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Teachers key to curriculum success In this opinion article, originally published in The Canberra Times, ACER’s chief executive, Professor Geoff Masters, points out that every classroom teacher must be equipped and supported to deliver the new national curriculum. This month’s release of the proposed national curriculum for kindergarten to Year 10 in English, history, science and mathematics is a milestone for Australian education. After several false starts late last century, the nation at last has a clear curriculum roadmap of the minimum essential knowledge and skills that all students should learn in each year of school. And it’s not before time. Although Australia has a population less than some American states, we have lived with unnecessary differences and substantial duplication of school curricula across eight jurisdictions. The new curriculum released this month is a step towards ensuring that every Australian child receives a sound basic education, regardless of where they live. The launch of the Australian curriculum also points to the next challenge of ensuring that every classroom teacher is equipped and supported to deliver the new curriculum. Clarity about what teachers should teach and students should learn is the first step. The implementation of the new curriculum will require teachers with expert knowledge about effective teaching practices and high levels of skill in interpreting the new curriculum for particular groups of students. Our best teachers already know that teaching is more than delivering a one-size-fits-all curriculum to all students in a particular grade. They understand the enormous variability in students’ interests, motivations and rates and levels of school progress. In any given year of school in Australia, the highest achieving ten per cent of students in areas like mathematics and reading are about five to six years ahead of the lowest achieving ten per cent of students. Excellent teachers understand the importance of first identifying where individuals are up to in their learning, including diagnosing misunderstandings and gaps in learning. They then use this knowledge to identify starting points for teaching and provide differentiated learning opportunities appropriate to individuals’ levels of readiness and need. Our best teachers know that the greatest inefficiencies in teaching are the result of teaching some students what they already know and teaching others what they are not yet ready to learn. Evidence from recent audits of teaching and learning practices in Australia reveal that teachers differ significantly in their ability to provide differentiated teaching of this kind. Some fall back on delivering the curriculum for the grade, teaching to the middle of the class, with the consequence that lower achieving students fall further behind as each year’s curriculum becomes increasingly inappropriate for them; others allow higher achieving students ‘free time’ when they complete class work early, rather than challenging and extending them with more advanced work. The worst possible outcome of a national curriculum would be an increase in the number of teachers who deliver the curriculum in an undifferentiated way to all children in the same year level. The challenge of building teachers’ skills to implement the new Australian curriculum should be high on the agenda of the newly-established Australian Institute of Teaching and School Leadership. Tasks for the Institute include identifying and promoting evidence-based teaching strategies; developing teachers’ and leaders’ skills in diagnosing difficulties and monitoring learning over time; and building skills in the delivery of differentiated (or ‘personalised’) learning, including through more effective uses of technology. The new Australian curriculum will enhance the quality of teaching and learning in our schools to the extent that it is accompanied by systematic efforts to identify and promote highly effective teaching practices, to evaluate the quality of classroom teaching, and to recognise and reward teachers who achieve high standards of teaching excellence. This article was first published in the opinion pages of the Canberra Times. (‘Teachers key to curriculum success,’ by Geoff Masters, Canberra Times, 3 March 2010, page 11). « Back to eNews
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In this opinion article, originally published in The Canberra Times, ACER’s chief executive, Professor Geoff Masters, points out that every classroom teacher must be equipped and supported to deliver the new national curriculum.

This month’s release of the proposed national curriculum for kindergarten to Year 10 in English, history, science and mathematics is a milestone for Australian education. After several false starts late last century, the nation at last has a clear curriculum roadmap of the minimum essential knowledge and skills that all students should learn in each year of school. And it’s not before time. Although Australia has a population less than some American states, we have lived with unnecessary differences and substantial duplication of school curricula across eight jurisdictions. The new curriculum released this month is a step towards ensuring that every Australian child receives a sound basic education, regardless of where they live.

The launch of the Australian curriculum also points to the next challenge of ensuring that every classroom teacher is equipped and supported to deliver the new curriculum. Clarity about what teachers should teach and students should learn is the first step. The implementation of the new curriculum will require teachers with expert knowledge about effective teaching practices and high levels of skill in interpreting the new curriculum for particular groups of students.

Our best teachers already know that teaching is more than delivering a one-size-fits-all curriculum to all students in a particular grade. They understand the enormous variability in students’ interests, motivations and rates and levels of school progress. In any given year of school in Australia, the highest achieving ten per cent of students in areas like mathematics and reading are about five to six years ahead of the lowest achieving ten per cent of students. Excellent teachers understand the importance of first identifying where individuals are up to in their learning, including diagnosing misunderstandings and gaps in learning. They then use this knowledge to identify starting points for teaching and provide differentiated learning opportunities appropriate to individuals’ levels of readiness and need. Our best teachers know that the greatest inefficiencies in teaching are the result of teaching some students what they already know and teaching others what they are not yet ready to learn.

Evidence from recent audits of teaching and learning practices in Australia reveal that teachers differ significantly in their ability to provide differentiated teaching of this kind. Some fall back on delivering the curriculum for the grade, teaching to the middle of the class, with the consequence that lower achieving students fall further behind as each year’s curriculum becomes increasingly inappropriate for them; others allow higher achieving students ‘free time’ when they complete class work early, rather than challenging and extending them with more advanced work. The worst possible outcome of a national curriculum would be an increase in the number of teachers who deliver the curriculum in an undifferentiated way to all children in the same year level.

The challenge of building teachers’ skills to implement the new Australian curriculum should be high on the agenda of the newly-established Australian Institute of Teaching and School Leadership. Tasks for the Institute include identifying and promoting evidence-based teaching strategies; developing teachers’ and leaders’ skills in diagnosing difficulties and monitoring learning over time; and building skills in the delivery of differentiated (or ‘personalised’) learning, including through more effective uses of technology. The new Australian curriculum will enhance the quality of teaching and learning in our schools to the extent that it is accompanied by systematic efforts to identify and promote highly effective teaching practices, to evaluate the quality of classroom teaching, and to recognise and reward teachers who achieve high standards of teaching excellence.

This article was first published in the opinion pages of the Canberra Times. (‘Teachers key to curriculum success,’ by Geoff Masters, Canberra Times, 3 March 2010, page 11).