Stages of Learning - Years 5 to 8

Building breadth and depth

During Years 5 to 8 most young people experience the move from primary to secondary school. In this sense, the middle years of schooling tend to cover two distinct phases, Years 5 to 6 and Years 7 to 8. During Years 5 to 6 some young people will experience the onset of adolescence, while others will remain in late childhood. Differences in emotional, behavioural and cognitive development among students may be vast.

Between ten years of age and puberty, the brain destroys its weakest connections preserving only those that experience has shown to be useful. During the late childhood and teenage years, functions that carry the most messages strengthen, and the weaker ones are cut out. This process is most predominant in the area critical to controlling planning, working memory, organisation, anticipating consequences, controlling impulses and mood modulation.

Young people increasingly differentiate themselves in terms of their peers, physical attributes and competence. They begin to associate achievement less with effort, and more with skill and cognitive ability. While they may give the appearance of being engaged by novelty, to hold their interest through to achievement, young people increasingly require content that is perceived as valuable, is consistent with personal goals, and/or leads to an important outcome. In other words, during Years 5 to 8 young people increasingly come to view content as a choice, rather than an imperative.

In Years 5 to 8 young people become more complex thinkers. They begin to understand more abstract cognitive processes such as how to apply logical reasoning to both ideas and concrete objects. In other words, they begin learning how to apply many of the practical skills they have mastered in earlier years.

At secondary school students are required to be more independent, flexible and self-regulatory in the process of their learning. They begin to expand their thinking in subjects such as mathematics and scientific method. They also begin to organise their thinking in more formal ways by understanding processes such as research, critical and creative thinking and problem-solving. Consequently, they become capable of distinguishing between the processes and thinking tools specific to particular problems and ideas. They need to develop the competency of reflecting on and evaluating these processes.

However, while early adolescents become capable of thinking abstractly, their brains are still not fully mature. The areas mediating spatial, sensory, and auditory and language functions appear largely developed, but other areas are still maturing. There is also evidence to suggest myelination (or maturation of nerve cells) is still occurring. Myelination affects the speed at which messages are processed, as well as fine motor skill development.

To compensate for underdevelopment, the adolescent brain relies heavily on an area of the brain called the amygdala, which creates a tendency to react on instincts. Biologically, adolescents do not have the same abilities as adults to control their actions and to make sound decisions.

Remaining focused and modulating moods is a challenge during early adolescence. Assisting students to communicate, participate and work cooperatively, to have self-control, and to resolve conflicts thoughtfully without resorting to avoidance or aggression helps students to excel during this stage of schooling. Learning to manage emotions, predict consequences, develop optimistic thinking habits, and set goals are also skills that improve student achievement and wellbeing.

 

Level 4

In the Victorian Essential Learning Standards Level 4 is broadly associated with Years 5 and 6 of schooling.

Learners become more complex thinkers and are able to apply thinking strategies as part of their learning. They are able to participate in and lead small group activities and learn more deeply by undertaking more extended projects.

Key characteristics of students at this level include:

• assuming leadership responsibilities
• developing self-efficacy skills
• specialising and differentiating between domains
• managing new situations and solving problems
• learning deeply through extended projects to build flexible thinking and learning strategies
• exploring concepts that allow for several points of view
• demonstrating a preference for more specialised intelligences.

Students begin to develop leadership skills, taking roles in representing their school, speaking publicly and participating in local community activities and ‘present a point of view on a significant issue or issues and include recommendations’ (Civics and Citizenship: Community engagement). They are aware of the responsibilities that accompany their leadership roles, and are capable of communicating school values, rules and procedures using ‘summarise and organise ideas and information, logically and clearly in a range of presentations’ (Communication: Presenting). They critically analyse the functioning of groups and have a capacity to manage and achieve group goals. They demonstrate personal self-control and empathic behaviour, especially with younger peers. Through their interactions with others they demonstrate ‘respect for a diverse range of people and groups’ (Interpersonal Development: Building social relationships). They are confident and motivated, and use social problem solving strategies in the process of building more sophisticated self-efficacy skills.

Students build an increasingly complex understanding of themselves as learners. By reflecting on the influences that impact on learning, students gain insight into the requirements of effective learning and increasingly ‘identify and explain how different perspectives and attitudes can affect learning.’ (Personal Learning: The individual learner). Knowledge of learning and thinking preferences enables students to make choices and set future goals. Learning occurs in both individual and social contexts. Students connect their learning with real life. Many students become more discerning about their preferences and interests. They begin to make distinctions about what they like and what is important.

Students are becoming more complex thinkers. They begin to understand more abstract cognitive processes such as how to apply logical reasoning to both ideas and concrete objects and ‘generate imaginative solutions when solving problems’ (Thinking Processes: Creativity). They explore the concepts of belief, chance, probability, estimation, patterns, sequences and generalisations. Such concepts allow for a diversity of views, as well as for the mental and written organisation and manipulation of information.

Students become more adept at being critical of an idea, explaining why they believe something, collecting and using evidence to support ideas, changing their opinion on the basis of a superior argument, working out more than one solution to a problem, identifying relationships between ideas and using examples to help explain an idea. Students either work individually or collaboratively to observe, collect, interpret and critically analyse data. They pose questions about, and identify situations, problems, needs and opportunities for the creation of useful products. They reflect on their designs as these are developed ‘and use evaluation criteria, identified from design briefs, to justify design choices’ (Design, Creativity and Technology: Analysing and evaluating).

Students are expected to make judgments about ideas and their relative significance. They are assisted to develop and test models that show cause and effect, as well as to identify relationships within, or linkages between, ideas. Investigations and problem solving techniques are used as mechanisms to introduce the concept of deep thinking. They further extend their knowledge and skills in using information and communications technology (ICT) tools and techniques to ‘explore processes, patterns and cause-and-effect relationships’ (Information and Communications Technology: ICT for visualising thinking). They apply skills, techniques and processes to create and present arts works that ‘explore the potential of ideas’ (The Arts: Creating and making) and begin using ‘strategic thinking and work with both more- and less-skilled peers to improve game performance’ (Health and Physical Education: Movement and physical activity).

Students ‘read, interpret and respond to a wide range of literary, everyday and media texts in print and in multimodal formats’ (English: Reading). They draw on their knowledge of the generic structures of different types of texts to organise and structure ideas. They produce a variety of texts for different purposes, such as narratives, reports and arguments. Working in small and large discussion groups, students ‘identify opinions offered by others, propose other relevant viewpoints and extend ideas in a constructive manner’ (English: Speaking and listening). Students learn about a different language and culture through Languages Other Than English and practise reading a ‘wide range of short and/or modified texts for meaning and for use as models in their own writing’ (Languages Other Than English: Communicating in a language other than English).

Students’ knowledge of science and scientific concepts becomes more systematic and they are able to ‘apply the terms relationships, models and systems appropriately as ways of representing complex structures’ (Science: Science knowledge and understanding). Similarly, they develop a more sophisticated understanding of mathematical concepts and an awareness of how ‘a few successful examples are not sufficient proof and recognise that a single counter-example is sufficient to invalidate a conjecture’ (Mathematics: Working mathematically).

Students develop further understanding of Australia’s history and its key Eastern and Western influences, along with the history of one or more countries in our region using ‘a range of primary and secondary sources to investigate the past’ (The Humanities – History: Historical reasoning and interpretation). They also acquire more sophisticated geographic skills as they develop their knowledge of the interrelationship between human and physical features, describing ‘Australia’s significant natural processes (and the) reaction of people to these processes’ (The Humanities – Geography: Geographical knowledge and understanding).

Students begin to grapple with economic concepts and understandings, and ‘use the inquiry process to plan economics investigations about economic issues in the home, school or local community and form conclusions supported by evidence’ (The Humanities – Economics: Economic reasoning and interpretation).

Links and downloads

• Level 4 standards
• VELS Level 4 booklet (PDF – 751KB)

 

Level 5

In the Victorian Essential Learning Standards Level 5 is broadly associated with Years 7 and 8 of schooling.

Early adolescents develop a stronger individual sense of identity and begin to consider increasingly complex ideas. Their interest in learning becomes more dependent on what they see as important or consistent with personal goals. They participate in a variety of physical activities, ‘combine motor skills, strategic thinking and tactical knowledge to improve individual and team performance’ (Health and Physical Education: Movement and physical activity) and understand the effects of risk taking.

Key characteristics of students at this level include:

• developing self-efficacy skills to maintain confidence and a positive attitude
• developing an individual sense of identity
• having an awareness of universal ethics and morality, culture and nationhood
• shifting from the concrete to the conceptual
• discriminating in terms of value, quality and worth
• developing an awareness of formal methods of inquiry.

The onset of adolescence heralds the shift from the concrete to the conceptual, from what is known and certain, to what is hoped for and what is possible. At Level 5 students begin their journey into the world of universal ideas where they learn about the processes of discovery and the implications for change. They move from reflecting on local and real world experiences to considering increasingly complex and abstract concepts and ideas. They successfully ‘complete activities focusing on problem solving and decision making which involve an increasing number of variables and solutions’ (Thinking Processes: Reasoning, processing and inquiry).

Students are subjected to more competitive standards and institutionalised forms of management. Motivation is increasingly extrinsic, dependent on content that is perceived as valuable, is consistent with personal goals, or is otherwise perceived as important. Students ‘complete competing short, extended and group tasks within set time frames, prioritising their available time’ (Personal Learning: Managing personal learning), identifying the ‘big’ questions and engaging in extended processes involving complex thinking.

They creatively construct and use critical analysis to deconstruct ideas, concepts, events and objects as part of learning projects. They make judgments, differentiate between the quality of information and data, and recognise strengths and weaknesses in arguments. They work with design briefs to generate products which solve problems in real contexts seeking to ‘understand and logically sequence major stages of production’ (Design, Creativity and Technology: Investigating and designing).

Students also work individually and collaboratively to plan, design, improvise, interpret and present arts works for particular audiences and purposes, selecting and applying ‘skills, techniques, processes, media, materials, equipment and technologies across a range of arts forms’ (The Arts: Creating and making). In this sense, they are developing creative and critical thinking abilities and applying them to the expansion of their knowledge and skills.

They begin to comprehend that there may be more than one answer to a question, and in some instances, that there is no answer, for the world is full of complexity and contradiction. They design experiments, form conclusions and communicate data. Previously recognised patterns become theories, laws, principles and models.

Self-efficacy skills are fundamental to effective learning at Level 5. With the executive centres of the brain still maturing, students build positive habitual behaviours that encourage them to employ a range of strategies such as predicting outcomes, planning ahead, noting difficulties and failure to comprehend, and activating relevant knowledge. While they are active learners, young people in this stage of development require direction and support with many tasks in terms of eliciting the meaning and significance of content, planning of the processes involved in achieving a learning outcome, and assistance with elaboration and reflection on completion.

They increasingly come to view themselves in relation to groups and systems including demonstrating ‘respect for the individuality of others and empathise with others in local, national and global contexts’ (Interpersonal Development: Building social relationships). Ethics and morality are extended into universal values that inform friendship, culture and nationhood. They start to ‘identify and question the features and values of Australia’s political and legal systems’ (Civics and Citizenship: Civic knowledge and understanding).

Theories, laws, principles and models add meaning to social and physical environments, both local and universal. Students use these formal frameworks to build understanding by collecting, exploring, analysing, predicting, estimating and concluding. They use technology as a tool for displaying information, constructing spreadsheets, manipulating information, filing, storing and researching. They ‘interpret complex information and evaluate the effectiveness of its presentation’ (Communication: Listening, viewing and responding) while evaluating ‘the merits of contemporary communication tools, taking into account their security, ease of use, speed of communication and impact on individuals’ (Information and Communications Technology: ICT for communicating).

Students become aware of language as an adaptable medium with formal traditions and boundless possibilities. They become aware of a range of texts that vary according to their purpose, reading and viewing ‘imaginative, informative and persuasive texts that explore ideas and information related to some challenging topics, themes and issues’ (English: Reading). The meaning of text is explored as a thinking-and-learning tool, where language is discussed as a representation of thought that is used to build complex ideas and assist with the organisation of ideas. Language is also explored as an aesthetic form that may evoke emotion and inspiration. In the context of Languages Other Than English (LOTE), students reflect on the relationship between the speakers of the language by ‘using appropriate language and levels of respect in different circumstances’ (Languages Other Than English: Intercultural knowledge and language awareness).

Students’ growing mathematical knowledge and understanding sees them working with a range of standard mathematical models in practical situations and making predictions ‘using interpolation (working with what is already known) and extrapolation (working beyond what is already known)’ (Mathematics: Working mathematically).

Students’ knowledge of science expands to include abstract concepts, theories, principles and models and their application to particular situations. They ‘identify, analyse and ask their own questions in relation to scientific ideas or issues of interest’ (Science: Science at work). Students’ focus on inquiry extends as they ‘collect geographical information from electronic and print media and analyse, evaluate and present it using a range of forms’ (The Humanities – Geography: Geospatial skills), and ‘evaluate historical sources for meaning, point of view, values and attitudes, and identify some of the strengths and limitations of historical documents’ (The Humanities – History: Historical reasoning and interpretation).

Students develop a more sophisticated understanding of the nature of scarcity, opportunity cost and resource allocation and make ‘informed economic and consumer decisions, demonstrating the development of personal financial literacy’ (The Humanities – Economics: Economic knowledge and understanding).

Links and downloads

• Level 5 standards
• VELS Level 5 booklet (PDF – 755KB)