Curriculum advice for remote and flexible learning

Implementing the Victorian Curriculum F–10

The following information outlines curriculum area advice to schools to support remote learning and continuity for students in F–10 Critical and Creative Thinking. This advice should be read in conjunction with broader advice provided to schools regarding the Victorian Curriculum F–10 on the VCAA and Victorian Curriculum F–10 websites.

Delivering F–10 Critical and Creative Thinking remotely and flexibly

Keep in mind

Schools can review and adapt their teaching and learning program for Critical and Creative Thinking to enable the curriculum to be delivered at home via remote learning. This review and adaptation should take into account any linked learning areas.
Teachers are best placed to make teaching and learning decisions and assessment modifications appropriate to their circumstances. Teachers need to take into account their access to remote learning tools (such as online learning platforms) and the strengths and limitations of their student cohort.
A modified teaching and learning program should include learning activities that enable students to demonstrate aspects of the relevant achievement standards in Critical and Creative Thinking.
This advice focuses on the Meta-Cognition strand in Critical and Creative Thinking. This strand is focused on developing an explicit understanding of and a capacity to apply thinking processes, learning strategies and problem-solving methodology that are suited to different learning area contexts and to managing students' own learning, including knowledge and skills to effectively learn at home.

Ideas and connections

If originally planned methods for curriculum delivery require adaptation, schools and teachers may consider the following: using simulations or case studies explicitly showing how a metacognitive strategy or process can be used or practised in the context of a linked learning area; modelling metacognition visually and verbally and providing a recording for students; and providing scaffolding templates and guiding questions.
To develop metacognition successfully, students need to use metacognitive strategies and processes. Teachers may consider facilitating a way for students to provide feedback on the level of challenge involved in a task, and they may consider developing protocols for students to seek assistance that take into account metacognitive strategies that students could practise to develop their skills as independent learners.
Depending on the achievement standard students are progressing towards and the resources available at home, students could annotate stages of their work, develop explicit learning goals and ways to manage and approach a task, and share journals in which they reflect on their application of metacognitive strategies and processes.
For ideas for teaching and learning activities for Critical and Creative Thinking, see Ideas for remote and flexible learning.

Useful resources

In addition to the VCAA resources, teachers may consider the following resources:

Cambridge Assessment International Education, Getting started with metacognition – Cambridge University's International Education Teaching and Learning Team unpack the concept of metacognition in relation to learning strategies and provide a range of strategies that could be adapted for out-of-school contexts.
Brookings – The Brookings Institution provides a range of strategies for teaching metacognition that could be adapted for out-of-school contexts.

The learning strategies aspect of the Meta-Cognition strand focuses on cognitive strategies such as memorisation techniques. Search for ‘Inspiring Independent Learning’ on the Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP) website to find classroom strategies for independent learning.

Assessment and achievement standards

Schools should assess student learning against the relevant aspects of the achievement standards in the Victorian Curriculum F–10.
Schools may consider reviewing the sequence and balance of learning activities and assessment tasks aligned to the relevant Critical and Creative Thinking achievement standards to account for how often and in what form teacher feedback will be given. Schools can consider a balance between short activities that focus on particular knowledge and skills and more open-ended, rich assessment tasks that can be completed over a period of time at home.
On the resumption of face-to-face learning, schools may need to undertake a variety of further assessments to elicit reliable evidence of learning.

For more information

Monica Bini, Critical and Creative Thinking Curriculum Manager
Phone (03) 9032 1693 or email the Critical and Creative Thinking Curriculum Manager