Architecture of the Curriculum

The ACT Senior Secondary system provides overarching curriculum guidance to which each college has to abide, through the Framework and the Achievement Standards. The Achievement Standards are the mechanism which leads to equity across schools. On Moderation Day, the Achievement Standards are the documents which teachers use to review work and ensure that an A in one college is the same as an A in another college. The Task Type Table, found in the Framework document, helps to provide the structure for the course and provides examples of different kinds of tasks. It also outlines any subject specific requirements that teachers must follow.

Under the Framework, the course, unit and content descriptions are written. The content descriptions provide details of the content of the course which must be delivered.

Teachers from each jurisdiction: government, independent and Catholic, are involved in writing all of these system documents, in collaboration with BSSS officers. In addition, there is often input from Tertiary professionals who can act as a guide and mentor, ensuring that we are all aware of current trends in the subject area. A guide to the course writing process can be found here: Course Development Process

Teachers in their own context write Programs of Learning, assessment tasks and rubrics. 

This structure provides flexibility to allow teachers to meet the needs of their students.

In addition to this online course, the BSSS provides teachers interested in writing quality rubrics, the Rubric Writing Online course. See your Moderation Co-ordinator for details or email: BSSScurriculum@act.gov.au

Achievement Standards are written using the revised Bloom’s taxonomy to inform the different levels of achievement. This means teachers need a good understanding of the differences in student thinking between describe, explain, analyse and evaluate. It is important that teachers understand these terms in the context of their subject. Analysis can look different in mathematics compared to English, for example. 

Take a minute to think about what kind of assessments you use to elicit higher order thinking in your subject area. How are your questions framed? Are there different ways of eliciting higher order thinking?

Knowledge, understanding and skills developed in the Framework feature in the Achievement Standards. These aspects of learning can often be assessed holistically, when merged into one assessment, even though they are separated out on the Achievement Standard.

Have a look in the Framework for your subject area and think about how you can use the Achievement Standards to guide your planning and the relationship between knowledge, understanding and skills.