A Course is a course of course of course

In reponse to the Victorian Government Curriculum Standard Framework Request for Feedback.

There are many teaching resources that support the achievement of outcomes over many levels. The problem is that these activities have never been presented as part of coherent course.

On one hand, we have textbooks which provide more than a years course but usually over emphasise drill and practice . These texts represent very considerable investments in time (teacher familiarisation, selection, sequencing etc.) and money (most schools provide one per student !). the CSF suggests that we spend more money on an additional and partial solution.

On the other hand, the CSF does provide have an intoxicating array of excellent lesson ideas provided through superb resources that in many cases have been developed with Victorian leadership . Teachers such as myself continue to experiment with these as they are published. It is time consuming but professionally rewarding to transform the ideas in the materials to a real lesson sequence. This experimentation is sporadic and eclectic. The central problem is that there are far more activities suggested in the CSF than would fit into the available classroom time . The net effect is a huge range of possibilities with no guidance on what are key activities. The Directorate considers this to be providing flexibility. Teachers consider this to be abdication of leadership. Anyone can create a wishlist. The real challenge is to decide what is of key focus for the limited time and resources.

What we need is a core of essential lessons which will fit into any schools available maths lesson time. What we in Victoria have never had to my knowledge is a complete course package in mathematics recommended by the Department. (No need to direct. Schools would take it up voluntarily in droves).

With the CSF, the Department has a new opportunity to guide schools toward a coherent, complete, yet flexible course which fulfils its interests in terms of curriculum focus, standards, and accountability.

Instead of adding to the enormous range of curriculum possibilities already available - Instead of telling us all the things that a good teacher and a good school would do in a perfect world - Provide a course ! The skeleton is there already ! The CSF and its Course Advice are a great structure - which may take years to influence classroom practice (if ever). There is enormous inertia out here, due to our investment in current text resources and past practises. There is enormous cynicism out here due to the increasingly fast cycle of political change and its increasingly close linkage with curriculum change.

Commercial curriculum publishers have a vast store trove of materials that are already mentioned in the course advice. Instead of hoping that teachers will do the huge task of constructing from these sources the beautiful patchwork quilt that the CSF suggests, why not invite one to build the course to Ministry specifications and thus potentially gain a stranglehold on the market.