Australia Association for Research in Education
Curriculum review
Possibly the last blog of the conference . . .
Still happy to take contributions inspired by the AARE Conference but we will be returning to regular programming …
The insidious way the new curriculum undermines democracy
The public’s mind is focused upon politics in the final week of a bruising election campaign. The language …
The truth: what our students really learn about Anzac Day
Students taught “hatred” of the nation (even the PM thinks so). Teachers are duds. That’s the backdrop for …
Will the curriculum really embrace the true spirit of Anzac?
Q and A with Anna Clark, author of Making Australian History The “wokeness” of Australia’s National Curriculum has again made headlines and again it is more electioneering. On Friday a Nine newspapers headline claimed the revised version of National Curriculum will elevate Western and Christian heritage. Crikey picked up on the Sydney Morning Herald headline …
The truth about Terra Nullius and why First Nations people say Tudge is wrong to say we need optimism
Australia’s federal Minister for Education, Alan Tudge, will not endorse the draft national curriculum for secondary teachers of Humanities and Social Sciences (HASS) because the changes are “overly negative”and could teach kids a hatred of their Country” (ABC 2021). But from a First Nations perspective, the time has come to speak the truth about what …
Alan Tudge’s understanding of our history deserves a fail
The Federal Minister for Education Alan Tudge says the draft History and Civics and Citizenship curriculum is not …
Australian curriculum review: strengthened but still a long way from an amazing curriculum for all Australian students
There is much to admire in the proposed revisions to the Australian Curriculum, which were released for public consultation this week. I’d give it a B+. The curriculum content organisers and core ideas have been revised to ensure that they are more closely aligned, with some trimming of content to enable greater depth of study. …
Five questions to ask if you think teaching problem-solving works
Every few decades there is a campaign to include general problem-solving and thinking skills in school curricula. The motivation is understandable. Everyone would like our schools to enhance students’ critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Because it is so obviously important for students to have such skills, these campaigns are frequently successful in including thinking and …
How to do the sums for an excellent maths curriculum
As we await the release of a new Australian curriculum for mathematics, debates about its contents are developing. As is typical with educational debates, the issues are often painted in binary terms: traditional vs progressive, explicit teaching vs problem solving, content vs skills, procedural vs conceptual knowledge. In mathematics education, these debates have existed for …
Ditching school-based courses cuts passion and wonder. Shame the bureaucrats don’t see that.
After Pauline Hanson was elected, one school fought rising racism with a school-developed subject. …