1. Do you see any evidence that the Learning Continuum has influenced the curriculum/standards? (i.e. Does the curriculum/standards make explicit reference to the Learning Continuum or is it just implicit in the curriculum, or does there appear to be little connection between the two?)
  • I have searched the acara (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority) website and found the full version of the Australian Curriculum[MK1].
  • What we had on the wiki is only the “Scope and Sequence” part of this 255-page document.
  • The newest version of the Victoria Curriculum (AusVELS Curriculum Domain Mathematics) is an exact extract of part of the Australian Curriculum, creating a 63-page document.
  • Attached to the Australian Curriculum is a document called “General Capabilities in the Australian Curriculum January 2013”. This part does not exist in Victoria Curriculum. I think it is replaced by the Mathematics Developmental Continuum P-10 website.
  • The general capabilities encompass the knowledge, skills, behaviours and dispositions that, together with curriculum content in each learning area and the cross-curriculum priorities, will assist students to live and work successfully in the twenty-first century.
  • The Australian Curriculum includes seven general capabilities:

• Literacy

• Numeracy

• Information and communication technology (ICT) capability

• Critical and creative thinking

• Personal and social capability

• Ethical understanding

• Intercultural understanding.

  • General capabilities materials for schools and teachers. These materials are presented as a resource to help teachers:

• develop a shared understanding of the nature, scope and sequence of the general capabilities in the Australian Curriculum

• confirm their understanding of intended learning wherever general capabilities are identified in learning area content descriptions and elaborations

• Plan for and guide students’ development of the general capabilities in school and classroom learning programs.

  • Within individual capabilities, specific behaviours and dispositions have been identified and incorporated into each learning continuum as appropriate[MK2].
  • in Numeracy an additional two levels have been included at Level 1 to address learning in the early years and to maximise the curriculum’s flexibility for all students, assisting teachers to cater for student diversity and personalize learning.
  • Structure of the materials

The materials for each general capability are in three parts:

• an introduction that describes the nature and scope of the capability, its place in the learning areas and its evidence base

• organising elements that underpin a learning continuum

• a learning continuum that describes the knowledge, skills, behaviours and dispositions that students can reasonably be expected to have developed at particular stages of schooling.

  • Learning continua

“The general capabilities are presented as learning continua or sequences that describe the knowledge, skills, behaviours and dispositions that students can reasonably be expected to have developed by the end of particular years of schooling.

The learning continua are based on the belief that students need opportunities to develop capabilities over time and across learning areas. What is learned in the early years supports all subsequent learning. The[MK3] learning continua assume it is possible to map common paths for general capability development while recognising that each student’s pace of development may be influenced by factors such as their prior experience, sense of self in the world and cognitive capacity” (P.133).

  • Numeracy section of this document contains:
  • Introduction
  • Organising elements
  • Numeracy learning continuum
  • Numeracy is also addressed through the learning areas and is identified whereverit is developed or applied in content descriptions

Numeracy in English

(

• Numeracy in Mathematics

(

• Numeracy in Science

(

• Numeracy in History

(

  • According to the Australian Math curriculum the Numeracy learning continuum is organised into six interrelated elements:

• Estimating and calculating with whole numbers[MK4]

• Recognising and using patterns and relationships

• Using fractions, decimals, percentages, ratios and rates

• Using spatial reasoning

• Interpreting statistical information

• Using measurement

These elements are drawn from the strands of the Australian Curriculum: Mathematics as

shown in the table below:

Numeracy Continuum / Australian Curriculum: Mathematics
Estimating and calculating with whole numbers / Number and Algebra
Measurement and Geometry
Recognising and using patterns and relationships / Number and Algebra
Measurement and Geometry
Using fractions, decimals, percentages, ratios and rates / Number and Algebra
Measurement and Geometry
Using spatial reasoning / Measurement and Geometry
Interpreting statistical information / Statistics and Probability
Using measurement / Measurement and Geometry

So , Learning Continuum , similar to Victoria’s – NSW[MK5] state also has learning continuum- is incorporated in Australian Curriculum. Which then Victoria’s curriculum is based on the Australian curriculum…

(i)[MK1]Please upload the pdf of this document to the wiki.

(ii) Please upload the pdf of the “general capabilities” document.

[MK2]Can you explain what you mean here and provide an example with page numbers.

[MK3]This whole thing seems like a learning continua for 21st century learning skills which is a bit different than the learning progression document for math – but it’s made a bit more confusing because numeracy is one of the 21st century learning skills.

[MK4]So, how do these compare to the learning continuum P-10 document? Are they the same, similar, totally different?

[MK5]Can you explain this in more detail? I’m not quite sure what you mean!