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General Capabilities

in the Australian Curriculum:


Technologies
The general capabilities play a
significant role in the Australian
Curriculum in equipping
young Australians to live
and work successfully in
the twenty-first century.
In the Australian
Curriculum, capability
encompasses knowledge,
skills, behaviours and
dispositions. Students
develop capability when
they apply knowledge and
skills confidently, effectively
and appropriately in
complex and changing
circumstances, in their
learning at school and in
their lives outside school.
The Australian Curriculum includes seven
general capabilities, as shown in the figure.

In the Australian Curriculum: via the content elaborations, which


Technologies, general capabilities are are provided to give teachers ideas
identified where they are developed about how they might teach the
or applied in the content descriptions. content. Icons are used to indicate
They are also identified where they where general capabilities have been
offer opportunities to add depth identified in learning area content
and richness to student learning descriptions and elaborations.

www.australiancurriculum.edu.au
Literacy Numeracy
In the Australian Curriculum: Technologies, The Australian Curriculum: Technologies
students develop literacy as they learn how to gives students opportunities to interpret and
communicate ideas, concepts and detailed use mathematical knowledge and skills in
proposals to a variety of audiences; read a range of real-life situations. Students use
and interpret detailed written instructions number to calculate, measure and estimate;
for specific technologies, often including interpret and draw conclusions from statistics;
diagrams and procedural writings such measure and record throughout the process
as software user manuals, design briefs, of generating ideas; develop, refine and test
patterns and recipes; prepare accurate, concepts; and cost and sequence when
annotated engineering drawings, software making products and managing projects. In
instructions and coding; write project outlines, using software, materials, tools and equipment,
briefs, concept and project management students work with the concepts of number,
proposals, evaluations, engineering, life cycle geometry, scale, proportion, measurement and
and project analysis reports; and prepare volume. They use three-dimensional models,
detailed specifications for production. create accurate technical drawings, work
with digital models and use computational
By learning the literacy of technologies, thinking in decision-making processes when
students understand that language varies designing and creating best-fit solutions.
according to context and they increase their
ability to use language flexibly. Technologies
vocabulary is often technical and includes
specific terms for concepts, processes and
production. Students learn to understand that
much technological information is presented
in the form of drawings, diagrams, flow charts,
models, tables and graphs. They also learn the
importance of listening, talking and discussing
in technologies processes, especially in
articulating, questioning and evaluating ideas.

www.australiancurriculum.edu.au
Information and Critical and
Communication Creative Thinking
Technology (ICT) In the Australian Curriculum: Technologies,
Capability students develop capability in critical and
creative thinking as they imagine, generate,
develop and critically evaluate ideas. They
In the Australian Curriculum: Digital develop reasoning and the capacity for
Technologies, students develop an abstraction through challenging problems
understanding of the characteristics of data, that do not have straightforward solutions.
digital systems, audiences, procedures and Students analyse problems, refine concepts
computational thinking. They apply this and reflect on the decision-making process
when they investigate, communicate and by engaging in systems, design and
create digital solutions. Students learn to computational thinking. They identify, explore
formulate problems, logically organise and and clarify technologies information and use
analyse data and represent them in abstract that knowledge in a range of situations.
forms. They automate solutions through
algorithmic logic. Students decide the best Students think critically and creatively about
combinations of data, procedures and possible, probable and preferred futures. They
human and physical resources to generate consider how data, information, systems,
efficient and effective digital solutions. materials, tools and equipment (past and
They create digital solutions that consider present) impact on our lives, and how these
economic, environmental and social factors. elements might be better designed and
managed. Experimenting, drawing, modelling,
In the Australian Curriculum: Design and designing and working with digital tools,
Technologies, key ICT concepts and skills equipment and software helps students to build
are strengthened, complemented and their visual and spatial thinking and to create
extended. Students become familiar with solutions, products, services and environments.
and gain skills using a range of software
applications and digital hardware that enable
them to realise their design ideas. Students
use ICT when they investigate and analyse
information and evaluate design ideas and
communicate and collaborate online. They
develop design ideas; generate plans and
diagrams to communicate their designs and
produce solutions using digital technologies,
for example, creating simulations, drawings
and models and manufacturing solutions (from
basic drawing programs to computer-aided
design/manufacture and rapid prototyping).

www.australiancurriculum.edu.au
Personal and Ethical
Social Capability understanding
In the Australian Curriculum: Technologies, In the Australian Curriculum: Technologies,
students develop personal and social capability students develop the capacity to understand
as they engage in project management and and apply ethical and socially responsible
development in a collaborative workspace. principles when collaborating with others
They direct their own learning, plan and carry and creating, sharing and using technologies
out investigations, and become independent materials, data, processes, tools and
learners who can apply design thinking, equipment. Using an ethical lens, they
technologies understanding and skills when investigate past, current and future local,
making decisions. Students develop social national, regional and global technological
and employability skills through working priorities. When engaged in systems
cooperatively in teams, sharing resources and thinking, students evaluate their findings
processes, making group decisions, resolving against the criteria of legality, environmental
conflict and showing leadership. Designing sustainability, economic viability, health,
and innovation involve a degree of risk-taking social and emotional responsibility and
and as students work with the uncertainty of social awareness. They explore complex
sharing new ideas they develop resilience. issues associated with technologies and
consider possibilities. They are encouraged
The Technologies learning area enhances to develop informed values and attitudes.
students personal and social capability
by developing their social awareness. Students learn about safe and ethical
Students develop understanding of diversity procedures for investigating and working
by researching and identifying user needs. with people, animals, data and materials.
They consider past and present impacts They consider the rights of others and
of decisions on people, communities their responsibilities in using sustainable
and environments and develop social practices that protect the planet and its
responsibility through understanding of, life forms. They learn to appreciate and
empathy with and respect for others. value the part they play in the social and
natural systems in which they operate.
Students consider their own roles and
responsibilities as discerning citizens, and learn
to detect bias and inaccuracies. Understanding
the protection of data, intellectual property and
individual privacy in the school environment
helps students to be ethical digital citizens.

www.australiancurriculum.edu.au
Intercultural understanding
In the Australian Curriculum: Technologies, In their interactions with others in online
students consider how technologies are communities, students consider the dynamic
used in diverse communities at local, and complex nature of cultures, including
national, regional and global levels, including values, beliefs, practices and assumptions.
their impact and potential to transform They recognise and respond to the
peoples lives. They explore ways in challenges of cultural diversity by applying
which past and present practices enable appropriate social protocols. Students learn
people to use technologies to interact with about the interactions between technologies
one another across cultural boundaries. and society and take responsibility for
Students investigate how cultural identities securing positive outcomes for members
and traditions influence the function and of all cultural groups including those faced
form of solutions, products, services with prejudice and misunderstanding.
and environments designed to meet the
needs of daily life now and in the future.

www.australiancurriculum.edu.au

www.australiancurriculum.edu.au

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