Australian+Curriculum

General capabilities ACARA (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority) []

**General capabilities** are a key dimension of the Australian Curriculum. They encompass skills, behaviours and dispositions that students develop and apply to content knowledge and that support them in becoming successful learners, confident and creative individuals and active and informed citizens. Throughout their schooling students develop and use these capabilities in their learning across the curriculum, in co-curricular programs and in their lives outside school. The Australian Curriculum includes seven general capabilities:
 * __[|Literacy]__
 * __[|Numeracy]__
 * __[|Information and communication technology (ICT) competence]__
 * __[|Critical and creative thinking]__
 * __[|Ethical behaviour]__
 * __[|Personal and social competence]__
 * __[|Intercultural understanding] . __

General capabilities in the learning areas General capabilities are represented within and across learning areas to different degrees. Some are best developed within specific learning areas and these are explicitly included in content descriptions, with additional detail provided in content elaborations where appropriate. Others can be developed in any learning area depending on teachers’ choices of classroom activities.

General capabilities and the learning areas have a reciprocal relationship. Learning areas provide opportunities for students to develop and use capabilities. Similarly, wherever capabilities are made explicit in learning areas, they can enrich and deepen learning.

Literacy, numeracy, ICT competence and critical and creative thinking are essential tools for learning and are evident in the content of all four learning areas, English, mathematics, science and history. While the primary development of Literacy and Numeracy will reside in English and mathematics respectively, the development of these capabilities across the curriculum is essential to effective teaching and learning.

Ethical behaviour, personal and social competence and intercultural understanding, which focus on ways of acting, behaving or learning to live with others, are more strongly represented in some learning areas than others. They are most evident wherever the personal and social dimensions of learning are highlighted. Each learning area includes a brief description of the general capabilities that have been explicitly included in the content or advice about those that could well be developed through particular teaching contexts.
 * [|General capabilities in English]
 * [|General capabilities in mathematics]
 * [|General capabilities in science]
 * [|General capabilities in history]

Conceptual statements and learning continua To ensure the strong and coherent inclusion of the general capabilities in the Australian Curriculum, ACARA prepared, for each capability, a conceptual statement and learning continuum. These were used to inform curriculum development in K‒10 English, mathematics, science and history, although these four learning areas do not cover every aspect of the capabilities. The statements and continua will also inform future phases of curriculum development.

The conceptual statements and continua are being prepared for publication to support teachers and schools who wish to use them to assist the development of their teaching and learning programs. Each document will include: For Literacy and Numeracy, this work includes descriptions for the end of Years 2, 4. 6, 8 and 10 and for the other five capabilities, at the end of Years 2, 6 and 10. Teachers are expected to teach and assess general capabilities as they are incorporated within each learning area curriculum. State and territory curriculum and school authorities will determine the extent to which student learning of the general capabilities will be assessed and reported. Further work on the Literacy and Numeracy continua is being undertaken to guide the future development of the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN).
 * the conceptual framework, evidence base and references for the capability
 * a continuum of learning, showing development across bands of year levels.

[] The Australian Curriculum must be both relevant to the lives of students and address the contemporary issues they face. With this and the education goals of the Melbourne Declaration in mind, the curriculum gives special attention to three priorities:
 * Cross-Curriculum Priorities **
 * ====== ** Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures ** will allow all young Australians the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures, their significance for Australia and the impact these have had, and continue to have, on our world. ======
 * ====== ** Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia ** will allow all young Australians to develop a better understanding of the countries and cultures of the Asia region. Students will develop an appreciation of the economic, political and cultural interconnections that Australia has with the region. ======
 * ====== ** Sustainability ** will allow all young Australians to develop an appreciation of the need for more sustainable patterns of living, and to build the capacities for thinking and acting that are necessary to create a more sustainable future. ======

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The cross-curriculum priorities are embedded in all learning areas as appropriate. When planning teaching and learning programs for the Australian curriculum, teachers will notice that the three cross-curriculum priorities have a strong but varying presence depending on their relevance to the learning area. ======

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Further information can be found on the cross-curriculum priorities home page on the Australian Curriculum website at [|//www.australiancurriculum.edu.au//]. ======