The follow are the verbatim Aims statements taken from the F-10 Australian Curriculum. Following each is a sample of “Transfer Goals” as suggested by the work of Wiggins and McTighe.
English · Health and PE · Civics and Citizenship · Economics and Business · Geography ·
History · World Languages · Mathematics · Science · Technologies · The Arts
English
The Australian Curriculum: English aims to ensure that students:
- learn to listen to, read, view, speak, write, create and reflect on increasingly complex and sophisticated spoken, written and multimodal texts across a growing range of contexts with accuracy, fluency and purpose
- appreciate, enjoy and use the English language in all its variations and develop a sense of its richness and power to evoke feelings, convey information, form ideas, facilitate interaction with others, entertain, persuade and argue
- understand how Standard Australian English works in its spoken and written forms and in combination with non-linguistic forms of communication to create meaning
- develop interest and skills in inquiring into the aesthetic aspects of texts, and develop an informed appreciation of literature.
Transfer Goals from the State of Massachusetts
Students will be able to independently use their learning to:
- Understand the power of words and images to transform lives and provide insight into the experiences of others and understanding of cultures and historical periods.
- Read and comprehend a range of increasingly complex texts and media written for various audiences and purposes.
- Generate open ended questions and seek answers through critical analysis of text, media, interviews, and/or observations.
- Communicate ideas effectively in writing to suit a particular audience and purpose.
- Communicate ideas effectively in discourse and oral presentations to suit various audiences and purposes.
- Expand their vocabulary and knowledge of English conventions in order to learn and convey precise understandings of concepts.
- Develop the habit of reading for enjoyment.
Health and Physical Education
The Australian Curriculum: Health and Physical Education (F–10) aims to develop the knowledge, understanding and skills to
enable students to:
- access, evaluate and synthesise information to take positive action to protect, enhance and advocate for their own and others’ health, wellbeing, safety and physical activity participation across their lifespan
- develop and use personal, behavioural, social and cognitive skills and strategies to promote a sense of personal identity and wellbeing and to build and manage respectful relationships
- acquire, apply and evaluate movement skills, concepts and strategies to respond confidently, competently and creatively in a variety of physical activity contexts and settings
- engage in and enjoy regular movement-based learning experiences and understand and appreciate their significance to personal, social, cultural, environmental and health practices and outcomes
- analyse how varied and changing personal and contextual factors shape understanding of, and opportunities for, health and physical activity locally, regionally and globally
Transfer Goals from Wiggins and McTighe
Students will be able to independently use their learning to:
- Make healthful choices and decisions regarding diet, exercise, stress management, alcohol/drug use throughout one’s life.
- Play a chosen game skillfully and with good sportsmanship.
Civics and Citizenship
The Australian Curriculum: Civics and Citizenship aims to ensure students develop:
- a lifelong sense of belonging to and engagement with civic life as an active and informed citizen in the context of Australia as a secular democratic nation with a dynamic, multicultural and multi-faith society
- knowledge, understanding and appreciation of the values, principles, institutions and practices of Australia’s system of democratic government and law, and the role of the citizen in Australian government and society
- skills − including questioning and research; analysis, synthesis and interpretation; problem solving and decision making; communication and reflection − to investigate contemporary civics and citizenship, and foster responsible participation in Australia’s democracy
- the capacities and dispositions to participate in the civic life of their nation at a local, regional and global level.
Transfer Goals from the State of Massachusetts
Students will be able to independently use their learning to:
- Apply knowledge of political and social systems to participate actively as an informed citizen of a democracy.
Economics and Business
The Year 5–10 Australian Curriculum: Economics and Business aims to develop students’:
- enterprising behaviours and capabilities that can be transferable into life, work and business opportunities and will contribute to the development and prosperity of individuals and society
- understanding of the ways society allocates limited resources to satisfy needs and wants, and how they participate in the economy as consumers, workers and producers
- understanding of the work and business environments within the Australian economy and its interactions and relationships with the global economy, in particular the Asia region
- reasoning and interpretation skills to apply economics and business concepts to make informed decisions
- understanding of economics and business decision-making and its role in creating a prosperous, sustainable and equitable economy for all Australians
- understandings that will enable them to actively and ethically participate in the local, national, regional and global economy as economically, financially and business-literate citizens
Transfer Goals from Massachusetts and the work of Wiggins and McTighe
Students will be able to independently use their learning to:
- make economically sound and ethical financial decisions.
Geography
The Foundation – Year 10 Australian Curriculum: Geography aims to ensure that students develop:
- a sense of wonder, curiosity and respect about places, people, cultures and environments throughout the world
- a deep geographical knowledge of their own locality, Australia, the Asia region and the world
- the ability to think geographically, using geographical concepts
- the capacity to be competent, critical and creative users of geographical inquiry methods and skills
- as informed, responsible and active citizens who can contribute to the development of an environmentally and economically sustainable, and socially just world.
Transfer Goals from the State of Massachusetts
Students will be able to independently use their learning to:
- Understand how physical and human geography can inform responsible interactions with environment.
- Apply concepts and systems of economics to participate productively in a world economy.
- Write to inform and explain a topic, concept, or process to a variety of audiences.
History
The Australian Curriculum: History aims to ensure that students develop:
- interest in, and enjoyment of, historical study for lifelong learning and work, including their capacity and willingness to be informed and active citizens
- knowledge, understanding and appreciation of the past and the forces that shape societies, including Australian society
- understanding and use of historical concepts, such as evidence, continuity and change, cause and effect, perspectives, empathy, significance and contestability
- capacity to undertake historical inquiry, including skills in the analysis and use of sources, and in explanation and communication.
Transfer Goals from the State of Massachusetts
Students will be able to independently use their learning to:
- Understand how recurring patterns in history can inform judgments about current events and other issues.
- Analyze and resolve conflicts in order to work and live in an inter-connected world society.
- Critically appraise historical and contemporary claims/decisions.
- Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media in order to address a question, form an opinion, or to solve a problem
- Write to inform and explain a topic, concept, or process to a variety of audiences.
- Research and evaluate the credibility of sources and develop and/or defend an argument, or claim.
Languages
The Australian Curriculum: Languages aims to develop the knowledge, understanding and skills to ensure students:
- communicate in the target language
- understand language, culture, and learning and their relationship, and thereby develop an intercultural capability in communication
- understand themselves as communicators.
These three aims are interrelated and provide the basis for the two organising strands: Communicating and Understanding. The three aims are common to all languages.
Transfer Goals from Wiggins and McTighe
Students will be able to independently use their learning to:
- Communicate effectively in the target language, in varied situations, while displaying a sensitivity to culture and context.
Mathematics
The Australian Curriculum: Mathematics aims to ensure that students:
- are confident, creative users and communicators of mathematics, able to investigate, represent and interpret situations in their personal and work lives and as active citizens
- develop an increasingly sophisticated understanding of mathematical concepts and fluency with processes, and are able to pose and solve problems and reason in Number and Algebra, Measurement and Geometry, and Statistics and Probability
- recognise connections between the areas of mathematics and other disciplines and appreciate mathematics as an accessible and enjoyable discipline to study.
Transfer Goals from the State of Massachusetts
Students will be able to independently use their learning to:
- Interpret and persevere in solving complex mathematical problems using strategic thinking and expressing answers with a degree of precision appropriate for the problem context.
- Express appropriate mathematical reasoning by constructing viable arguments, critiquing the reasoning of others, and attending to precision when making mathematical statements.
- Apply mathematical knowledge to analyze and model mathematical relationships in the context of a situation in order to make decisions, draw conclusions, and solve problems.
Science
The Australian Curriculum: Science aims to ensure that students develop:
- an interest in science as a means of expanding their curiosity and willingness to explore, ask questions about and speculate on the changing world in which they live
- an understanding of the vision that science provides of the nature of living things, of the Earth and its place in the cosmos, and of the physical and chemical processes that explain the behaviour of all material things
- an understanding of the nature of scientific inquiry and the ability to use a range of scientific inquiry methods, including questioning; planning and conducting experiments and investigations based on ethical principles; collecting and analysing data; evaluating results; and drawing critical, evidence-based conclusions
- an ability to communicate scientific understanding and findings to a range of audiences, to justify ideas on the basis of evidence, and to evaluate and debate scientific arguments and claims
- an ability to solve problems and make informed, evidence-based decisions about current and future applications of science while taking into account ethical and social implications of decisions
- an understanding of historical and cultural contributions to science as well as contemporary science issues and activities and an understanding of the diversity of careers related to science
- a solid foundation of knowledge of the biological, chemical, physical, Earth and space sciences, including being able to select and integrate the scientific knowledge and methods needed to explain and predict phenomena, to apply that understanding to new situations and events, and to appreciate the dynamic nature of science knowledge.
Transfer Goals from the State of Massachusetts
Students will be able to independently use their learning to:
- Engage in sustained, complex and successful scientific inquiry.
- Engage in public discourse of scientific and technical issues in the news or the community.
- Use principles of the physical world and genetic programming to analyze living systems. (ls)
- Analyze mechanisms of cause and effect in natural and designed systems based on physical and chemical principles. (ps)
- Analyze the implications of earth as a set of interconnected systems — atmosphere, hydrosphere, geosphere, and biosphere — when making personal and civic decisions. (ess)
- Argue for and act on the importance of energy to life. (ls)
- Assess the energy use of biological and physical systems. (ls)
- Make personal and civic decisions that respect how living systems maintain balance and stability, minimizing impact on factors that disturb stability. (ls)
- Make informed decisions about personal and societal use of energy. (ps)
- Interpret and critique claims about the use of energy from public and private sources. (ps)
These refer to the 5 different science disciplines – Life science/Biology lLS), Physical science (Chemistry and Physics)(ps), Earth & Space Science(ess), and Technology/Engineering(t/e).
Technologies
The Australian Curriculum: Technologies aims to develop the knowledge, understanding and skills to ensure that, individually and collaboratively, students:
- investigate, design, plan, manage, create and evaluate solutions
- are creative, innovative and enterprising when using traditional, contemporary and emerging technologies, and understand how technologies have developed over time
- make informed and ethical decisions about the role, impact and use of technologies in the economy, environment and society for a sustainable future
- engage confidently with and responsibly select and manipulate appropriate technologies − materials, data, systems, components, tools and equipment − when designing and creating solutions
- critique, analyse and evaluate problems, needs or opportunities to identify and create solutions.
These aims are extended and complemented by specific aims for each Technologies subject.
Transfer Goals from the State of Massachusetts
Students will be able to independently use their learning to:
- Use principles of the physical world to assess designed products and systems based on social needs and wants. (t/e)
The Australian Curriculum: The Arts aims to develop students’:
- creativity, critical thinking, aesthetic knowledge and understanding about arts practices, through making and responding to artworks with increasing self-confidence
- arts knowledge and skills to communicate ideas; they value and share their arts and life experiences by representing, expressing and communicating ideas, imagination and observations about their individual and collective worlds to others in meaningful ways
- use of innovative arts practices with available and emerging technologies, to express and represent ideas, while displaying empathy for multiple viewpoints
- understanding of Australia’s histories and traditions through the Arts, engaging with the artworks and practices, both traditional and contemporary, of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples
- understanding of local, regional and global cultures, and their Arts histories and traditions, through engaging with the worlds of artists, artworks, audiences and arts professions.
Transfer Goals from Wiggins and McTighe
Students will be able to independently use their learning to:
- find meaning in works of art.
- create and perform an original work in a selected medium to express ideas and/or to evoke mood and emotion.
- seek out and appreciate the arts throughout life.