Many months ago, and many months too late, we submitted an FOI application, seeking documents from ACARA. We were interested in the origins of the statement Why Maths Must Change, signed onto by five prominent mathematics and mathematics education organisations in support of ACARA’s draft mathematics curriculum. We had previously written of our sea-bed low […]
The Age is getting ready to have another Schools Summit, this time under the banner “Disruption, resilience and new possibilities”, whatever that means. The Summit’s headline acts are (the ghost of) Alan Tudge and ACARA‘s Renaissance CEO Man, David de Carvalho. There is also a brief panel discussion on “Maths Wars”:
Rebecca Urban has a report in The Australian today (Murdoch, paywalled): ‘Warped lessons must be dumped’: Tudge Education Minister Alan Tudge says the board of the country’s schooling authority must substantially rewrite its draft national curriculum, warning he will not endorse the proposed document amid concern student outcomes would be harmed. … In the letter, […]
The period for submissions to ACARA on their draft mathematics curriculum closed on July 8. Our intention is to wind this up, and get to the backlogged mountains of nonsense, but there are at least a couple more posts that need to be done. On July 2, The President of the Australian Mathematical Society,* Ole […]
The following is an open letter to David de Carvalho, CEO of ACARA, and to the ACARA Board. regarding the draft mathematics curriculum. The home of the letter is here, you can sign up here, and the list of current signatories is here. Disclosure: The letter was not my idea, and it is not my […]
Honestly, it wasn’t our intention to write three hundred posts on ACARA and their appalling draft mathematics curriculum. But, we did. Given that we did, it seems worthwhile having a pinned metapost, so that anybody who wants to can find their way through the jungle. (There’s probably a better way to do this, with a […]
It was a dark and stormy curriculum; the jargon fell in torrents—except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by violent gusts of puffery which swept up the streets (for it is in Australia that our scene lies), rattling along the schooltops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flames of thought that struggled against the darkness. […]
When I’m with them I’m confused Out of focus and bemused … That’s pretty much it, except for the “bemused” bit. But our cheap-joke title is also asking a genuine question: what does ACARA think is the essence of “problem-solving”? How do you solve a problem like ACARA (does)? The answer is a classic bait […]
Yesterday, David de Carvalho, the CEO of ACARA, gave a speech at The Age Schools Summit. de Carvalho used his speech to set the stage for ACARA’s imminent launch of the draft of the revised Australian Curriculum. (See here.) We shall take a more careful look at de Carvalho’s speech in the near future. For […]
One of the shiny new expressions of mathematics education is algorithmic thinking or, if one prefers, computational thinking. It is 10% shrewd rebranding and 90% poisonous snake oil. The new Australian Curriculum is full of it.