NotesFAQContact Us
Collection
Advanced
Search Tips
Back to results
Peer reviewed Peer reviewed
PDF on ERIC Download full text
ERIC Number: EJ1377838
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2022
Pages: 18
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0085-0969
EISSN: EISSN-2204-0242
A Critique of Version 9.0 of the Australian Curriculum: Geography for Primary Schools
Maude, Alaric
Geographical Education, v35 p6-23 2022
The article offers a critique of the Knowledge and Understanding sub-strand of the revised Australian Curriculum: Geography for Years F-6, due to be implemented in Australian schools in 2024. As a foundation for this critique, the article first discusses what should be the aims of geography in primary schools, in order to provide some criteria for evaluating the revision. It argues that what is educationally valuable about geography in the primary school years is not so much a body of geographical knowledge, but what that knowledge contributes to the personal development, abilities and values of a primary school child. The article describes seven of these contributions. The second part of the article evaluates the new curriculum against these educational objectives, and identifies a number of deficiencies. Part 3 describes the aims of the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) in undertaking the review and revision of the Australian Curriculum, and evaluates the extent to which these have been achieved in the geography curriculum for the primary school years. The final part of the article presents an alternative revision that might meet both ACARA's aims and the educational objectives identified in Part 1. The aim of this article is to provide a critique of the recent revision of the Australian Curriculum: Geography for the primary school years F-6, and to suggest an alternative. This revision (Version 9.0) was completed in early 2022, and will be implemented in schools in 2024. Such a critique must go beyond simply identifying errors, misleading statements and inconsistencies, and evaluate whether the new curriculum succeeds in fulfilling the educational objectives of primary school geography, as well as ACARA's aims in undertaking the revision. The article only discusses the separate Knowledge and Understanding sub-strand of the curriculum, and not the combined Skills sub-strand. It starts with the question: What does geography contribute to the educational development of primary school children?
Australian Geography Teachers' Association. PO Box 315 Artarmon NSW 1570, Australia. Tel: 0437-897-993; Web site: http://www.agta.asn.au/Resources/GeographicalEducation/index.php
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Elementary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Australia
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A