Be Gonski Ready!

Gonski is in the news again with the release of the Gonski 2.0 report. This is most likely to impact on schools and teachers in a range of ways from funding to curriculum. Here at OpenSTEM we can help you to be ahead of the game by using our materials, which are already Gonski-ready!

The latest review of “Educational Excellence in Australian Schools” (known colloquially as “Gonski 2.0”) by a panel chaired by Mr David Gonski AC is now available and once again the media has jumped onto the decline of Australian student outcomes and the description of the educational system as “industrial” and out-of-date. The report also mentions “multiple calls on the time of teachers” and “assessment regimes… focused on periodic judgements of performance, rather than continuous diagnosis of a student’s learning needs and progress” (Gonski et al. 2018:ix). The report highlights three core priority areas with five specific recommendations. The first of these recommendations is:

• “Embed a focus on individual student achievement through continuous learning progress…”

This emphasis on tracking “continuous learning progress” is repeated in recommendation #4:

• “Introduce new reporting arrangements with a focus on both learning attainment and learning gain…”

(in order to track learning gain, we need to provide continuous assessment). This change has been highlighted in the media – suggesting a move away from periodic exams to a system of continuous assessment.

Here at OpenSTEM, we have long known that continuous assessment is a better route, especially in the primary years. Continuous assessment allows teachers to track their students’ progress and understanding and identify areas of concern quickly and effectively. Continuous assessment means that students are working more effectively towards their learning outcomes, teachers are aware of each student’s progress towards those outcomes and thus time is more efficiently used by all parties. Teachers can provide the timely feedback advocated in the Gonski recommendation #10. Teachers are also spared the giant load of marking a whole class’ worth of assessment pieces in a few days at the end of term, in time for reporting. A few minutes each week spent checking each student’s work means that by the end of term both teacher and student are aware of how the student is tracking and their grade for that term.

The OpenSTEM® Understanding Our World® program for HASS + Science has always provided for continuous assessment for all curriculum items for years Foundation/Kindy/Prep to Year 6 for all HASS and Science subjects. By using this program for these subjects, teachers and students will reap the benefits of continuous assessment. This program also directly addresses recommendation #7:

• “Strengthen the development of the general capabilities, and raise their status within curriculum delivery, by using learning progressions to support clear and structured approaches to their teaching, assessment, reporting and integration with learning areas”

These issues are at the heart of the Understanding Our World® program: all of our units contain all of the general capability skills for each curriculum area; progression is maintained through a series of linked units that build upon earlier work; and integration is fundamental. Our Teacher Handbooks and Assessment Guides provide clear and structured information to teachers to guide them through teaching, assessment, reporting, and, of course, integration.

So be Gonski-ready! Use the OpenSTEM® Understanding Our World® program for HASS + Science now and be future-proof in your classroom and school!