THE GENERAL CAPABILITIES
What are the General Capabilities?
The ACARA Website describes the General Capabilities in this way...
The Melbourne Declaration identifies essential skills for twenty-first century learners – in literacy, numeracy, information and communication technology (ICT), thinking, creativity, teamwork and communication. It describes individuals who can manage their own wellbeing, relate well to others, make informed decisions about their lives, become citizens who behave with ethical integrity, relate to and communicate across cultures, work for the common good and act with responsibility at local, regional and global levels.
The general capabilities encompass the knowledge, skills, behaviours and dispositions that, together with curriculum content in each learning area and the cross-curriculum priorities, will assist students to live and work successfully in the twenty-first century. They complement the key learning outcomes of the Early Years Learning Framework (COAG 2009) – that children have a strong sense of identity and wellbeing, are connected with and contribute to their world, are confident and involved learners and effective communicators. Source: http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/GeneralCapabilities/Overview/General-capabilities-in-the-Australian-Curriculum |
The Seven General Capabilities
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General Capabilities PDF
This document from the ACARA website outlines the structure and organisational content of the General Capabilities.
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Organisation of General Capabilities
All of the Seven (7) General Capabilities consist of three sections:
1. Introduction 2. Organising elements 3. A continuum across stages of schooling Source: http://www.australiancurriculum.
edu.au/GeneralCapabilities/Literacy/Continuum |
The Learning Continuum in the General Capabilities
Below is further information from the ACARA Website regarding the learning continuum from the General Capabilities.
The general capabilities are presented as learning continua or sequences that describe the knowledge, skills, behaviours and dispositions that students can reasonably be expected to have developed by the end of particular years of schooling. The continua are based on the belief that students need opportunities to develop capabilities over time and across learning areas. What is learned in the early years supports all subsequent learning. They assume it is possible to map common paths for capability development while recognising that each student’s pace of development may be influenced by factors such as their prior experience, sense of self in the world and cognitive capacity. |
The Literacy and Numeracy continua are organised into five stages, describing student learning at the end of Years 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10, recognising that national literacy and numeracy assessment occurs in early Years 3, 5, 7 and 9. Each stage incorporates learning for the intervening years. Descriptions include F–10 English, Mathematics, Science and History examples where relevant that illustrate ways that literacy and numeracy can be made explicit in the learning areas.
Continua for the other five capabilities are currently organised into three stages, describing student learning at the end of Years 2, 6 and 10 to approximate the end of early childhood, primary and junior secondary years in most states and territories. Descriptions include examples that illustrate ways each capability can be made explicit in the learning areas. Continua are available in two views:
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To access the Learning Continuum, click the blue button above and use the "General Capabilities" tab at the top to navigate by selecting one of the seven areas. Once you have selected an area, e.g. Literacy, then below you will see three tabs. Select the tab that says "Learning Continuum"
See images below for more detail.
See images below for more detail.