Early childhood, middle childhood and early adolescence professionals have a number of concerns in relation to the K-10 Syllabus and some recommendations which we believe would better support teachers in this phase of schooling.

 

In summary, early childhood issues were

1.      Trying to make teaching simple rather than acknowledging its complexity

2.      The focus on teaching rather than learning

3.      The focus on year levels rather than the early childhood phase of schooling

4.      The focus on learning areas rather than a comprehensive integrated approach

5.      The focus on content rather than on concepts, skills, attitudes and values

6.      The focus on needs rather than strengths

7.      The focus on conformity rather than flexibility

8.      Assessment through assessment tasks instead of continuous and formative assessment

Middle childhood issues were that the syllabus

  1. content is stated to be essential, a minimal entitlement, typically introduced at a particular year level. Each of these has different implications in practice, all of which undermine the work teachers have undertaken with the Curriculum Framework.
  2. asks teachers to use professional judgement in assessment but implies that there is little judgement to be used in the selection of content or planning – except for students with additional needs - since the content is now stated as 'essential'
  3. dictates that the curriculum is determined by the syllabus rather than the input from families, community and students and focuses on content rather than understanding, skills, attitudes and values
  4. narrows assessment
  5. tries to be a substitute for professional learning and professional conversations
  6. does not support best practice in education
  7. does not support teachers in planning for students with additional needs
  8. ignores the well-researched work of First Steps Literacy and Numeracy and Fundamental Movement skills

Early adolescence issues were that the syllabus

  1. attempts to describe essential content at a time in history when we realise that learning must be different for different students in different contexts
  2. attempts to sequence learning
  3. assumes that early adolescence builds on middle childhood content
  4. separates learning into year levels
  5. undermining cross curricula studies
  6. does not link with VET competencies
  7. content is stated to be essential, a minimal entitlement, typically introduced at a particular year level. Each of these has different implications in practice.
  8. describes as ‘additional’ content that is ‘essential’
  9. defines terms in a narrow, mono-lingual, teacher-centred way.