Discipline/Subject-based Program
Focus of the program
Material from a particular discipline or subject area is the main focus of a discipline/subject-based program. This approach allows students to focus on the particular discipline in depth. These are often the domains from the Discipline-based Learning strand of the VELS plus subjects based on Health and Physical Education, Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and Design, Creativity and Technology.
A specific focus may also be adopted for other domains in the Physical, Personal and Social Strand and for the Interdisciplinary Strand. For example, some schools undertake a ‘learning to learn’ focus which incorporates aspects of the Personal Learning, Interpersonal Development and Thinking Processes domains, or they undertake a unit developed specifically to address Interpersonal Development through a social competencies focus.
Interweaving the strands
In discipline/subject-based programs, schools ensure that standards from domains in the Physical, Personal and Social, and Interdisciplinary learning strands are interwoven into particular subjects.
During their auditing of existing curriculum, teachers of different subjects determine collectively the extent to which other domains are already addressed in their teaching and learning programs (for example, Thinking Processes, Information and Communications Technology (ICT), Interpersonal Development within English, or History). They then identify the opportunities to extend this so the full range of relevant standards can be addressed across the whole program.
The standards within the Physical, Personal and Social Learning strand and those within the Interdisciplinary strand can be taught and assessed in conjunction with the content in the Discipline-based strand. Teachers become aware of what is in all standards and identify what is important to teach in their particular subjects. Explicit teaching of domain specific concepts and skills occurs within the units of work, enabling students to apply the knowledge, skills and behaviours when working in other contexts throughout the year.
Teams of teachers across a level, within the same faculty or across faculties can plan who will teach and who will assess what aspects of the standards from the Physical, Personal and Social Learning and the Interdisciplinary Learning strands. Moderation and monitoring in the form of discussion of student progress is integral to the process.
For example in Year 8 the Science teacher and Mathematics teacher form a professional learning team to plan teaching, learning and assessment activities which address selected elements of the standards from the Reasoning, processing and inquiry and Reflection, evaluation and metacognition dimensions in the Thinking Processes domain. Through the collaborative process the teachers ensure the teaching, learning and assessment activities are not duplicated but are complementary.
Another example is where a number of opportunities have been provided for students to work together in teams in different disciplines or subjects. The units of work have a specific discipline or subject focus on the team activity and the criteria used to make judgements on the students’ ability to take on various roles as a team member will be common to all and will address specific elements of the standards in the Working in teams dimension of the Interpersonal Development domain. Individual teachers determine the extent of explicit teaching of the key concepts and skills required for their students to reach the standards
Standards in the Discipline-based strand will be assessed at a specific point in time that is determined by the individual teacher. It is expected that before summative assessments are formally required, students will have been given opportunities to develop deep understandings with ongoing feedback provided by the teacher.
