FRAMEWORK
The Curriculum Framework sets out what all students should know, understand, value and be able to do as a result of the programs they undertake in schools in Western Australia, from kindergarten through to year 12. Its fundamental purpose is to provide a structure around which schools can build educational programs that ensure students achieve agreed outcomes.
It is neither a curriculum nor a syllabus, but a framework identifying common learning outcomes for all students, whether they attend government or non-government schools or receive home schooling. It is intended to give schools and teachers flexibility and ownership over curriculum in a dynamic and rapidly-changing world environment.
AN OUTCOMES FOCUS
The Curriculum Framework makes explicit the learning outcomes which all Western Australian students should achieve. This focus on outcomes represents a major shift in school curriculum from a focus on educational inputs and time allocation toward one that emphasises the desired results of schooling.
The Curriculum Framework establishes learning outcomes for all students, regardless of who they are, which school they attend, where they are from, or what approach their school takes to help them achieve those outcomes. These learning outcomes are set out in this document within the Overarching and eight Learning Area Statements.
Schools and teachers will use the Curriculum Framework to develop their own learning and teaching programs according to their circumstance, ethos and the needs of their students.
THE K-12 APPROACH
An important feature of the Curriculum Framework is its kindergarten to year 12 approach. While particular stages of schooling make unique contributions and may require different approaches, the K-12 approach adopted by the Framework provides a picture of the total span of students’ schooling. It encourages a developmental and integrated approach to curriculum planning, teaching and learning. It enables students to progress smoothly through their education and avoids the major disjunctions between stages of schooling evident in some previous approaches to curriculum. It provides the basis for continuity and consistency in students’ education
THE CURRICULUM FRAMEWORK IS FOR ALL STUDENTS
The Curriculum Framework is an inclusive framework for all students in Western Australia. Inclusivity means ensuring that all groups of students are included and valued.
The Curriculum Framework does this by:
- specifying a wide and empowering set of outcomes for students to achieve;
- providing a basis for programs that challenge all students and offer all groups of students opportunities to achieve these outcomes;
- recognising and valuing the different knowledge and experience of different groups of students; and
- taking into account the diversity among children and young adults in this State: for example, in terms of gender, languages, culture, learning capacity, socioeconomic background and geographic location.
A small number of students with specific physical or intellectual disabilities may not be able to participate fully in activities and programs designed to achieve certain outcomes set out in the Curriculum Framework.
OVERARCHING
LEARNING OUTCOMES
The development of knowledge, skills and values is a lifelong process, and occurs in many places besides school. The Overarching Statement describes the outcomes which all students need to attain in order to become lifelong learners, achieve their potential in their personal and working lives and play an active part in civic and economic life. These outcomes apply across all learning areas and are the responsibility of all teachers. They are:
- Students use language to understand, develop and communicate ideas and information and interact with others.
- Students select, integrate and apply numerical and spatial concepts and techniques.
- Students recognise when and what information is needed, locate and obtain it from a range of sources and evaluate, use and share it with others.
- Students select, use and adapt technologies.
- Students describe and reason about patterns, structures and relationships in order to understand, interpret, justify and make predictions.
- Students visualise consequences, think laterally, recognise opportunity and potential and are prepared to test options.
- Students understand and appreciate the physical, biological and technological world and have the knowledge and skills to make decisions in relation to it.
- Students understand their cultural, geographic and historical contexts and have the knowledge, skills and values necessary for active participation in life in Australia.
- Students interact with people and cultures other than their own and are equipped to contribute to the global community.
- Students participate in creative activity of their own and understand and engage with the artistic, cultural and intellectual work of others.
- Students value and implement practices that promote personal growth and well-being.
- Students are self-motivated and confident in their approach to learning and are able to work individually and collaboratively.
- Student recognise that everyone has the right to feel valued and be safe, and, in this regard, understand their rights and obligations and behave responsibly.
VALUES IN THE CURRICULUM FRAMEWORK
Values are fundamental to shaping curriculum. In recognition of this, the Curriculum Council has identified and endorsed as one of its Principles, a set of core shared values to underpin the Curriculum Framework.
The Overarching Statement provides an overview of the five clusters of core shared values while the expanded set of thirty-two values is listed below. Each of the eight Learning Area Statements explicitly or implicitly endorses these values in a manner suited to the area.
A
PURSUIT OF KNOWLEDGE AND A COMMITMENT TO ACHIEVEMENT OF
POTENTIAL
The lifelong disposition toward the quest
for knowledge, as each person strives to understand the
social and natural worlds and how best to make a
contribution to these worlds. Each person is encouraged to
achieve his or her potential in all respects and, through
critical and creative thinking, to develop a broad
understanding of his or her own values and world views.
1.1
The pursuit of personal excellence:
Each person should be encouraged to achieve his or her
personal best in all undertakings and to respect the
achievements of others.
1.2
Domains of human experience: Each
person should be encouraged to develop an understanding of
all the domains of human experience; physical, emotional,
intellectual, aesthetic, social, moral and spiritual.
1.3
Empowerment: Each person should be
encouraged to develop critical thinking, the creative
imagination, interpersonal and vocational skills, and
basic competencies in the various forms of disciplined
inquiry.
1.4
Knowledge: Each person should
recognise the tentative and limited nature of knowledge.
1.5
Values systems: Each person should
have the opportunity to explore different values and the
right to develop a personal value system.
1.6
Critical reflection: Each person
should be encouraged to reflect critically on both the
cultural heritage and the attitudes and values underlying
current social trends and institutions.
1.7
World views: Each person should be
equipped with the tools to critically examine world-views
(both religious and non-religious), especially those
dominant in his or her background and school community.
SELF
ACCEPTANCE AND RESPECT OF SELF
The acceptance and respect of self,
resulting in attitudes and actions that develop each
person’s unique potential — physical, emotional,
aesthetic, spiritual, intellectual, moral and social.
Encouragement is given to developing initiative,
responsibility, ethical discernment, openness to learning
and a sense of personal meaning and identity.
2.1
Individual uniqueness: Each person
should acknowledge his or her own uniqueness and be
encouraged to develop self-respect and dignity.
2.2
Personal meaning: Each person
should develop a sense of personal meaning and identity,
and be encouraged to reflect critically on the ways in
which that occurs.
2.3
Ethical behaviour and responsibility:
Each person has freedom of will, is responsible for his or
her own conduct and should be encouraged to develop
discernment on ethical issues and to recognise the need
for truthfulness and integrity.
2.4
Openness to learning: Each person
should welcome opportunities for learning from all
sources, including the formal study of the learned
disciplines; from investigations, contemplation and the
cultural tradition; and from people of divergent views.
2.5
Initiative and enterprise: Each person
should have the confidence to show initiative and be
enterprising in his or her approach to life’s
challenges.
RESPECT
AND CONCERN FOR OTHERS AND THEIR RIGHTS
Sensitivity to and concern for the
well-being of other people; and respect for life and
property. Encouragement is given to each person to be
caring and compassionate, to be respectful of the rights
of others, and to find constructive ways of managing
conflict. This includes the right to learn in a friendly
and non-coercive environment.
3.1
Compassion and care: Each person
has a right to receive care and compassion and have a life
of dignity, free from harassment and discrimination.
3.2
Equality: Each person has equal
worth and basic rights, regardless of differences in race,
gender, age, ability, religious belief, political
affiliation, national origin, citizenship, regional
3.3
Respect: Each person should
respect those of different opinion, temperament or
background.
3.4
Open learning environment: Each
person has the right to a friendly learning environment
free of coercive or indoctrinative elements, whether in
the explicit or implicit curriculum.
3.5
Individual differences: Each
person differs in his or her readiness and ability to
learn and has the right to be given access to available
knowledge at a level appropriate to his or her
developmental needs and interests.
3.6
Cooperation/Conflict resolution:
Each person should strive to work cooperatively and to
resolve conflict peacefully while respecting differences
and valuing the other person.
3.7
Family/home environment: Each
person should recognise the importance of a secure and
caring family/home environment.
SOCIAL
AND CIVIC RESPONSIBILITY
The commitment to exploring and promoting
the common good and meeting individual needs without
infringing the basic rights of others. This includes the
encouragement of each person to participate in democratic
processes, to value diversity of cultural expression, to
respect legitimate authority, to promote social justice
and to support the use of research for the improvement of
the quality of life.
4.1
Participation and citizenship: As
a democratic society, Australia should encourage its
members to participate in the political process and to
contribute to community services consistent with good
citizenship.
4.2
Community: Interpersonal
cooperation and social responsibility are encouraged.
4.3
Diversity: The richness of many
cultural expressions is recognised, and diversity in the
context of shared community life is welcome.
4.4
Contribution: Society has
something to gain from every individual life, and should
maximise the opportunities for all persons to contribute
to the common good.
4.5
Authority: People should respect
legitimate and just authority structures and the rule of
the law, while recognising and observing human rights.
4.6
Reconciliation: Strategies of
cooperation and reconciliation are preferred to coercion
and confrontation, especially where groups or individuals
are in conflict.
4.7
Social justice: The right of each
person to a fair share of society’s economic and
cultural resources is recognised.
4.8
Responsibility and freedom: People
have the right to choose their way of life, and are
responsible for the impact of their choices on nature and
other community members.
4.9
Benefits of research: Society
should support the advancement of knowledge in all its
domains, promote scholarship and research that promise to
improve the quality of life and share the benefits as
widely as possible.
ENVIRONMENTAL
RESPONSIBILITY
The commitment to developing an
appreciative awareness of the interdependence of all
elements of the environment, including humans and human
systems, and encouraging a respect and concern for
Australia’s natural and cultural heritage and for forms
of resource use that are regenerative and sustainable.
5.1
Cultural heritage: The cultural
heritage of Australia, including Aboriginal sacred and
archaeological cultural heritage, should be respected and
maintained.
5.2
Conservation of the environment:
The management of the environment should take into account
the need to preserve its diversity and balance for the
future.
5.3
Sustainable development: There is
a need to continue to develop natural resources to sustain
human life. This should be done in a way consistent with
long-term ecological sustainability and rehabilitation
practices.
5.4
Diversity of species: Each person
should recognise a need to preserve native habitats and
arrest the extinction of presently-surviving native
species.
LEARNING AND TEACHING
The following principles about learning and teaching are based on what we value and our beliefs about the learning environment schools should provide and contemporary research and professional knowledge about how learning can be supported. As such, they lead school and classroom practices which are effective in helping students to achieve the outcomes in the Curriculum Framework. These principles are:
Opportunity to learnConnection and challenge
Action and reflectionMotivation and purpose
Inclusivity and differenceIndependence and collaboration
Supportive environment
ASSESSMENT
A primary purpose of assessment is to enhance learning. Another purpose is to enable the reporting of students’ achievement. Assessment practices have a powerful impact on learning and teaching and we have addressed the issues of what evidence to collect, how to collect it and how to interpret it. Developing a shared understanding of the outcomes enhances the validity and consistency of judgements about students’ learning. In turn, this improves learning and teaching by improving the quality of information upon which teachers and students act. Teachers are then able to report more credibly to other teachers, parents and the wider community.
Whether at the level of the classroom, school or system, assessment information should enable judgements to be made about students’ progress towards the desired outcomes in a way that is fair and contributes to continued learning. Thus, assessment information should enable teachers and students to know what students can do assisted and what they can do unassisted and what they can do when working in groups and when working alone. It should enable them to distinguish between work that is original and non-routine and work that is reproductive or memorised. Fair assessment is based on criteria which are valid and transparent and applied with consistency and without discrimination. These in turn require an assessment regime based upon multiple kinds and sources of evidence. Assessment is likely to enhance learning when the criteria are valid and explicit and when the assessment activities are themselves educative.
The Scope of the Curriculum Framework
PHASES OF DEVELOPMENT
This is the concept of the maturing child achieving the outcomes. It focuses on the ways that learning might progress at four overlapping phases of development. While not intended to be prescriptive, it gives some guidance about the typical sorts of curriculum experiences students might need at each phase to best achieve the outcomes. It is recognised that each student is developing and achieving in different ways, at different stages and at different rates. The Learning Area Statements build on this section in relation to the outcomes and content specific to each area.
- EARLY CHILDHOOD (typically kindergarten to year 3)
- MIDDLE CHILDHOOD (typically years 3 to 7)
- EARLY ADOLESCENCE (typically years 7 to 10)
- LATE ADOLESCENCE/EARLY ADULTHOOD (typically years 10 to 12)
LEARNING AREA STATEMENTS
The eight learning areas below include a detailed statement of how each is linked to each of the above aspects of the overall Curriculum Framework. Each of these is in PDF format.
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