Australian Curriculum - Capabilities, Priorities, Literacy & Numeracy.

The Australian Curriculum will eventually be developed for all learning areas and subjects set out in the Melbourne Declaration: initially for English, mathematics, science and history; followed by geography, languages, the arts, economics, business, civics and citizenship, health and physical education, and information and communication technology and design and technology.

General capabilities are a key dimension of the Australian Curriculum. They encompass skills, behaviours and dispositions that students develop and apply to content knowledge and that support them in becoming successful learners, confident and creative individuals and active and informed citizens.

Throughout their schooling students develop and use these capabilities in their learning across the curriculum, in co-curricular programs and in their lives outside school. The Australian Curriculum includes seven general capabilities:

• Literacy
• Numeracy
• Information and communication technology (ICT) competence
• Critical and creative thinking
• Ethical behaviour
• Personal and social competence
• Intercultural understanding.

Cross-curriculum priorities are embedded in all learning areas. They will have a strong but varying presence depending on their relevance to the learning areas. Accordingly, the Australian Curriculum must be both relevant to the lives of students and address the contemporary issues they face. With these considerations and the Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians in mind, the curriculum gives special attention to these three priorities:

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures
• Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia
• Sustainability.

For further detail specific to the Australian Curiculum
http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/

or visit 

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA):  

http://www.acara.edu.au/home_page.html

LITERACY:


Definition 1: Literacy "refers to the ways the language-based processes of reading, writing, and digital communication are integrated in acts of making and sharing meaning.  Literacy is no longer seen as isolated bits of knowledge, such as grammar or spelling, but as the ability to use language purposefully and skilfully in many social situations." (Wench et al., 2010, p. xxxvii). OR


Definition 2: "Literacy is the flexible and sustainable mastery opf a repertoire of practices with texts of traditional and new communications technologies via spoken language, print and multimedia" (2000, www.readingoline.org/research/likefreebody.html, as cited in, Wench et al., 2010, p. xxxvii).




Literacy involves students engaging with the language and literacy demands of each learning area.


As they become literate students learn to:

• interpret, analyse, evaluate, respond to and construct increasingly complex texts (Comprehension and composition)
• understand, use, write and produce different types of text (Texts)
• manage and produce grammatical patterns and structures in texts (Grammar)
• make appropriate word selections and decode and comprehend new (basic, specialized and technical) vocabulary (Vocabulary)
• use and produce a range of visual materials to learn and demonstrate learning (Visual information)

(Lawson, 2011, week 1)




NUMERACY:


“In the Australian Curriculum students become numerate as they develop the capacity to recognise and understand the role of mathematics in the world around them and the confidence, willingness and ability to apply mathematics to their lives in ways that are constructive and meaningful.


As they become numerate, students develop and use mathematical skills related to:

• Calculation and number
• Patterns and relationships
• Proportional reasoning
• Spatial reasoning
• Statistical literacy
• Measurement.

(Lawson, 2011, week 1)