Curriculum is all the planned learning that is offered and enacted by a school.

Curriculum is much more than a syllabus, which outlines what is to be taught.  Curriculum is dynamic and encompasses:

These are all interconnected and provide the experiences that contribute to student learning.

Curriculum can be thought of as a sequence of elements; the intended, enacted, experienced, assessed, and achieved curriculum, each one responsive to the others.  A good curriculum has each of these elements aligned so that the intended learning is what is assessed and what students achieve.

The Key Learning Areas (KLAs)

A sequence has been organised for each of the eight KLAs: English, Health and Physical Education, Languages other than English (LOTE), Mathematics, Science, Studies of Society and Environment, Technology and The Arts. Within each sequence, statements describing what is essential learning, address the Queensland Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Framework (QCARF) Essential Learnings and the National Statements of Learning.

Many of the KLAs have an identified process strand. These include Working Mathematically in Mathematics, Working Scientifically in Science, Technology Process in Technology, Inquiry in Studies of Society and Environment, and Create-Present-Respond in the Arts. It is essential that these processes, or ways of working, are embedded in the learning of the knowledge, skills and understandings of the content strands of the KLAs. It would be inappropriate, for example, to teach the content of Number in Mathematics without simultaneously Working Mathematically, or Information in Technology without simultaneously using the Technology Process or Drama without attending to Create-Present-Respond in The Arts. Focussing on these processes can support students’ literacy learning and enable students to use the content knowledge and understandings they have learned in other contexts both within and beyond the school environment.

An introduction to the citizens framework for state schools

The citizens framework, What State Schools Value: Active and Informed Citizens for a Sustainable World, gives a clear, consistent message to parents, students, teachers and the greater community about the key capabilities, knowledge, skills and values that Queensland students will develop throughout their 12 years of education in our state schools.

The citizens framework identifies five key areas for building the citizenship skills of our students:

The citizens framework recognises that the community and, in particular, state school parents expect schools to provide students with opportunities to develop as creative, healthy and informed citizens, with the skills necessary to build positive relationships and to accept a shared responsibility for developing the wellbeing of self, others and the larger living world.

These fundamental principles and values have been encapsulated within the citizens framework in five citizen roles.

It is intended that each of the citizen roles are developed through the school curriculum, organisation and culture, and that they are not viewed as an additional component of student learning.

Three Overarching Learning Organisers (OLOs) have been developed for each citizen. They describe the key knowledge, skills, capabilities and values attributed to each role. The OLOs identify what students should know and be able to do with this knowledge now and in the future. They provide teachers and schools with a tool for devising rich contexts for learning that promote the development of students as active, responsible
citizens and lifelong learners.

The OLOS are not levelled and are the same for Year 1 to Year 12. The depth to which each citizen role is explored is determined by the targeted level of the essential learnings. With a common set of OLOs teachers across the school are able to build a consistency of understanding in relation to each of the citizen roles.

Implementation of the citizens framework for Queensland state schools

The citizens framework will be launched in April 2008. Information and resources to support the framework will be available on the Department of Education, Training and the Arts website from this date.  By 2011 all schools must ensure that students have an opportunity to explore each citizen role across the phases of learning.

A suite of online units of work and professional development modules will support schools to implement the citizens framework. The online units will use the OLOs as curriculum organisers and demonstrate the core messages of the Queensland Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Framework – alignment of curriculum
intent, assessment and reporting. The first online units for the Eco-citizen will be trialled by schools in Term 2 2008.

• Understands that personal identity and relationships are important elements of a person’s growth and development and can demonstrate appropriate skills and strategies to enhance relationships, participate in groups, and maintain a sense of resilience, optimism and healthy self-esteem.

• Understands that the social, physical and economic environments can protect and harm the physical, emotional and mental health of individuals, families, and communities, and can take actions to promote the health, wellbeing and safety of themselves and others.

• Understands that thinking consists of a range of cognitive and metacognitive operations and can use the strategies of critical, creative and caring thinking to question, analyse, synthesise and evaluate information, solve problems, make informed decisions and reflect on ones own thinking and the thinking of others.

• Understands that reasoning is the ability to make inferences and draw logical conclusions and can justify one’s own beliefs and actions, consider alternative suggestions, uncover assumptions, identify faulty reasoning and make reasoned judgements.

• Understands Australia’s political and legal systems, their relationship to international systems, and the processes and history that underpin them and can take action on social, political, environmental and/or economic issues to improve local, national, regional and/or global outcomes.

• Understands the efforts of individuals and groups to achieve political rights and equality over time in Australia’s diverse society and can make decisions that respond to the concerns, aspirations and interests of all and contribute to social cohesion.

• Understands that creativity is an imaginative and inventive act to produce something new of personal, social and/or cultural value, and can create functional, aesthetic, and/or expressive outcomes for self or others using a range of media with technical control.

• Understands that innovation is a generative process of identifying problems and producing original ideas and solutions through persisting and building on the ideas, achievements and influences of others and can seize opportunities, challenge conventions, take and manage risk, adapt to change, and combine and explore ideas.

• Understands the interconnectedness of the natural and physical world and can critically evaluate decisions that affect the balance of earth’s systems.

• Understands the complex relationships between people and environments and can make informed choices about the sustainable use of resources.