1. Education for All: Pluralistic
Strategies for the Implementation of
the National Curriculum

2. No Direction

3. Education for All

4. History of the National Curriculum
• 1980’s – Curriculum Centres
Development of Core Curriculum
• 1990’s – Keating’s Essential
Learnings
• 2000’s – Howard’s Statements of
Learning
• 2007 – Rudd’s National
Curriculum & Testing
• 2012 – States & territories
implement national curriculum
with some only piloting aspects.
NSW delays implementation to
2014

5. Current Issues
No commitment from the federal government in
funding professional development for staff at
schools has led to:
•Increased workload
•Confusion
•Stress
•Resentment

6. Pluralism

7. Pluralistic Strategies
The divergent goals and interests of different
groups inside and outside of an organisation
result in multiple processes that contribute to
the overall goals and objectives of the
organisation (Jarzabkowski & Fenton,2006).
•Differentiation
•Local Context
•Collaboration
•Specialist Teachers

8. Differentiation
Teaching
• Teaching focuses on the essential knowledge, understanding, and skills targeted for the lesson.
• Students are supported to think at a higher level
• Tasks provide a meaningful challenge.
• Support systems are in place to facilitate students’ success at a level that stretches their ability.
Student Groupings
• Flexible groupings are used to instruct small groups and to allow conversations with individual students.
• Ability groups work together, as well as mixed-ability groups to enhance collaborative learning between
students
• Groups with similar interests can work on tasks to share and challenge each other’s interests whilst mixed
interests groups are used to create a classroom which supports open dialogue and understanding between
students
Assessment
Assessment should be an ongoing process
• Pre-assessment: a means to determine prior knowledge, understanding or skill related to an upcoming unit
or lesson.
• During: to determine students’ current knowledge and target any misunderstandings as the unit progresses.
• Final: use a number of formal assessments and modify to enable each student to demonstrate the
knowledge they have obtained via the teaching process.
• Rubrics should be designed to push the student beyond his / her comfort zone
(Thomlinson and Cunningham, 2011)

9. Local Context
Using creativity and imagination supports the
interagency collaboration that can exist when schools,
parents, caregivers, community agencies and business
recognise that children, youth and adults learn through
being involved in the development of social and
economic fabric of their community (Turner, 2004).

10. Collaboration
A true pluralistic approach demonstrates that
curriculum planning and collaboration are the
“familiarities, awareness of fact, truths and information
gained through experience, learning and self-
contemplation” (Kurubacak, 2011, p. 157).

11. Specialist Teachers
While teachers want to be valued as professionals they
also need to be confident that they can freely express
when they don’t understand curriculum content and
that this professional relationship supports this.

12. Are we there yet?

13. References
Chilcott, T. (2012) (as in conference paper)
Donnelly, K (2008) (as in conference paper)
England, J. (1992). (as in conference paper)
Jahnukainen, M. (2011). (as in conference paper)
Jarzabkowski, P., & Fenton, E. (2006). (as in conference paper)
Kurubacak, G. (2011). (as in conference paper)
Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians, Retrieved from
http://www.mceecdya.edu.au/verve/_resources/National_Declaration_on_the_Educational_Goals_for_Young_Australians.p
df
Rance, C. (2012). (as in conference paper)
Tomlinson, C., & Cunningham, C. (2011) (as in conference paper)
Turner, D. (2004) (as in conference paper)
Images:
GPS [Picture] (n.d). Retrieved from http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/images/results.aspx?ex=2&qu=GPS#ai:MP900402136|mt:0|
Melbourne Declaration [Picture] (2008) Retrieved from http://www.google.com.au/imgres?
q=Melbourne+Declaration&hl=en&safe=active&gbv=2&biw=1440&bih=719&tbm=isch&tbnid=2ksAAQe4Pgbi9M:&img
refurl=http://www.scribd.com/doc/31822796/National-Declaration-on-the-Educational-Goals-for-Young-
Australians&docid=BGrq_ZSU9GmPaM&imgurl=http://reflow.scribd.com/7x2d1y6i2okehyv/images/image-1.jpg&w=566
&h=494&ei=JgG6T6vtDeiZiQeUj7XiCA&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=561&vpy=391&dur=203&hovh=210&hovw=240&tx=
127&ty=190&sig=103051110059323506623&page=1&tbnh=150&tbnw=172&start=0&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:14,s:0,i:10
0
Hair Pulling [Picture] (n.d). Retrieved from http://media.photobucket.com/image/Pulling+Hair+/njmike731/pulling-out-hair-1.jpg

14. Educate Together [Picture] (n.d). Retrieved from http://www.google.com.au/imgres?
q=Educate+together&hl=en&safe=active&gbv=2&biw=1440&bih=719&tbm=isch&tbnid=PSYklf7WYk2EKM:&imgrefurl=http://
secular-europe-campaign.org/2011/06/&docid=AaCailydatisbM&imgurl=http://secular-europe-campaign.org/wp-
content/uploads/2011/06/educate_together.png&w=291&h=331&ei=vwG6T7WOH8iOiAetxdD3CA&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=582
&vpy=2&dur=172&hovh=239&hovw=210&tx=140&ty=63&sig=103051110059323506623&page=4&tbnh=164&tbnw=144&start
|=62&ndsp=25&ved=1t:429,r:15,s:62,i:241
Endless Road [Picture] (n.d). Retrieved from http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/images/results.aspx?
qu=Horizon+Road&ex=1&ctt=1#ai:MP900438811