2.1 The national science curriculum will be the basis of planning, teaching and assessment of school science and be useful for and useable by experienced and less experienced teachers of K–12 science.
2.2 The framing paper draws on important recent science education research, in particular the Australian School Science Education National Action Plan 2008–2012 (Goodrum & Rennie 2007; Rennie & Goodrum 2007) and Re-imagining Science Education: Engaging students in science for Australia’s future (Tytler 2007). These two reports provide an up-to-date synthesis of national and international research on school science education and bring together the perspectives of a range of science education interest groups with a focus on improving school science learning.
2.3 The imperative to create a futures-oriented curriculum is a major opportunity to lead improved teaching and learning. A futures orientation will include consideration that society will be increasingly complex, with Australians interacting in a global environment needing to know how to learn, adapt, create, communicate, and how to interpret and use information critically.
2.4 Science is a dynamic, forward-looking, collaborative human endeavour arising from our curiosity and interest. It provides a distinctive way of thinking about and explaining events and phenomena. The body of science knowledge, understanding, theories and explanations has been built from observations and evidence gathered in finding answers to the questions we ask. The body of science knowledge and understanding is rapidly increasing.
2.5 For Australia’s citizens to be sufficiently well-educated for the development of society and to ensure international competitiveness the Australian science curriculum must meet the needs of those students: who, as citizens in a global world, need to make personal decisions on the basis of a scientific view of the world; who will become the future research scientists and engineers; and who will become analysts and entrepreneurs in the diverse fields of business, technology and economics.
2.6 Learning about science is a cumulative process that begins in early childhood and continues throughout schooling. The kinds of teaching and learning strategies that best assist students to learn will vary according to their different needs and interests. This has implications for the way science is taught.
2.7 The process of building science knowledge is as important as the knowledge itself. Young children and adolescents frequently pose questions to gain a sense of themselves and the world about them. The intrinsic curiosity and simple wonder that is involved in such inquiry is the quality that drives learning and understanding. Passion, excitement, frustrations, uncertainty and enlightenment are experienced in the quest for science understanding and a scientific view of the world.
2.8 The Australian science curriculum will provide the basis for learning science that will engage students in meaningful ways and, with the support of teachers, help them to develop their science understanding so that they can function effectively in a scientifically and technologically advanced society. Students should value science for its rationality, the tentative but trustworthy nature of its knowledge and its objectivity, its shared character, its transcendence of local factors, its openness, and its communicability. These make science such a powerful human endeavour.
Shape of the Australian Curriculum: Science
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2.9 As well as preparing students to use science for life and active citizenship, school science should also provide a foundation for specific learning pathways leading to science and engineering courses at university and technical and vocational education and training. Senior secondary science opens up a wide range of careers in engineering, technology, medical and health professions, as well as careers in science and education.