Core Curriculum Content

This post is a result of thinking about the changes that have occurred to the curriculum and what I, as a future teacher will be teaching students of the 21st century after reading Background, Rationale and Specifications: Queensland, Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Framework from my EDC3100 course.

My thoughts focus on the essential skills and processes that students should have developed by the time they finish Year 10. I am satisfied with the direction that the Australian Curriculum has taken in terms of academic content and alignment, however I feel that more emphasis could be placed on the explicit teaching of the emotional and social development of our children. Correct me if I am wrong, but I feel that the direction taken in developing these skills is primarily placed in the hands of individual schools and of course parents. I can assume this is partly because religious beliefs and culture have a major influence in their development and value systems and can vary greatly. However, as a nation, is there not a set of core values and expectations that could be explicitly taught to students to promote community mindedness and responsibility? I go so far as to even say ; taught as a core subject.

You may ask what is the necessity of this? How could this be achieved in an already overcrowded curriculum?

As a parent of 4 children myself, the development of the moral and "community minded" aspect of our children is one of the most challenging. I find that in this day and age, children are not raised in small communities filled with several branches of the same family, all modelling and reinforcing family and community values. I often hear that society today is not about the "we" but about the "I". Children are exposed to so much (some not positive), we are, after all in the information age. We want to give our children experiences with using ICT, but knowing how to and how much regulating of the internet is appropriate is difficult for the average, busy, non-digital native. The reasons go on...

I believe that common core values such as those expressed through William Glassor's Choice Theory (visit the website) should be explicitly taught along with skills already focused on, such as collaboration skills and reflection skills. The explicit teaching of these skills and values should not be just left up to general school positive support behaviour plans, parents or within programs for at-risk or disruptive students.

To answer my second question... and I can imagine that it may not be a popular thought... The addition of another core subject may require extending formal school hours. This could also serve a dual purpose of aligning school hours to better suit working parents.