Programs of Learning

Programs of Learning (POL) are important planning documents which provide the link between the prescribed curriculum and the content chosen for teaching and learning in the classroom.

As a classroom teacher is it your responsibility to ensure your program of learning addresses the following: 

• Links to unit specific goals

• Links to curriculum content so there is a line of sight between the curriculum and class work

• Elaborations of content descriptions

• Reflection on the composition of the class and any specific student needs

• Assessment details (formative and summative)

• Learning activities

We encourage you to do the BSSS workshop on Programs of Learning which can be accessed here.

The template for the POL can be found here, please download the document and save to your own computer drive for editing.   This is one possible template for recording your Program of Learning for your students.  You may adapt this template, however it is essential that it includes everything listed above.  

The highlighted text  below indicates information required in your Program of Learning. 

It is good practice to revise a program of learning at least 2 weeks in advance of delivery.  Your program of learning is a live document where you are adjusting resources and pedagogical approaches to meet all content descriptions and learning needs of your students. 

Developing YOUR Program of Learning 

• Use the curriculum documents as your starting point.

• Spend time on the elaborations to help you clarify to yourself what the students are required to do.

• Consider the varied levels of thinking required to master the content descriptions.

• Consider how Content Descriptions cluster together in practice. 

• Consider the examples cited in the course to inspire your thinking about how the unit might be delivered. Note that anything after "including" must be delivered. 

• Make sure you embed relevant General Capabilities and Cross-Curriculum Priorities in your unit, considering covering the GCs and CCPs across the four units of the course. 

• Plan activities to build towards your summative assessment tasks. 

Keep in mind systems such as the following when writing your programs of learning and teaching activities for your students:

• Bloom's taxonomy 

• SOLO taxonomy

• Understanding by Design

• Quality Teaching Model

• Backwards by Design

• Quality Assessment Guidelines.

Whichever model you choose to use ensure you can answer to yourself the following questions:

1. What are the students learning?

2. Why is that learning important?

3. What will they do or produce?

4. How well will they do it?

5. How will I know they have done it?

Putting together a POL may take a bit of time, but it’s time that you give to your future self. Of course, having lessons planned in advance doesn’t mean you teach without flexibility, as you may find that you will alter the POL as you get to know the students better, receive data from assessment and because of opportunities or developments in the discipline. Planning your unit also means that you limit the extra stressors of planning as you go and assists you and others. 

It is highly recommended that you seek feedback on your POL with colleagues, or plan your POL with colleagues. Collaboration with colleagues will result in aligning your understanding of the expectations of the unit and or assessment, so when you mark and moderate student work, you will have similar expectations.  

A POL will also support you in differentiating your instruction and assessment if you have multiple levels in the classroom. 

Once you have established a POL for a unit, it becomes a document that crystallises your thinking, and allows you to build from it in future units.

Generative AI and Programs of Learning

There is some potential for using AI to help craft or first draft programs of learning, or at least set up a useful layout and structure. 

However, the quality of programs of learning created by AI can be highly variable.

The quality of programs of learning created by AI depends on the training data that the model has had access to – this is generally data from the USA and so may reflect overseas curriculums. You will need to prompt clearly which curriculums you want to engage with, but it might be unable to specify to ACT senior secondary curriculums, so take care. 

It is likely that the quality of programs of learning generated by AI will vary from subject to subject.

The Australian National Framework for AI in Education explicitly states that where decisions are made by AI, there needs to be a line of sight and ultimately, a human decision.

• 5.1 Human responsibility: teachers and school leaders retain control of decision making and remain accountable for decisions that are supported by the use of generative AI tools.

When prompting generative AI remember the following acronym SPRITE to guide prompting and increase the likelihood of a successful outcome. 

• Specific: ask the tool specifically for what you want

• Parameters: give the tool clear parameters. You can copy and paste in parts of policy or achievement standards if you like

• Role: specify the role you would like AI to play; e.g., a friendly teacher

• Iteration: iterate by asking the tool to refine the output

• Text type: clearly state the type of text you want – e.g., a table, a paragraph, a letter

• Exemplars: offer examples of the kinds of things you want to see – e.g., “using the ACT senior secondary achievement standards for Arts…” or “in the style of a formal curriculum document” or even upload a rubric and ask it to model from that.