industry & reform
Under review
A look at the draft mathematics curriculum changes .
By James Burnett and Calvin Irons
In early May ACARA released its draft revision of the Australian Curriculum : Mathematics with the view to “ refine , realign and declutter ” the content . This has been long overdue . Since the curriculum was first published in 2010 , Australia has performed poorly on international tests in mathematics . There is a lot to like about the revision . Simply splitting the three strands into the traditional six is a big plus ! More detail such as this serves to provide clarity .
Many positives can be taken from this revision . Upon a careful review of the proposed F-6 content , the following three changes are most worthy of praise .
Firstly , there is certainly far greater clarity in the content descriptions . Many of the wide-sweeping statements of the original curriculum that were left open to interpretation have been replaced with much more detail . For example , the original content description in Year 4 below is quite vague and raises several questions . What fractions should be addressed ? How important is context ? How should equivalent fractions be modelled ?
The proposed change answers these questions by stipulating the fractions to be explored , and by replacing context with the greater need for representations – of which ‘ symbolic notation ’ is assumed to be only one .
Original
Proposed
Investigate equivalent fractions used in contexts ( ACMNA077 )
Recognise the relationships between families of fractions ( halves , quarters and eighths ; fifths and tenths ; thirds , sixths and twelfths ) including equivalence . Use different representations ( including fraction notation ) to designate parts of a whole ( AC9M4N05 )
Secondly , there also seems to be better content flow across year levels . The format of this revision allows the reader to see learning trajectories across grades . This in itself is informative and particularly helpful for the hundreds of schools that serve multiage classrooms .
In our experience , the lack of careful sequencing has been a major pain point for teachers . This revision will improve the ability
There will be much professional learning required to support teachers as they implement this revised curriculum .
of teachers to make good decisions while greatly reducing the time required for planning .
Finally , the biggest improvement of the Australian Curriculum is the introduction of computational thinking . This is the content that computer scientists suggest should be taught to equip students with the skills needed for today ’ s jobs and the jobs of the future .
It is generally accepted that there are four key aspects of computational thinking , which begins in a search for patterns and culminates in the writing of an algorithm or the code for a computer to follow .
Notably , the international PISA tests in mathematics will include this content in all future tests and tasks .
The revision now includes computational thinking in the Algebra strand of Years 3-6 ; the Space strand of Years 5-6 ; and in Probability in Year 6 . It should be mentioned that in the past , algorithms are generally referred to those step-by-step written procedures that students recall from memory and follow to get an answer . Interestingly , the word ‘ algorithm ’ does not appear in the Number Strand of the revised Australian curriculum . It is only used with Computation Thinking which is about ‘ creating ’ algorithms rather than recalling them – bravo !
As this is a major shift in mathematics instruction , we expect that many teachers may not understand the meaning of the content descriptions specific to computational thinking and therefore , also their intent . No doubt there will be much professional learning required to support teachers as they implement this revised curriculum .
In short , you cannot have success with one and not the other . We have spent the last two years pioneering the inclusion of computational thinking to primary school instruction . In doing so , we have been conducting professional learning workshops specific to computational thinking for local and international F-6 teachers . ■
James Burnett and Dr Calvin Irons co-founded ORIGO education in 1995 .
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