The first chapter considers the value of and opportunities with digital technologies, and how they can be used as tools and environments for learning. It talks about the importance of being agentic and using digital tools with purpose. The use of digital tools to develop 21st-century skills in students is discussed and there is an overview of the curriculum and policy mandates for the use of digital technologies, including development of the general capability of digital literacies.

In this chapter, the learning entitlement, defined as equitable access for all children to learn about health and physical education, is outlined in terms of the transition from the Australian Curriculum to state curricula. There have been developments to report since the third edition of this book was released. The Australian Curriculum: Health and Physical Education curriculum has moved through the stages of writing draft, consultation and was under review during 2021. An educative underpinning of physical education has been established. Viewing health from a strengths-based approach as a philosophy for working with individuals, families, groups, organisations and communities provides an ecological perspective. An ecological perspective incorporates the features of the strengths-based approach, which is based on the notion that most students are: healthy, safe, active and well.The approach to the key learning areas frames this strengths-based approach within the diverse features evident in most educational settings, with recognition of diverse factors such asculture; race; ethnicity; gender identity; and socio-economic status.

Throughout this chapter you will gain knowledge and understanding of literacies education in the Australian context. This includes insight into Australian education policy and research contexts via the Alice Springs (Mparntwe) Education Declaration and the Melbourne Declaration. With a lens on the context of curriculum in Australia and the Australian Curriculum, this chapter guides your knowledge around the policy drivers, including the basis of the Australian economic and international benchmarking test National Assessment Plan – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN).

This chapter presents insights about literacies education in the Australian context and includes an historical perspective on education policy and the Australian Curriculum. The evolution of the national Declarations are discussed together with how the goals of education in Australia are defined. The education of young Australians in 21st century learning and the structure of the Australian Curriculum: English and the Australian Curriculum Literacy as a general capability are explored. The learning progressions designed to engage all Australians in lifelong learning through the developmental continuum of literacy from emergent to adult are also presented.

Every school subject and every field of knowledge has a similar problem: What is the core knowledge that should be learned? In university courses, each student takes a different pathway through the options that are offered, and in school courses teachers and curriculum planners have to choose which ideas, content and skills should be emphasised. No student or teacher will ever have the time to comprehensively study every area of their major subjects; in fact, the longer they study a subject at university, the more they tend to increase the depth of their knowledge rather than the breadth. This chapter aims to help teachers unpack the large amount of information in the Australian Curriculum: Geography, emphasising the core knowledge and understandings. For every unit of the curriculum from Year 7 to Year 10, as well as the senior years, an interpretation of the core knowledge is presented, together with the key inquiry and skills developed within it. Following this are commentaries on examples of appropriate case studies that are suitable to achieve the aims of the unit.

This chapter deals with inquiry, a central tenet of geographical learning as set out in the Australian Curriculum. It examines the reasons for using inquiry in the classroom, in terms of both pedagogical theory and practical classroom teaching. It then suggests a number of ways in which inquiry can be put into practice.

For many students, history is an important foundational subject in Australian schools because it may be the only time they will formally study or engage with the subject matter. Schooling in Australia is the responsibility of states and territories. Respective governments organise teacher accreditation and registration, curriculum through syllabuses, assessment, and the myriad of policies and practices that guide the school education of children and young people. The most recent review of the Australian Curriculum took place in 2020 across all learning areas, with reports and an updated website to be released in 2022. This chapter examines the development of the Australian Curriculum and the role that history played in encouraging a national approach to education. It then analyses the structure of the Australian Curriculum: History, the inclusion of history within the Humanities and Social Sciences learning area, and how the teaching of history encourages citizenship in Australia. Lastly, we examine three ways that history is constructed in curriculum in Australia: 1. The Australian Curriculum: History for Years 7–10 and 11–12 2. Victoria’s senior history syllabus for Years 11–12 3. The Year 12 History Extension course in New South Wales

Matters of sustainability are frequently given media attention, including Australia’s experience of major catastrophic weather events from droughts to floods and bushfires, to issues of climate change and how we can live more sustainably. Students, having either experienced natural disasters first-hand or seen them reported in the media, will most likely have an interest in the topic of sustainability. With science identifying climate change as the greatest risk to humanity, issues of sustainability need to be covered at some level by schools. The Australian Curriculum has identified Sustainability as one of three cross-curriculum priorities to be integrated across all learning areas. This chapter provides contextual information about Sustainability and examples of how to link this cross-curriculum priority to the Humanities and Social Sciences learning area with a specific focus on history. Through increasing awareness of the need to live sustainable lives, critiquing debates around climate change and linking this to impacts on students’ lives in the present and into the future, the curriculum can be mapped to ensure children and young people can exercise agency in making decisions about how they will respond to issues of sustainability - for example, choice in product consumption.

Both the Australian Curriculum and state and territory curricula foreground the importance of inquiry in history. The Australian Curriculum Rationale posits that history 'is a disciplined process of inquiry into the past that develops students’ curiosity and imagination' (ACARA, 2020). As a case study, the recently designed and newly implemented Queensland senior syllabus explicitly states that history uses a model of inquiry learning, which it defines as 'the process of developing knowledge and understanding by posing questions about the past, and applying skills associated with locating, analysing, evaluating and using sources as evidence to develop an informed explanation, argument or interpretation about the past' (QCAA, 2019, p. 107). One of the most effective ways to achieve this is through the use of an inquiry approach. It requires careful planning as different forms of inquiry are better suited to differing age and ability ranges. This chapter explores a number of inquiry-centred pedagogies that will facilitate the creation of an inquiry-centred classroom.

This chapter provides you with an understanding of the educational context and opportunities for teaching and learning within the Australian Curriculum cross-curriculum priority Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures. Beginning with professional obligations outlined in current educational policy frameworks and the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers, then drilling down to local community and professional placement scenarios, this chapter highlights the importance of historical inquiry for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and their non-Indigenous peers. By understanding the importance of reconciliation, and respect and recognition for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures in the classroom, all students may gain opportunities for critical thinking to support lifelong learning, while Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students may find a safe and inclusive space for finding their voice, strengthening their identities, and sharing and learning about their cultures. This chapter introduces resource evaluation tools, approaches and pedagogies suitable for teaching in this area, and examines pathways for secondary history pre-service teachers and educators to create essential collegial and community networks that support quality secondary history teaching praxis.

This chapter introduces the cross-curriculum priority Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia, with a particular focus on how it might be embedded within the teaching of History in secondary schools. This chapter has three major aims. First, to consider why Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia is a cross-curriculum priority. In the first section, debates about the region and the importance of ‘Asia literacy’ are placed in a broader historical and political context to appreciate some of the reasoning behind the inclusion of this cross-curriculum priority. Second, this chapter explores the key themes and ideas relevant to this cross-curriculum priority. Specifically, this involves considering what is meant by the priority’s three key concepts:

• the diversity within the Asia region

• the achievements and contributions of Asia and its people

• Australia’s engagement with Asia. The third major aim of the chapter is to consider some opportunities for bringing this cross-curriculum priority to the foreground when teaching the Australian Curriculum: History. Throughout the chapter, specific links are made between a variety of topics and Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia.

This chapter introduces curriculum in schools and the relationship between ideology and ideas as factors shaping education curriculum development. This approach stresses that curriculum is both dynamic and contested, and focuses on the development and implementation of the Australian Curriculum to illustrate how curriculum is shaped at the Commonwealth, state/territory and jurisdictional school levels. The chapter also discusses the key learning areas, cross-curriculum priorities and general capabilities. The intention is to examine how curriculum can be an empowering vehicle to frame content areas, and inform teaching, learning programs and assessment instruments. Further, there is a recognition that curriculum must be interpreted and contextualised, so that it meets the needs of learners at different levels and in different ways. Finally, the notion of teachers as curriculum builders and enactors is a central concept in this chapter.

Over very long periods of time, as people moved to different parts of Earth, they began to recognize that nature was the source of their lives and livelihood and that Earth should be treated with respect and care. This knowledge became the basis of indigenous understanding and cultures, which are the result of hard-earned lessons gained over thousands of years.