Critical thinking trumps knowledge in Gonski 2.0
REBECCA URBAN
Schools would be required to prioritise the teaching of critical thinking, creativity and social skills under recommendations to come out of the
Gonski review into boosting student achievement, despite mounting scepticism internationally about the feverish promotion of those skills in the classroom.
A
report, to be published today, proposes a “radical overhaul” of the national curriculum to ensure that “general capabilities” are placed at the core of what students are taught. It notes that declining student outcomes are national and widespread across all sectors.
“Its extent indicates that Australian education has failed a generation of Australian schoolchildren by not enabling them to reach their full learning potential,” the
report says. “The importance of this point can hardly be overstated. In 2015, Australia’s 15-year-olds as a group scored significantly lower that 15-year-olds in 2003 on an equivalent test.”
The
report also recommends personalised learning and teaching based on each student’s needs, as well as a move away from a year-based curriculum to one targeted to a student’s personal achievement regardless of age.
Each student would be supported to achieve at least a year’s worth of progress each year.
When it comes to assessment, the
report found conventional reports that traditionally give an A to E grade based on year-level achievement standards could be improved upon. Instead, students should be assessed by the rate of progress and attainment of knowledge and skills based on challenging personal targets, it says.
The focus on critical thinking, creativity and social skills will alarm many education experts, who have been lobbying for a return to a more robust, knowledge-based curriculum. Educational psychologists have spent the past decade questioning the drive to embed general capabilities — which include literacy and numeracy but also contentious so-called 21st-century skills such as critical thinking and problem-solving — arguing they develop only once a student acquires a deep knowledge of their subject matter.
Among the
report’s 23 recommendations is an online assessment tool for teachers that could eventually see the NAPLAN test deemed redundant. The tool would enable a student’s progress to be tracked and compared with that of other students. Comparisons between different schools would also be available.
The
report, Through Growth to Achievement, follows an eight-month review chaired by businessman David
Gonski, which was to provide advice to the federal government on how to improve student achievement and school performance.
Malcolm Turnbull yesterday welcomed the
report, describing it as a “blueprint”. “We are drawing a line in the sand to say with our record and growing funding secured, we now must focus on the reforms that improve education outcomes for all Australian students,” he said.
The
report followed the Turnbull government’s announcement last year that it would inject an additional $23.5 billion over 10 years into the sector.
The government, which is understood to have adopted all of the
report’s recommendations in principle, will present the
report at a meeting of education ministers on Friday. The federal government plans to link funding increases to the states and territories to them agreeing to certain reforms.
Education Minister Simon Birmingham defended the
report’s focus on the development of so-called 21st-century skills, saying employers were demanding that workers had particular skills to add value.
He said the panel had also spelt out the “critical importance” of literacy and numeracy skills as a “building block” of the curriculum.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/n ... 264302d8c1