Bold Proposal for NSW Education

Australian Learning Lecture has supported the bold proposal outlined in the Nurturing Wonder and Igniting Passion review for NSW’s future school curriculum.

The review puts forward a long-term vision: a future school curriculum that supports teachers to nurture wonder, ignite passion and provide every young person with knowledge, skills and attributes that will help prepare them for a lifetime of learning, meaningful adult employment and effective future citizenship.

In its submission to the review, ALL concurred with the Review’s long-term vision: a future school curriculum that supports teachers to nurture wonder, ignite passion and provide every young person with knowledge, skills and attributes that will help prepare them for a lifetime of learning, meaningful adult employment and effective future citizenship.

 It has supported many of the Review’s findings including the fact that the NSW curriculum is crowded and content heavy, leaving teachers with not enough time and space for effective teaching and attending to individual difference; its acknowledgement of the unhelpful binary between vocational and academic education that presently exists, and the encouragement of a combination of applied and conceptual knowledge informing all disciplines, and its acknowledgement of the problems with ATAR in terms of preparing students with skills for our changing world.

However, ALL expressed caution that reducing content in the curriculum is not merely about buying more teacher time.

“It is important to ensure that greater attention is given to higher level capabilities in each subject; and that more emphasis should be placed on building skills in relation to content – such as critical thinking, complex problem solving, intercultural understanding,” the submission said.

“Any curriculum reduction will not achieve the intended outcome of deeper and personalised learning unless skills and capabilities are effectively measured.”

The submission can be read here.