The Australian Curriculum and C2C resources set out the curriculum and what is to be taught, leaving teachers to make decisions about pedagogies which are learner-centred, involve scaffolding of learning and engage children actively in learning.
Age-appropriate pedagogies have particular characteristics. These characteristics do not relate to every learner, learning context or desired outcome. Instead, they represent a set of desirable qualities that educators can consider when trying to be responsive to the individual child, context and purpose of learning. Characteristics of age-appropriate teaching approaches include:
Active (requiring movement)
Agentic (giving children a voice in their learning)
Collaborative (co-constructed)
Creative (inquiry and artistic)
Explicit (knowledge and skill based learning)
Language rich and dialogic (modelling language rich learning)
Learner focused (acknowledging the individual differences in learners)
Narrative (use of narratives for learning)
Playful (encouraging learning through imagination)
Responsive (flexibility in learning) and
Scaffolded (modelling, encouraging, questioning to support new learning)
At Moura State School, teachers differentiate learning in their classroom with assistance from the Head of Curriculum, Support Teachers Literacy and Numeracy and Special Education Program teachers. Individual Curriculum Plans are written for a small number of students who require a different year level curriculum in some or all learning areas and/or subjects for the reporting period.
Teachers deliver the curriculum at a level, pace and degree of abstraction and complexity suited to the students' learning ability. Those students who are achieving at a higher level than their peers are extended through their curriculum provision in the classroom as well as offered extra curricula and extension programs, of which there are several from Years 4 to 6.