“Big Ideas” (from the Australian Curriculum)
Below are some of the main “Big Ideas” gleaned from the Australian Curriculum subject areas. As such they may be worthy starting points or reminders for Transfer Goals and Enduring Understandings.
English
- accuracy, fluency and purpose
- persuade and argue
- Standard Australian English
- aesthetic aspects of texts
Foreign Languages
- Language, culture and learning
- intercultural capability
- language features
Geography
- concepts of place, space and interconnection
- inquiry
- sustainability
- socially justice
History
- informed and active citizens
- forces that shape societies
- historical concepts, such as evidence, continuity and change, cause and effect, perspectives, empathy, significance and contestability
- historical inquiry
Mathematics
- Understanding, Fluency, Problem Solving and Reasoning
- Number and Algebra
- Measurement and Geometry
- Statistics and Probability
- Mathematics as an accessible and enjoyable discipline to study
Physical Education and Health
- wellbeing
- sense of self (self-efficacy)
- satisfying relationships
- physical fitness
- inquiry skills & health literacy
Science
- Biological sciences: life cycles, body systems, structural adaptations
- Chemical sciences: atomic structures / properties, interactions and energy transfer, classification based on properties and composition
- Earth and space sciences: the cosmos, solar system, timescales, influence of human activity on the Earth
- Physical sciences: the nature of forces and motion, matter and energy, and how these work in systems
- Science as a Human Endeavour
The Arts
- express meaning
- create, rehearse, perform and respond
- concepts of artists, artworks, world and audience
- innovative and hybrid art forms
- design thinking
Design / Technology
- sustainable patterns of living
- design thinking
- authentic needs and opportunities
- computational thinking
- interrelationships in systems