Pyne tackles 'bias' in classrooms with national curriculum review

[nero_bolt]

ABOUT TIME... The lefties and the greens will hate this and the left teachers and unions will hate it as well..... GOOD hope they do as its about time the left and labor and the unions and teachers stoped brain washing our children with their twisted left views and we got back to values and teaching our kids properly...... 

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THE Abbott government has moved to reshape school education by appointing strong critics of the national curriculum to review what children are taught, amid fears a "cultural Left" agenda is failing students.

The Education Minister, Christopher Pyne, is seeking a blueprint by mid-year to overhaul the curriculum, warning that the rise of "remedial" classes at universities proves the depths of the problem in Australian classrooms.

Vowing to restore an "orthodox" curriculum, Mr Pyne named author and former teacher Kevin Donnelly and business professor Ken Wiltshire this morning to lead the review.

The appointments clear the way for reforms that could expunge parts of the history syllabus that Tony Abbott has blasted for favouring Labor and the unions but glossing over the work of Coalition prime ministers.

Mr Donnelly is a fierce critic of the "relativism" in the teaching program, while Professor Wiltshire has rejected the emphasis on "competencies" and urged a sharper focus on knowledge and assessment.

The looming changes could spark another "culture war", given past brawls, including John Howard's criticism in 2007 of the "shameful" neglect of Australian history and the disputes over Julia Gillard's introduction of the national curriculum in 2010.

Writing in The Australian today, Mr Pyne declares that parents want a curriculum that is "free of partisan bias" and deals with real-world issues.

Concerns about the teaching program have deepened in recent years as the nation lost ground in global assessments of reading, maths and science, putting Australian students behind their counterparts in Vietnam, Poland and Estonia.  (all under Julia and labor and the billions they threw at the system only to fail) 

Canberra and the states agreed on changes to the curriculum last year but the new review throws open the debate to the public, allowing for wider consultation and possibly the holding of open hearings.

Mr Pyne said he expected the states to accept the need for change, given signs of the problems with the current curriculum

I think the fact that universities are teaching maths and English remedial courses is a symptom of an education system that isn't meeting the needs of students who go on to university, and that's something the reviewers will be taking a close look at," Mr Pyne said. "The term 'remedial' implies a remedy for a problem and one of the priorities for all governments should be removing the problem."

A key complaint about the curriculum is its emphasis on seven "general capabilities" rather than essential knowledge in fields such as maths, English and history.

Former History Teachers Association president Paul Kiem has warned that this led to a "tick a box" approach to teaching a subject. A similar view was put by NSW Board of Studies president Tom Alegounarias.

Mr Donnelly, a regular contributor to The Australian, has warned against a "subjective" view of culture that neglects the Judeo-Christian values at the core of Australian institutions.

He has also savaged a civics curriculum that teaches that "citizenship means different things to different people at different times", rather than preparing students for an understanding of their responsibilities. "The civics curriculum argues in favour of a postmodern, deconstructed definition of citizenship," he wrote last year.

"The flaws are manifest. What right do Australians have to expect migrants to accept our laws, institutions and way of life?

"Such a subjective view of citizenship allows Islamic fundamentalists to justify mistreating women and carrying out jihad against non-believers."

Mandating a "cultural left national curriculum" would fail students, he wrote.

Professor Wiltshire branded the curriculum a "failure" last January - prior to changes that were put in place last year.

"A school curriculum should be based on a set of values, yet it is almost impossible to determine what values have been explicitly used to design the proposed model," he wrote of the changes under the Gillard government.

"Curriculum should also be knowledge-based, yet we are faced with an experiment that focuses on process or competencies."

Professor Wiltshire also attacked the "astounding devaluation of the book" in modern teaching.

In his outline of the changes, Mr Pyne points to complaints that history classes are not recognising the legacy of Western civilisation and not giving enough prominence to big events in Australian history such as Anzac Day.

Mr Pyne told The Australian yesterday he "most definitely" stood by his past criticisms of the curriculum, including its neglect of business and commerce in the country's history.

"I believe the curriculum should be orthodox and should tell students about where we've come from and why we are the country we are today, so we can shape our future appropriately," he said.

He said he supported the "unvarnished truth" in the curriculum on everything from the treatment of indigenous Australians to political history. "There is little place in a curriculum for elevating relativism over the truth."

Deals with the states are a key factor in the plan after The Australian reported last month that some state education ministers had challenged Mr Pyne over his "command-and-control" approach to the teaching program.

The ministerial talks were held amid the heated debate over the government's shifting position on a $1.2 billion outlay on the Gonski education reforms.

Mr Pyne told The Australian there was a "moral suasion" to improving the teaching program.

"The states, I am sure, would want to implement the best curriculum without a financial incentive to do so," he said.

The current curriculum has three priorities across subjects - indigenous culture, Asia and sustainability - but Mr Pyne questioned their merits.

"It's difficult to see in maths and science how those three themes are necessarily relevant," he said in an interview. "Themes should not be elevated above a robust curriculum."

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/pyne-tackles-bias-in-classrooms-with-national-curri...

[acacia_pycnantha]

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@crikey*mate wrote:

the only thing I can add to that accacia, is that education is political. There is no escaping that.

It is designed to reflect the values and beliefs of society, well those values and beliefs that the dominant discourse values.

---

I think that it might not be possible to totally escape teaching political points of view and political values as a consequence of delivering a general education but when those political beliefs and political values are deliberately taught, then that is something else.

That is indoctrination and it is an unconscionable act of brutality.

[izabsmiling]

As a nation Australia
values the central
role of education
in building a
democratic, equitable
and just society—
a society that is
prosperous, cohesive
and culturally diverse,
and that values
Australia’s Indigenous
cultures as a key
part of the nation’s
history, present
and future.

http://www.mceecdya.edu.au/verve/_resources/national_declaration_on_the_educational_goals_for_young_...

Cross-curriculum priorities

The Australian Curriculum is designed to meet the needs of students by delivering a relevant, contemporary and engaging curriculum that builds on the educational goals of the Melbourne Declaration. The Melbourne Declaration identified three key areas that need to be addressed for the benefit of both individuals and Australia as a whole. In the Australian Curriculum these have become priorities that provide students with the tools and language to engage with and better understand their world at a range of levels. The priorities provide dimensions which will enrich the curriculum through development of considered and focused content that fits naturally within learning areas. They enable the delivery of learning area content at the same time as developing knowledge, understanding and skills relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures, Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia or Sustainability. Incorporation of the priorities will encourage conversations between learning areas and between students, teachers and the wider community.

Cross-curriculum priorities are addressed through learning areas and are identified wherever they are developed or applied in content descriptions. They are also identified where they offer opportunities to add depth and richness to student learning in content elaborations. They will have a strong but varying presence depending on their relevance to the learning area.

^^^^ also mentions teaching Sustainability ....an earlier link suggests teaching that is also a problem to some 

http://www.acara.edu.au/curriculum/cross_curriculum_priorities.html

[izabsmiling]

this part is important too

  Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians

The 2008 Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians was agreed to by all Australian education ministers. It commits to supporting ‘all young Australians to become successful learners, confident and creative individuals, and active and informed citizens’. This document provides the scope for the development of the Australian Curriculum.

[bluecat*dancing]

http://ausopinion.com/2014/01/10/pynetwomen/http://

CHRISTOPHER PYNE:

Thank you Kevin…any questions?

JOURNALIST: [inaudible] …it won’t produce obviously a curriculum as such can you run us through what happens next up until to the point where we actually get a new curriculum?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE:

Well I wouldn’t say we’re going to get a new curriculum.

What we’ve got at the moment is a National Curriculum in English, science, maths and history, and a proposed curriculum in another four or five subjects which have been completed by the Australian Curriculum and Reporting Authority but hasn’t yet been adopted by all the states and territories as an extension of the National Curriculum.

This process of writing and adopting the National Curriculum in schools started with the adoption of the Melbourne Charter in 2007, onto the creation of ACARA in 2009 and countless hours of teachers writing new programs incorporating the new outcomes, ready for teaching all Year 7 and 9 students in English, Science, Maths and History across Australia in a month from now, Year 8 and 10 students in 2015.  The adoption is well and truly underway.  Five years from the creation of ACARA to implementation.  Next is Pyne’s timeline for change:

But what I’m hoping this review will do is look at all of those subjects, ensure that they are robust and useful and worthwhile, that they’re likely to achieve good results for our students. That will report to me, I’m hoping in May, possibly June, and then we’ll have six months to look at the recommendations of this review, being done by Ken and Kevin, and then I’ll work with the states and territories through the ministerial council process to ask them how they view the recommendations of the review of the curriculum, with a view to implementing changes in 2015.

So yes, I would like to see improvements to the curriculum in 2015. I’d like to see an extension of the National Curriculum into those four, five extra subjects down the track. But each of those new subjects, and the ones we’ve already accepted, need to be as good as possible and I’m hoping that in 2015 we’ll be able to implement changes that this review suggests should the state and territory ministers agree with me that we need to make those changes.

An extraordinary timeline. First of all – the review by Donnelly and Wiltshire is supposed to take 4 months. 4 months to consult educators, administrators and legislators in every state and territory, analyse the education system of other countries. That sounds like they’ll only have time for “talking to a few friends”, rather than broadly consulting.  Next, that the changes recommended will be implemented in 2015.  How Pyne suggests schools will be able to get time for teachers to rewrite programs is not mentioned, nor is how the review from Donnelly and Wiltshire will be converted to outcomes that could be easily integrated.  Programs for 2015 in Years 8 and 10 will start to be written in Term 1 this year – many schools would have already finished them. It’s been one of the largely program rewrites in the past decades of teaching and Pyne wants schools to change the programs within six months?  I would suggest school systems – not just public ones – may have a problem with this.  A point a journalist raises:

[*crikey*mate*]

---

@izabsmiling wrote:

As a nation Australia
values the central
role of education
in building a
democratic, equitable
and just society—
a society that is
prosperous, cohesive
and culturally diverse,
and that values
Australia’s Indigenous
cultures as a key
part of the nation’s
history, present
and future.

http://www.mceecdya.edu.au/verve/_resources/national_declaration_on_the_educational_goals_for_young_...

Cross-curriculum priorities

The Australian Curriculum is designed to meet the needs of students by delivering a relevant, contemporary and engaging curriculum that builds on the educational goals of the Melbourne Declaration. The Melbourne Declaration identified three key areas that need to be addressed for the benefit of both individuals and Australia as a whole. In the Australian Curriculum these have become priorities that provide students with the tools and language to engage with and better understand their world at a range of levels. The priorities provide dimensions which will enrich the curriculum through development of considered and focused content that fits naturally within learning areas. They enable the delivery of learning area content at the same time as developing knowledge, understanding and skills relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures, Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia or Sustainability. Incorporation of the priorities will encourage conversations between learning areas and between students, teachers and the wider community.

Cross-curriculum priorities are addressed through learning areas and are identified wherever they are developed or applied in content descriptions. They are also identified where they offer opportunities to add depth and richness to student learning in content elaborations. They will have a strong but varying presence depending on their relevance to the learning area.

^^^^ also mentions teaching Sustainability ....an earlier link suggests teaching that is also a problem to some 

http://www.acara.edu.au/curriculum/cross_curriculum_priorities.html

---

So, if that is true, and they do value each child equally, interested in each child acheiving to their true potential, and all of the rest of the above propagand, then why does our Education System use the Bell Curve?

[nero_bolt]

Plan to force year 12 high school students to study maths

GOOD about time.

MATHS would become compulsory for Year 12 students under a radical proposal to address a statewide skills shortage.

Week-long work experience programs would also be replaced with a longer term mentoring scheme while TAFE would be overhauled to represent a "US-style college" system to make it more attractive to students.

The Sunday Telegraph can reveal Education Minister Adrian Piccoli will consider the recommendation, which is contained in a State parliamentary Economic Development committee report being drafted and scheduled to be tabled in State parliament next month.

The report follows an inquiry into the State's skills shortage held late last year, which examined the issues facing industry shortages in areas such as engineering, hospitality and catering and in local government.

It also comes after the release of the major international Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) report last month which revealed Australia had slipped from 13th place to 17th place in maths ability among 15 year-olds in three years.  (All this happened under Julia the great educator and when Labor was throwing billions at the education system... This is a major fail for labor) 

In NSW, students are only required to study maths until Year 10, with the subject having been made optional in high school senior years in 2001.

Industry representatives who took part in the inquiry claimed the decision had led to shortages in areas such as engineering and maths teaching while also producing high school graduates who were unable to perform maths task at work.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/plan-to-force-year-12-high-school-students-to-study-maths/...

[*crikey*mate*]

---

@izabsmiling wrote:

this part is important too

  Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians

The 2008 Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians was agreed to by all Australian education ministers. It commits to supporting ‘all young Australians to become successful learners, confident and creative individuals, and active and informed citizens’. This document provides the scope for the development of the Australian Curriculum.

---

LOL, what are the demographics and backgrounds and objectives of the Education Ministers?

At least the above cut and paste (in the previous post) slipped in that it was prepared for the good of the counry....

But it's ok, if these words provide you comfort and prevent you from looking at the economic and sociological factors behind that decision, that's really good.

[izabsmiling]

New school curriculum revamp ignites political storm

• DAVID KILLICK AND AAP
• MERCURY
• JANUARY 11,

TASMANIAN schools are set for another radical curriculum shake-up, this time courtesy of the Federal Government.

Federal Education Minister Christopher Pyne yesterday announced plans for a revamp of the national schools curriculum to "celebrate Australia".

Mr Pyne denies the review is about correcting any perceived left-wing bias but Tasmanian teachers, the Federal Opposition and the State Government have slammed the plan as being driven by conservative ideology.

In a move that is likely to again stoke the fires of the culture wars over the direction of education, Mr Pyne announced the review of a curriculum he describes as too rigid and prescriptive and called for a return to a more orthodox system, free of what he called "partisan bias".

He has appointed two leading critics of Labor's education reforms – former teacher Kevin Donnelly and business professor Ken Wiltshire – to head the review, which he said would provide students with a more robust curriculum.

Tasmanian Education and Skills Minister Nick McKim yesterday condemned the review as a thinly veiled attempt to turn educational content into political propaganda.

Mr McKim said Mr Pyne had ominously made his intentions very clear by appointing several fiercely conservative critics of the current curriculum to conduct the review.

"Mr Pyne should keep his hands off the curriculum, and allow teachers and independent experts to continue to use their skills and expertise in curriculum development," he said.

http://www.themercury.com.au/news/tasmania/new-school-curriculum-revamp-ignites-political-storm/stor...

[izabsmiling]

crikey*mate, I don't know how to respond to you.You have said that you don't believe improvements can be made .

I don't even know from all you post that you want things to improve .

far too many LOL's 

[izabsmiling]

---

@crikey*mate wrote:

---

@izabsmiling wrote:

this part is important too

  Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians

The 2008 Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians was agreed to by all Australian education ministers. It commits to supporting ‘all young Australians to become successful learners, confident and creative individuals, and active and informed citizens’. This document provides the scope for the development of the Australian Curriculum.

---

LOL, what are the demographics and backgrounds and objectives of the Education Ministers?

At least the above cut and paste (in the previous post) slipped in that it was prepared for the good of the counry....

But it's ok, if these words provide you comfort and prevent you from looking at the economic and sociological factors behind that decision, that's really good.

---

The Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) is an independent authority providing a rigorous, national approach to education through the national curriculum, national assessment program and national data collection and reporting program.

ACARA collaborates with teachers, principals, governments, state and territory education authorities, professional education associations, community groups and the general public to develop national education standards that are applied across every school in Australia.

ACARA's mission is to improve the learning of all young Australians through world-class school curriculum, assessment and reporting.

Significant reports including the annual National Report on Schooling in Australia– the major report of statistical and related information about educational outcomes – and national data standards manuals are published on this site in the Reporting section. A number of selected reports relating to the development processes of the Australian Curriculum are also available. Reports relating to the National Assessment Program (NAP) are published on the NAP website.

http://www.acara.edu.au/default.asp