1. Are you content with the content?
A presentation by Chelsea Mouritz and Gillian Goldsworthy
St Mary’s College, Hobart

2. You have 30 seconds, list as many Australian Curriculum
General Capabilities as you can
Sticky Note Activity
Ensure the delivery is light hearted.

3. Photographic Slam Dunk
Observe each image that flashes on the screen.
Write down the first 5 words that come to your mind.
Each image will appear for 20 seconds
There are 7 images.

4. Image 1

5. Image 2

6. Image 3

7. Image 4

8. Image 5

9. Image 6

10. Image 7

11. The General Capabilities

12. Which task did you prefer?
1.Sticky note activity OR
2. Photographic Slam Dunk
Which task did you prefer?
Share your reasons with people at your table.
Hands up for either.
Share reasons with group.

13. Deeper Learning:
The ‘Photographic Slam Dunk’ introduces deeper learning and allows opportunities to transfer one's own knowledge and experiences.
There will be a resource with lots of ideas of different activities like photographic SD. This activity (Photographic slam dunk) is an example of creative thinking.
create and connect complex ideas using imagery, analogies and symbolism

14. So, why are we here? Learning Intention:
✅ To explore the purpose and the possibilities of using the General Capabilities to enrich student learning.
Success Criteria:
✅ To be able to incorporate teaching and learning strategies into curriculum design based on GC.
✅ To apply the GC to your learning sequences and school situation.
So, why are we here?

15. (Pellegrino and Hilton, 2012)
Students need transferable skills that they can apply to a range of experiences and situations
Education focus = Global citizens
Preparing students for jobs that do not yet exist
Meaningful ‘deeper’ learning
Deeper learning is the process of learning for transfer, meaning it allows a student to take what’s learned in one situation and apply it to another.
(Pellegrino and Hilton, 2012)
What do we want for our students?
Don’t want them to memorise texts we teach or simply recall historical and geographical knowledge.
Can be a crowded curriculum where we feel like we need to tick off everything in the list.
GC give us a language for interdisciplinary skills relevant to all subjects and transferable

16. Making the General Capabilities Explicit
How do we do this?
We all teach the General Capabilities
However, these could be improved by explicitly teaching these
IMPLICIT OR EXPLICIT?
Example:
In a History research task, we often expect students to conduct research using a range of sources.
Is the focus on the topic being researched or is the focus on the process?
Do you make these capabilities explicit in your learning goals?
The topic is not transferable but the process is.

17. Making the General Capabilities Explicit
LEARNING SEQUENCE
GENERAL CAPABILITY FOCUS
SKILLS
Year 7 History: Investigating the Past
ICT
Literacy
Selecting reliable sources.
Note taking. Avoiding plagiarism by summarising work in your own words.
Year 7 Geography: Field work investigating local area
Numeracy
Collecting and recording data.
Deciding best way to display data.
Year 7 English: Chinese Cinderella novel study
Intercultural understanding
Investigate culture and cultural identity, explore and compare beliefs and practices to do with family.
Your unit??

18. Curriculum Connection
Does this mean adding onto an already crowded curriculum? No.
All Australian Curriculum subjects have suggestions on how the content descriptors align with the General Capabilities.
Example: Year 7 English
Helps you to select

19. Australian Curriculum Website
Learning Continuum
Australian Curriculum Website
General Capabilities

20. What do the GCs look like in a learning sequence?
Originally, all GCs were highlighted that a learning sequence touched on.
Yes, we are all teachers of ‘literacy’ and students are ‘creative’ when writing stories. However, is each skill explicitly taught in this learning sequence?
SMC as a model - different schools, different sequence
Use the SMC before/after as a model
Show the several highlighted capabilities
Aim is two choose 1, max 2 and explicitly teach
Present new learning sequence with practical application and connections to learning opportunities and assessments.
Creative Writing sequence as an example
Allow time for attendees to apply one GC to a learning sequence

21. When GCs are explicitly taught.
1-2 identified
Strands from the learning continuums
Connect to key skills
Link to specific tasks
Explain that less is more
Ask yourself, do I specifically teach this? How does it link to the learning continuum?
Allow time to have a go on a learning sequence?

22. Your turn: connecting your units to the GCs
Choose a unit that you are currently teaching
Choose 1-2 appropriate General Capabilities
Use the learning continuum to help you select relevant skills
Copies of the learning continuum on the desks

23. Exit Pass - Transfer Journal Task
Idea
Interpretation
Application
To explore the purpose and the possibilities of using the General Capabilities to enrich student learning.
What does this mean?
How can you apply or transfer this to your own context?
The ‘idea’ column has been completed for you.
Complete both the ‘interpretation’ and ‘application’ columns about this workshop.
Task taken from ‘Transfer Journal Task’.
This task, along with Photographic Slam Dunk and many other interesting strategies are found in the A-Z handout.

24. Works Cited
“General Capabilities.” The Australian Curriculum,
National Research Council Education for Life and Work: Developing Transferable Knowledge and Skills in the 21st Century. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

25. Contact details Gillian Goldsworthy ggoldsworthy@smc.tas.edu.au
Chelsea Mouritz