Australia's largest school system will get its biggest overhaul in decades when explicit teaching is rolled out in a bid to arrest sliding results among young students.
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A reworked NSW primary-school curriculum aims to clearly set out classroom expectations, replacing a pupil-led model formerly in vogue with experts.
Education Minister Prue Car said the shift would help teachers ensure students understood what they were being taught.
"Evidence tells us a knowledge-rich curriculum to be explicitly taught in the classroom will work with our children," she told reporters on Wednesday.
The changes aligned with the direction of the national curriculum, she said.
Victoria announced a similar shift focused on explicit teaching in June.
Belinda Brown, principal at Bowning Public School in southern NSW, said teachers were excited about the long-awaited reform.
"The most significant change is the ability to be very clear for teachers about what is important in their classroom, it's about allowing teachers to be flexible for their context in their schools," she said.
Drilling in skills early gives children a solid base for learning, although some students needed more guidance and time, according to the Australian Education Research Organisation.
"This explains why certain teaching methods consistently yield better results across diverse student populations than others," the organisation's research and evaluation senior manager Zid Mancenido said earlier in July.
A perception that evidence-based teaching practices like explicit teaching hindered creativity and curiosity was unfounded, he said.
Overall student performance has steadily declined compared to other nations since the early 2000s, although the NSW system generally delivers results above the national average.
Opposition education spokeswoman Sarah Mitchell said the changes resulted from a process started under the former coalition government and they would create a system to meet the needs of every child.
The NSW government announced a four-year plan to rewrite the curriculum in 2021.
Ms Car said a review involving parents, students, teachers and principals had aired clear views the existing curriculum was overcrowded and needed to be simpler.
As part of the changes, there will be a new science and technology syllabus with more hands-on learning, giving students an understanding of how the human body works while also exploring fields such as space and climate systems.
History and geography will fall under human society and its environment, exploring interconnected themes on both topics.
It will include compulsory civics and citizenship content, such as voting in a democracy, as well as a strengthened focus on teaching children how to read a map.
Balancing screen time with physical activity will be part of an updated personal development, health and physical education syllabus, which also provides explicit support for students with physical disability for the first time.
Age-appropriate lessons on respectful relationships and consent are also included.
Teachers will have two years to familiarise themselves with the updated syllabuses before their mandatory rollout in all NSW schools in 2027 but they can be implemented before then if schools choose.
Updated maths and English syllabuses have already been introduced.
Australian Associated Press
