Details for Curriculum Studies – Information and Software Technology

1     The Australian Curriculum - Technologies and NESA Years 7-10 Technology Syllabuses

• Establish the relationship between the Australian Curriculum - Technologies and NESA Technology (Mandatory) Years 7–8 Syllabus and Information and Software Technology Years 7-10 Syllabus.
• Consider the place of the NESA Years 7-10 Technology (mandatory and elective) courses and school implementation, including the authentic and appropriate incorporation of the general capabilities and cross curriculum priorities.
• The aims, rationale and sequential development of the NESA Information and Software Technology Years 7-10 as worked through the core content and options of the syllabus; the value of support documents in developing effective teaching and learning programs that support student academic achievement, the wider goals of society and whole person development.
• Place of Information and Software Technology Years 7-10 in the continuum of learning in K-12, including a particular understanding of the links between Stage 3 and Stage 4; and aim, objectives, outcomes, content, course requirements and key terms.
• The place of the Life Skills Syllabus within the subject’s outcomes and teacher decision making.
• Place of Information and Software Technology Years 7-10 within Christian and alternate school contexts.

2    Values and human issues:

• Christian and alternate worldview perspectives, social action, volunteerism and charities, moral education, cultural and ideological difference, values and the NESA syllabi, interfaith understanding, ethical and legal issues in teaching.
• Developing a philosophy of teaching Technology;

Community Participation: 

• Community Engagement: roles and responsibilities; careers in ICT, assistive technologies; telecommuting; equity and access; cyber bullying; cyber terrorism; opportunities for Christian mission.
• The role of parents/carers in teaching and learning Information and Software Technology Years 7-10.
• The teacher as a communicator of the educational process to parents/ carers and community.
• The role and value of Information and Software Technology Years 7-10 within education.
• A consideration of lessons learned with regard to the use of technology for school aged students undertaking distance learning during the 2020 Covid 19 pandemic.
• Teacher professional associations:
• Place of associations in creating professional support networks, including: Australian Council for Computers in Education, ICT Educators of NSW 
• Presentation of activities and resources for the concept and skills development, and knowledge acquisition of teachers.

3     Teaching Stage 4 and 5 Information and Software Technology

• Knowledge and understanding of Years 7-10 Technology (Mandatory and Electives) as  academic disciplines, including recent theory and practice related to principles and processes of production and development of computing technology as an industry; the various philosophies of technology, particularly in Information and Software Technology Years 7-10, and comparing such to a Christian and other faith constructs.
• Defining and analysing problems; designing, creating and evaluating solutions; how people learn ICT, stages of growth and development in ICT concept development with attention to Years 7-10; ICT anxiety; gender and ICT; central ideas and common student misconceptions;
• Models of pedagogy for teaching and assessing Information and Software Technology Years 7-10: Strategies for developing the essential knowledge, understanding, values and attitudes and skills necessary for students to achieve the syllabus outcomes. The practical nature of the Technologies learning area engages students in critical and creative thinking, including understanding interrelationships in systems when solving complex problems and promotes the realisation of ideas through a systematic approach to experimentation, problem solving, prototyping and evaluation.
• Use curriculum, assessment and reporting knowledge to design learning sequences and lesson plans; encouraging reflective thought and action; enhancing the relevance of new learning; facilitating shared learning; making connections to prior learning and experience; providing sufficient opportunities to learn; teaching as inquiry and e-learning and pedagogy.

Teacher Decision Making

• Accommodating transition to High School/ Senior School/ New school or institution.
• Planning lessons: interpreting the syllabus; content selection; skills selection; lesson sequences; pedagogical strategies for student learning and improving achievement;
• Using the Quality Teaching Framework (QTF) and positive learning environments to implement school based and state education policies and legislation for enhancing quality teaching and learning and student wellbeing;
• Legal and Industrial Issues:  legal and statutory responsibilities, Workplace Health and Safety, professional liability, piracy; copyright; privacy; information security;
• Management practices for technology teachers including safety and risk management, budgeting, selecting, storing, maintaining and replacing equipment and other resources including software tools; effective collaboration strategies; communication techniques – verbal, written, graphical, visual.

Teaching General Capabilities

• Explicit teaching of the language, literacy and numeracy demands of the content.
• Literacy: Scaffolding literacy with the 4 Resource Model.
• Numeracy: Scaffolding numeracy with the 4 Resource Model (UTAS).
• ICT: understanding meaningful learning as applied to ICT skills and knowledge acquisition.
• Critical and Creative thinking: Revised Blooms/ SOLO.

Teaching for the range of abilities:

• Age appropriate choices and scaffolding for Stage 4 and 5.
• Inclusion: Implementing Universal Design for the full range of abilities.
• G&T: Gifted and Talented using Williams/ Kaplan/ Maker models.

Teaching for Diverse Settings

• Teaching strategies that are responsive to the learning strengths and needs of students from diverse linguistic, cultural, religious and socioeconomic backgrounds; physical, social and intellectual development and characteristics of students and how these may affect learning.
• ATSI: Australian Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander; the 8 ways model of indigenous pedagogy.
• EALD: scaffolding literacy; using ICT to assist meaningful learning.
• Religious backgrounds: considering differing worldview perspectives.

4     Teacher program development

• Create programs using Understanding by Design that develop scope and sequences, and incorporate concept development, skills development, and knowledge acquisition associated with threshold concepts, tools, and skills.
• Developing the scope and sequence.
• Constructing the concept map for the unit (using cmap tools).
• Developing the assessment schedule.
• Developing the assessment task – the role of the marking rubric in moderating to assist in evaluating areas for improvement.
• Developing the unit outline – the sequence of lessons.
• Assessing every lesson: the daily role of the teacher.
• Teacher decision making
• Selecting threshold concepts; signature pedagogies;
• Sequencing concept development; skills development and knowledge acquisition to achieve learning outcomes.
• Graduating Blooms through the unit (horizontal sequencing & vertical sequencing).
• Ensuring the program accommodates the full range of abilities (including gifted and talented) and diverse backgrounds of students.

5     Models Supporting Assessment

• Types of Assessment: formative, summative, formal, informal.
• Pedagogical based assessments: problem based and project based.
• Models for creating authentic assessments Kaplan/Maker/Williams.
• Support document examples; exemplars for a variety of professional organisations and schools.
• Strategies for recording and reporting student achievement: types of data collected; recording data for a purpose; state and in-house moderation practices; areas of reporting; using data to inform program evaluation and future lesson planning.
• Normative, portfolios, objective tests, rubrics, anecdotal records, observation, working effectively with parents and volunteers.
• Online, virtual and fieldwork assessment tasks.
• Measuring and recording assessment, keeping reliable records and reporting to parents/carers and other professionals.
• NESA assessment requirements for the Record of School Achievement and other syllabus studied.
• Modifying assessment for age appropriateness, inclusion, for the full range of abilities and giftedness and diverse backgrounds.