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The AusVELS curriculum framework provides a single coherent curriculum for years F-10 that incorporates the Australian Curriculum within a framework that reflects particular Victorian priorities and approaches to teaching and learning.
It is designed to ensure that teachers are not required to manage two different curriculum and reporting frameworks.
AusVELS:
To assist schools and teachers in planning for the implementation of the Australian Curriculum, the AusVELS website will be available from Term 4, 2011 to support curriculum planning, trialling of the new Australian Curriculum subject areas and other professional development activities. The website will be progressively updated as future aspects of the Australian Curriculum are developed.
From 2013, AusVELS will be the location of the F-10 curriculum for Victorian government and Catholic schools and will provide a model for independent schools of how the new Australian Curriculum subjects can be incorporated into existing school-based curriculum programs.
To support the delivery of the AusVELS curriculum, the VCAA is developing a repository of curriculum resources including links to resources developed to support the Australian Curriculum (see Planning and Implementation Resources), a series of Professional Learning activities (see Professional Learning), and information about consultation activities related to the ongoing development of the Australian Curriculum.
Senior Secondary Courses
Development of new Australian curriculum-based senior secondary subjects in English, Mathematics, Science and History, will continue. No changes to the senior secondary curriculum in Victoria will be made as a result of the development of the Australian Curriculum before 2014 at the earliest.
AusVELS outlines what is essential for all Victorian students to learn during their time at school from Foundation to Year 10. It includes the Australian Curriculum for English, Mathematics, History and Science and provides a single, complete set of common state-wide standards which schools use to plan student learning programs, assess student progress and report to parents.
This version of AusVELS maintains the strands of Physical, Personal and Social Learning, Discipline-based Learning and Interdisciplinary Learning.
This enables Victorian government and Catholic schools to maintain their current practice of reporting student achievement against the domains within these strands. It is likely that, in the future, some or all of the domains currently within these strands will be replaced by the Australian Curriculum General Capabilities when they have been fully developed and validated.
The following table sets out the terminology used in AusVELS and the Australian Curriculum as published on the Australian Curriculum website. These are not intended to indicate a direct correlation, but instead provide a comparison of comparable curriculum elements.
|
AusVELS |
Australian Curriculum website |
|---|---|
|
Strands:
|
Learning Areas General Capabilities Cross curriculum priorities |
| Domains | Subjects |
| Dimensions | Strands |
| Learning Focus and Standards | Content Descriptions and Achievement Standards |
Strands, Domains and Dimensions
AusVELS is based on the VELS triple-helix structure of three connected areas of learning called strands.
The three strands are as follows:
|
Physical, Personal and Social Learning |
Students learn about themselves and their place in society. They learn how to stay healthy and active. Students develop skills in building social relationships and working with others. They take responsibility for their learning, and learn about their rights and responsibilities as global citizens. |
|
Discipline-based Learning |
Students learn the knowledge, skills and behaviours in the arts, English, humanities, mathematics, science and other languages. |
|
Interdisciplinary Learning |
Students explore different ways of thinking, solving problems and communicating. They learn to use a range of technologies to plan, analyse, evaluate and present their work. Students learn about creativity, design principles and processes. |
Domains are distinct bodies of knowledge, skills and behaviours within each strand.
The domains within AusVELS that are drawn from the Australian Curriculum learning areas (English, Mathematics, Science and History) are organised into Content Descriptions and Achievement Standards.
Content descriptions specify what teachers are expected to teach. The Achievement standards describes the quality of learning (the extent of knowledge, the depth of understanding and the sophistication of skills) that would indicate the student is well placed to commence the learning required at the next level of achievement.
Content elaborations are included for these domains. These elaborations are intended to provide additional clarity by way of illustrative examples only. They are not statements of mandatory content.
The other domains within AusVELS that are drawn from the existing Victorian Essential Learning Standards (VELS) are organised into learning focus statements and standards. The standards outline the essential knowledge, skills and behaviours students are expected to demonstrate within each domain. The learning focus statements suggest learning experiences that are based on the standards.
All the domains are written for all students. Advice is provided on how programs can be modified for students with English as a second language (ESL) and students with a disability.
Content descriptions/Learning Focus statements and Achievement Standards/Standards for each domain are organised into dimensions. The Arts is a domain, organised by Creating and making, Exploring and responding dimensions.
The domains and their dimensions are listed below. The domains that are drawn from the Australian Curriculum are marked by the symbol AC.
|
PHYSICAL, PERSONAL AND SOCIAL LEARNING |
DISCIPLINE-BASED LEARNING |
INTERDISCIPLINARY LEARNING |
|---|---|---|
|
Movement and physical activity |
Creating and making |
Listening, viewing and responding |
|
Building social relationships |
EnglishAC Reading and viewing AC
|
Design, Creativity and Technology Investigating and designing |
|
The individual learner |
Humanities knowledge and understanding |
Information and Communications Technology ICT for visual thinking |
|
Civic knowledge and understanding |
Economic knowledge and understanding |
Reasoning, processing and inquiry |
|
|
Geographic knowledge and understanding |
|
|
|
Historical Knowledge and Understanding AC
|
|
|
|
Communicating in a language other than English |
|
|
|
Number and Algebra AC
|
|
|
|
ScienceAC Science Understanding AC
|
|
Levels
Each of the AusVELS domains is structured by eleven levels associated broadly with the years of schooling, from Foundation (Prep) to Year 10. The levels represent typical progress of students at key points within the stages of learning. It is recognised that students’ progress at individual rates and may demonstrate achievement at a particular level earlier or later than typical.
This eleven level structure reflects the use of eleven levels as a key feature of the design of the domains drawn from the F – 10 Australian Curriculum (English, Mathematics, Science and History).
|
Nominal school
|
VELS Level |
AusVELS Level |
|
Prep/Foundation |
1 |
Foundation |
|
1 |
2 |
1 |
|
2 |
2 |
|
|
3 |
3 |
3 |
|
4 |
4 |
|
|
5 |
4 |
5 |
|
6 |
6 |
|
|
7 |
5 |
7 |
|
8 |
8 |
|
|
9 |
6 |
9 |
|
10 |
10 |
While this marks a change from the previous six level structure of the VELS, this change should not be interpreted as a move back to a more fixed, less personalised set of teaching and learning principles. In fact, the intent of the change is to strengthen the use of curriculum design as a tool for personalised learning. While the VELS encouraged flexibility across two year levels, the AusVELS structure will encourage teachers to go further and use the curriculum to appropriately target the learning level of each individual student in a class. This reflects the considerable body of research that shows that in any typical mixed ability class, students will demonstrate a range of abilities that spans approximately five school years. The design of the curriculum as an eleven-point continuum of learning is intended to encourage schools and teachers to use the full continuum to more effectively monitor and provide feedback to students on their learning.
Early Years - 2
The focus of the teaching and learning program in F - 2 focuses on developing the following key elements:
For government and Catholic schools, it is anticipated that this will be reflected in the continuation of current reporting arrangements, that is, the requirement that schools report only on English, Mathematics, The Arts, Health and Physical Education and Interpersonal Development in Years F - 2.
In contrast to the current structure of Science in the VELS, the domain of Science in AusVELS will include achievement standards for Years F - 2. These can be used to inform the development of effective teaching and learning programs, and can be used by teachers for the purpose of formative assessment. It is anticipated that teachers in government and Catholic sector schools will not be required to use the Science achievement standards in Years F - 2 for reporting purposes. The Science achievement standards will be used from Year 3 on for reporting purposes.
In contrast to the current structure of History in the VELS for Levels 1-3, that is, as content embedded in the Humanities rather than set out as a discrete subject, the domain of History in AusVELS will include achievement standards for Years F - 4. These can be used to inform the development of effective teaching and learning programs for Years F - 2, and can be used by teachers for the purpose of formative assessment in these years. It is anticipated that teachers in government and Catholic sector schools will not be required to use the History achievement standards in Years F - 2 for reporting purposes. Teachers in Government and Catholic sector schools will be required to use the History achievement standards from Year 3 on for reporting purposes.
Independent schools will be required to comply with the National Funding Agreement, that is, substantial implementation of Australian Curriculum F - 10 English, Mathematics, Science and History by 2013.
While schools must assess and report against the achievement standards from the designated AusVELS domains, schools do have flexibility in the organisation and structure of the learning program. For example, schools can use the five outcomes from the Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Framework as the curriculum organisers for the early years teaching and learning program.
To assist schools that wish to pursue this option, the connections between VEYLDF outcomes and relevant AusVELS domains are illustrated in the table available here.
Middle Years 3-8
It is expected that all schools will provide for all students access to and report achievement against all the domains of AusVELS in the middle years of school. The way in which the curriculum is structured and delivered remains a matter for individual schools.
Pathways 9-10
It is intended that all schools deliver to all students a curriculum for years 9 - 10 that includes the Australian Curriculum for English, History, Mathematics and Science. The way in which the curriculum is structured and delivered remains a matter for individual schools.
It is recognised that at Years 9 and 10 many students commence senior secondary pathways and programs, including vocational pathways. The final responsibility for individual student pathways at Years 9 - 10 is a matter for the school working with the student and, as appropriate, his/her family/carers.
General Capabilities
Those aspects of the curriculum that are defined in the Australian Curriculum as the General Capabilities are a critical component of the school curriculum.
Many of these aspects of learning are already included in the VELS, located in both the Physical, Personal and Social Learning strand and the Interdisciplinary Learning strand.
The development of learning continua for the General Capabilities is still being undertaken by ACARA. Until that work has been completed and a process of validation undertaken, AusVELS will continue to use the current Physical, Personal and Social Learning and Interdisciplinary Learning strands. As a result, the “filtering” mechanism that is available on the Australian Curriculum website will not be included in the AusVELS website.
Cross-Curriculum Priorities
The Australian Curriculum identifies three cross curriculum priorities:
Within the AusVELS framework, these priorities are not treated as separate areas of learning. There is no curriculum content located under these priorities that is additional to the curriculum content defined in the curriculum domains.
Rather, these priorities illustrate how learning can be integrated across the subjects to enable and ensure students connect their learning with important issues in contemporary society.
The “filtering” mechanism that is available on the Australian Curriculum website to assist teachers identify content in the curriculum domains relevant to the respective cross-curriculum priorities will be included in the AusVELS website.
During 2012, the VCAA, in partnership with DEECD, CECV and Independent Schools Victoria, will develop sample units of work that indicate how knowledge and skills from across the domains can be integrated to enable students to focus their learning on the cross-curriculum priorities.
While all government and Catholic sector schools must provide access to all the domains of the VELS (2011-12) and AusVELS (2013+), and independent schools must provide access to the eight learning areas of The Arts, English, Health and Physical Education (including Sport), Languages, Mathematics, Science, Studies of Society and Environment and Technology, there are no mandated teaching time allocations in Victoria, with the exception of the learning area of Physical Education for Government schools. These are as follows:
The Australian Curriculum subjects of English, Mathematics, Science and History have been written on the basis of an assumed time allocation (for details see www.acara.edu.au/verve/_resources/Curriculum_Design_Paper_.pdf). However, this is not a mandated requirement. The organisation of the Year F-10 school teaching and learning program in Victorian schools remains the responsibility of individual schools.
It is intended that all schools deliver to all students a curriculum for years F-10 that provides access to the learning defined in each of the AusVELS domains. The way in which the curriculum is structured and delivered remains a matter for individual schools.
The domains of English, Mathematics, Science and History that are drawn from the Australian Curriculum generally have a greater degree of content specificity than the other VELS-based domains. This has the benefit of providing greater clarity for teachers in terms of what they are expected to teach.
It is expected that, over the course of main stages of schooling (F- 2, 3 - 8 and 9 - 10), all students will have access to the content set out in the AusVELS levels associated with these stages.
The content set out in AusVELS reflects a consensus about effective learning progression. All students do not, however, progress in their learning at the same rate. The learning program for each student should continue to be tailored to individual needs.
The eleven-level structure provides an indication of the content and achievement standards it is expected most students in particular year levels will cover, but more importantly it provides a map that defines key indicators of learning development and progress.
Schools and teachers continue to have the flexibility to enable students to progress at different rates through the ‘learning map’ provided by the curriculum while reporting against common standards.
For government and Catholic schools, the format for reporting to parents will not change in 2012.
Independent schools continue to be able to determine their own reporting formats, consistent with the National Funding Agreement requirement to report student achievement to parents twice a year using an A-E or equivalent five-point scale.
Further information about assessment and reporting will be provided here as it is determined by the relevant sector authorities.
The following statements reflect possible future developments of the AusVELS framework. They are provided only to inform future discussion and consultations.
The VCAA, in partnership with DEECD, CECV and Independent Schools Victoria, will, in partnership with ACARA, develop and pilot the new General Capabilities for Ethical Understanding, Personal and Social Competence, Intercultural Understanding and Critical and Creative Thinking.
The domains of Personal Learning, Interpersonal Development, Communication and Thinking Processes may then be replaced by the new domains of Ethical Understanding, Personal and Social Competence, Intercultural Understanding and Critical and Creative Thinking. These will be continuum in their own right and will not be filtered through the learning area domains.
AusVELS may in time be redesigned as a new two-strand structure of Subjects and General Capabilities. These two strands would replace the existing three strands of Physical, Personal and Social Learning, Discipline-based Learning and Interdisciplinary Learning.
As a consequence, the domains of Health and Physical Education; Civics and Citizenship and Design, Creativity and Technology which are presently located within either the Physical, Personal and Social Learning or Interdisciplinary Learning strands would be located within the Subjects strand. A decision about the location of Information and Communication Technology is to be determined.
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