Teachers advised to engage in consultations

Teachers have been asked to respond to a large number of documents. JENNIFER LEETE looks at two with huge ramifications for primary teachers.

The Office of the Board of Studies released its draft consultative document "Defining Mandatory Outcomes in the K-6 Curriculum" early in term 4 and following representation from the Federation has extended the time for responses until February 28, 2005. The Department of Education and Training (DET) consultation materials "Curriculum programming, assessing and reporting to parents" include proposed revised DET expectations for assessment and reporting, examples of proposed support materials to simplify primary programming and three draft sample report formats for reporting to parents on student progress. Federation provides the following advice on responding to the documents.

BOS document "Defining Mandatory Outcomes in the K-6 Curriculum"

• What does "mandatory" mean? Mandatory for what purpose? The document fails to answer this question. Federation's position is that there must be no requirement for teachers to formally assess and record achievement of individual syllabus outcomes nor to formally report to parents on individual mandatory syllabus outcomes.
• The draft document places an over-emphasis on English and mathematics outcomes at the expense of other key learning areas (KLAs). The document proposes that all of the current English and maths outcomes would be mandatory but effectively cuts each of the other KLAs by 50 per cent.
• In KLAs such as Human Society and its Environment (HSIE) and Science and Technology the outcomes to be made "not mandatory" are those which require higher order thinking skills, problem solving, analysis and creative thinking. This is contrary to Professor Eltis's intent that the curriculum must remain rigorous and that scope for "deeper learning" must be provided.
• The outcomes that are proposed to be "not mandatory" in HSIE include those which currently provide for the teaching of Aboriginal perspectives, including Aboriginal history and reconciliation issues. This represents a serious attack on our capacity to promote the values of tolerance, fairness, justice and equality. This includes a proposal to make the sub-strands of "Time and Change" and "Cultural Diversity" optional. Unless this proposal is defeated the DET's mandatory Aboriginal Education Policy will be seen to be hollow rhetoric.
• Other proposed changes in HSIE include making the teaching of the Principles of Australia Democracy optional.
• Federation has proposed that the Board Curriculum Committees for English K-6 and Mathematics K-6 should be reconvened as a matter of urgency for the purpose of identifying some syllabus outcomes as non-mandatory.
• Federation has also asked the Board of Studies to consider the retention in full of the current HSIE outcomes or a full re-write of the HSIE syllabus to reduce the number of outcomes using a properly constituted Board Curriculum Committee, including the Aboriginal Education Consultative Group. This would require any draft proposals to be the subject of further consultation with teachers.

DET consultation materials "Curriculum programming, assessing and reporting to parents"

• The timeframe for consultation on these materials, at the Federation's request, has been extended until the end of term 1, 2005.
• Federation has protested that insufficient numbers of hard copies of the materials have been made available for schools
• Federation supports further work on the development of programming frameworks based on units of work addressing connected outcomes. While the use of these should not be mandatory, the emphasis should be on reducing the workload demands associated with programming, assessing and reporting.
• Any sample reports which the DET produces should under no circumstances be imposed on schools.
• Reports to parents should include plain language, easily understood by parents.
• Reports should include a section for teacher comment without placing undue pressure on teachers.
• There must be no requirement to use specific syllabus outcomes for reporting purposes.
• Federation rejects comparison of students within class or across cohorts or schools. The outcomes approach to reporting involves reporting relative to standards rather than comparison of students.

All Federation members teaching K-6 are encouraged to respond to the Board of Studies and DET consultations and to use the Federation's advice as the basis of their response.

Jennifer Leete is the Deputy President.

Consultation schedule for all members at a glance

Institute of Teachers consults about standards

For further information

December 2004 contents