Presenter

In this video, we will explore the explicit Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander content that is embedded in new Creative Arts 7–10 Syllabuses.

We recognise the Ongoing Custodians of the lands and waterways where we work and live. We pay respects to Elders past and present as ongoing teachers of knowledge, songlines and stories. We strive to ensure every Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander learner in New South Wales achieves their potential through education.

7–10 creative arts subjects are currently in the process of a significant curriculum reform with new syllabuses being released for dance and drama in 2023, followed by music, visual arts, photographic media, and visual and motion design.

For each new syllabus release, NESA publish the course overview, rationale, aim, outcomes, content, assessment, glossary, and teaching and learning support. These components are available as an interactive digital syllabus on the new curriculum website: curriculum.nsw.edu.au.

We know there are some changes that are common in each new syllabus. Common features include: a reduced number of outcomes, updated and new content, and explicit and embedded Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander content.

This video will guide you through the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander content in new creative art syllabuses. We will let you know what support resources the department plans to provide. In your faculty teams, consider what your school's protocols, processes and planning could look like when the new syllabuses are implemented.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander content is explicitly referred to in new creative art syllabuses. Some key considerations include: key concepts included in syllabus glossaries, protocols for collaborating with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and engaging with cultural works, and the use of example works by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander practitioners.

NESA has provided glossaries of relevant terms, including terms relating to Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander content in one or more of the new creative arts syllabuses. Take a moment to review these terms and consult the syllabus glossaries to make sure your knowledge is up to date.

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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural protocols are specifically referred to in new syllabuses. NESA provides guidance on protocols, outlining that protocols set out: appropriate ways of behaving, communicating, and showing respect for the diverse histories and culture of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Cultures are dynamic and evolving. Therefore, principles and protocols may vary between communities and between people within a community.

Cultural protocols support teachers to: consult and collaborate with Aboriginal communities, meaningfully include works by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and to consider culturally-safe ways of teaching Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander content.

NESA support material on local Aboriginal communities notes that ‘The notion of locality is complex and multilayered: schools should seek advice from a range of people and/or organisations representing local interests.’

When developing local protocols for consulting and collaborating with local Aboriginal communities, schools may consider: What Country or Place the school is located on? What Aboriginal communities and language groups are represented in the student population? Who are your Aboriginal education staff in local school or regional education teams? What local community connections may exist such as the local AECG or other local organisations such as Aboriginal community organisations, arts organisations, artists and practitioners?

When selecting creative arts works by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, teachers may consider: works with local or regional relevance such as a connection to Country or a local practitioner, works with national relevance such as works by established practitioners, works with artistic, historical and cultural relevance.

When practising culturally safe, subject-specific teaching and learning, teachers should consider: ICIP, Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property, appropriation and cultural appropriation, licensing and permissions to perform works, and classroom environments and teacher practice.

Advice on navigating cultural protocols and teaching about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander content is provided by NESA in each syllabus, including in the course overview and specific working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander content additional teaching advice.

NESA also provides advice on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander principles and protocols across all key learning areas.

The Department of Education's Creative arts curriculum team provides support to teachers to meaningfully and appropriately embed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander content in creative arts classrooms through: teacher advice that further interprets NESA's advice, including establishing local school-based protocols for engaging with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, curriculum materials such as units of work and teacher resources, and professional learning to further support teachers to develop their knowledge of working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander content in the new syllabuses.

How will you work in your faculty and school teams to consider, develop and apply local protocols to consult and collaborate with Aboriginal communities, and work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander content?

In your faculty groups, refer to the working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander content in creative arts infographic and learning map.

Work together to consider: How can you consult and collaborate with your school's local Aboriginal community? How can you meaningfully include works by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander practitioners? How can you embed cultural safety in your subject-specific teaching and learning?

For further support, join the Creative arts Statewide staffroom and subscribe to our newsletter using the QR code, tune in to the ‘Creative cast’ podcast or contact the team directly at CreativeArts7-12@det.nsw.edu.au.

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Presenter

The Getting to know the Drama 7–10 Syllabus 2023 presentation is an opportunity to explore and plan for key syllabus changes. We recognise the Ongoing Custodians of the lands and waterways where we work and live. We pay respect to Elders past and present as ongoing teachers of knowledge, songlines and stories. We strive to ensure every Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander learner in NSW achieves their potential through education. Meaningful opportunities for students to work respectfully with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander content have been embedded throughout the new Drama 7–10 Syllabus and across content groups. Drama students engage with this content as they stage, analyse, create and refine works, and explore, apply and explain protocols and processes.

This presentation provides an opportunity to explore the key changes in the new Drama 7–10 Syllabus. By the end of the presentation, participants will understand the structure, outcomes and key content of the new Drama 7–10 Syllabus 2023, investigate syllabus materials to inform the development of school-based documents, and plan teaching, learning and or assessment activities for making, performing and appreciating drama. To demonstrate learning, participants will understand key differences between the current syllabus 2003 and new Drama 7–10 Syllabus 2023. They will also apply understanding of the course content through optional planning activities. This NESA-accredited PD addresses standard descriptors 2.1.2 and 6.2.2.

All new syllabuses will be part of the digital curriculum, a purpose-built digital space, providing one-stop access to syllabuses, resources, support materials, links, teaching advice and evidence. We recommend you have a copy of the digital syllabus open throughout today's session.

This graphic from the new Drama 7–10 Syllabus shows how knowledge, understanding and skills are built through engagement with 3 interrelated practices, Making, Performing and Appreciating, which are the focus areas. These are explored through the 3 content groups, Dramatic contexts, Dramatic processes, and Dramatic elements. Like the 2003 syllabus, drama may be studied as a 100-hour or a 200-hour course. Students may commence the elective study of drama at different points and may progress at different rates across Years 7–10. Students may not access Life Skills outcomes, and other outcomes from the same subject. Play building has been replaced by devising in the new syllabus. Students must make, perform and appreciate at least one group-devised performance and at least one scripted work for each 100 hours of elective drama. You'll also notice that drama students are often referred to as practitioners throughout the new syllabus. There are some more key differences between the 2003 syllabus and the new drama syllabus.

The following slides will unpack some key changes that could be considered throughout your planning. The content within the familiar focus areas of Making, Performing and Appreciating is organised into 3 new content groups, Dramatic contexts, Dramatic processes, and Dramatic elements. NESA has also released comprehensive downloadable teaching and learning support documents for all 3 content groups. These include definitions and examples, and we recommend you have these on hand as you explore the syllabus further.

The Dramatic context group is very similar to the current syllabus organisation of content in the context of a range of dramatic forms and performance styles. Dramatic contexts are defined in the new syllabus as influences on the development of dramatic works and approaches. The interrelatedness of the focus areas and content groups is evident in this definition and in the inclusion of devised works, both here and in the Dramatic processes content group where devising and processes are referred to. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Knowledges are also included in the list of dramatic contexts. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander content has been embedded throughout the new syllabuses and across the content groups.

NESA has provided downloadable teaching advice on working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander content to help your students engage meaningfully and respectfully with these complex content points. As you explore the dramatic contexts, it's worth noting that for each focus area there is one content point which explicitly aligns with each of the bullet points in this definition. We'll look at some examples for dramatic conventions, forms and styles, and devised and scripted works.

On screen, you can see some examples of the Stage 5 content points for Dramatic contexts. It is important to remember that these are not descriptions of teacher action. The content points describe the essential knowledge, skills and understanding that students must engage with and demonstrate in each phase of learning. The content in the Dramatic context should be used to frame the learning students are engaging in as they make, perform and appreciate drama. For example, teachers will need to design making activities that ensure students have the chance to experiment with conventions, forms and styles as they engage with dramatic works or dramatic practitioners.

As they engage in Performing outcomes, students will need opportunities to craft meaning in devised and scripted works. When planning Appreciating activities and tasks, teachers will need to consider how to scaffold the analysis and interpretation of dramatic works on stage for their students. The dramatic processes are ways of shaping dramatic meaning and experience. The key processes are embodied, collaborative, safe, creative and critical, improvising and devising. Most of these processes have familiar pedagogical underpinnings from the current 7–10 syllabus. However, the explicit ways in which some of these processes are now addressed in the syllabus may be unfamiliar.

Unlike Dramatic contexts, the content for this group shows the deep interrelatedness of the dramatic processes and this connection within and across all components of the syllabus points to process as essential knowledge in drama pedagogy. We'll look more closely at how safe processes and creative and critical processes content operates across, Making, Performing and Appreciating. While it is new to have explicit content points related to safe processes, as you investigate the syllabus further, these points provide welcome clarification of the importance of safety within a subject that actively encourages creative risk taking. These safe processes also sit along Stage 5 creative and critical processes. Content such as take creative risks to strengthen dramatic intention and influence audience response, explore, document and evaluate ways to use performance skills to develop dramatic action through trial and error, and seek exchange and question perspectives with others to reflect on collaborative experiences. It may also be helpful to select and view the examples attached to the safe process content points in the digital syllabus.

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The content in the Dramatic processes group creates an authentic interrelationship between all 3 content groups. For example, when designing activities for students to engage with these 2 Dramatic processes content examples, the collaborative and creative and critical processes will be naturally connected with the Dramatic context when students work within an ensemble and engage in the staging or development of dramatic action.

As they engage in these dramatic processes, students will also draw on their knowledge, skills and understanding of some of the dramatic elements, including elements of production and elements of performance. The dramatic elements are the tools dramatic practitioners explore, apply and interpret to shape dramatic meaning and audience engagement. Dramatic elements have been broken down into 3 subcategories or aspects. The familiar elements of drama: role and character, focus, tension, situation, space, time, structure, language, moment, atmosphere and symbol remain, but movement has shifted to the new elements of performance where it sits with voice as a key performance skill and sound has now moved to the new elements of production. Rhythm has been removed, but is covered in the longer definitions of both time and dynamics. The most significant change to the elements of drama seems to be the addition of belief, which like the addition of elements of performance and elements of production, clearly points to an alignment with the requirements of the current Stage 6 drama course.

All syllabuses have been streamlined in line with the government priorities. This means that the number of outcomes have been significantly reduced while the 2003 drama syllabus has 10 outcomes in both Stage 4 and 5 the new syllabus has 3 outcomes in Stage 4 and 6 outcomes in Stage 5. The reduction in outcomes will have implications for the design of teaching and learning activities and assessment. However, the increasing complexity and depth of the Stage 5 course has been recognised with 6 outcomes that allow for more meaningful learning experiences and increasingly nuanced assessment design in this phase of learning.

The Balance of content section of the syllabus states that the amount of content associated with a given outcome is not necessarily indicative of the amount of time spent engaging with the respective outcome. And that teachers are to use formative and summative assessment to determine instructional priorities and the time needed for students to achieve the expected outcomes. On the screen, we've highlighted the way the focus areas, outcomes and content groups work together to reflect the interrelated practices of Making, Performing and Appreciating. Each of the content groups, Dramatic processes, Dramatic elements, and Dramatic context appear in the outcomes.

It's time for you to dive into the new 7–10 Drama Syllabus to explore these key changes and start planning teaching and learning for the new outcomes and content. There are several models of curriculum implementation that you could use to guide your planning. This graphic should help you visualise how different implementation models might work with NESA's current published timelines for the new Stage 6 drama syllabus being examined for the first time in the 2028 HSC, now is a more important time than ever to stay in touch with our Creative Arts curriculum team. Use the QR code to sign up to our e-news and Creative arts statewide staff room. Join today to stay informed and be involved through this critical phase of curriculum reform. You can also email us directly. Best of luck with your planning.

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Presenter

The Getting to know the Dance 7–10 Syllabus 2023 presentation is designed to support you in unpacking and applying key syllabus changes. We recognise the Ongoing Custodians of the lands and waterways where we work and live. We pay respect to Elders past and present as ongoing teachers of knowledge, songlines and stories. We strive to ensure every Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander learner in NSW achieves their potential through education. Meaningful opportunities for students to work respectfully with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander content has been embedded throughout the new Dance 7–10 Syllabus and across content groups.

For the Dance 7–10 Syllabus, NESA has provided teaching advice on working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander content to help your students engage meaningfully and respectfully with these complex content points. This document includes information on cultural protocols, dance by Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples, Aboriginal songlines, imagery and symbols. You will also find protocols for collaborating with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and engaging with cultural works on the course overview page of the new syllabus.

This presentation provides an opportunity to explore the key changes in the new Dance 7–10 Syllabus. By the end of the presentation, participants will understand the structure, outcomes, and key content of the new Dance 7–10 Syllabus 2023, investigate syllabus materials to inform the development of school-based documents, plan for teaching, learning and/or assessment activities for performing, composing and appreciating dance.

All new syllabuses will be part of the digital curriculum. A purpose-built digital space, providing one-stop access to syllabuses, resources, support materials, links, teaching advice and evidence. We recommend you have a copy of the digital syllabus open as you move through this presentation.

This graphic from the new 7–10 Syllabus shows the 3 focus areas, Performance, Composition and Appreciation, which are connected by the 3 content groups, Context, The dancing body and the Elements of dance. These are not intended to be hierarchical. The focus areas are 3 discrete practices and the content groups are used to naturally interrelate them. Dance may be studied as a 100-hour or a 200-hour course. Students may commence the elective study of dance at different points and may progress at different rates across Years 7–10. Students cannot access a combination of Life Skills outcomes and other outcomes in dance. They must only access Life Skills outcomes, or Stage 4/5 outcomes.

There are many differences between the current syllabus and the new Dance Syllabus. The following slides will unpack the key changes that should be considered throughout your planning. Firstly, all syllabuses have been streamlined in line with the government priorities. This means that the number of outcomes have been significantly reduced. As you can see on screen, the number of outcomes across the focus areas now stands at 3 in Stage 4 and 6 in Stage 5. The reduction in outcomes will have implications when designing, teaching and learning activities and assessment. However, the increasing complexity and depth of the Stage 5 course has been recognised with 6 outcomes that allow for more meaningful learning experiences and increasingly nuanced assessment design in this stage of learning. The Balance of content states that the amount of content associated with the given outcomes is not necessarily indicative of the amount of time spent engaging with the respective outcome. Teachers are to use formative and summative assessment to determine instructional priorities and time needed for students to achieve expected outcomes.

The content groups are defined on the course overview page of the 7–10 Dance Syllabus. The dancing body and the Elements of dance are reflective of the content in the current 7–10 Dance Syllabus. However, the content group Context is entirely new. The new syllabus defines Context as, 'Provides transparency and background knowledge. It provides the circumstances under which a dance work was made, performed, viewed, analysed and consequently appreciated. It is pivotal to the understanding of culture, traditions, conventions, roles and responsibilities across the 3 focus areas.'

On screen, you can see samples of the Context content points for the Stage 5 section of the syllabus. It is important to remember that these content points are not just for teacher consideration, but the content must be explicitly taught to students. The Context content should be used to frame the learning students are engaging in for each focus area. For example, in Performance, we will need to address performance protocols for the style of dance being executed and for the situation in which the performance takes place. This could be for a specific assessment, performance night or in-class task. Artistic, cultural, social and personal contexts in relation to performance will also influence this. The conventions of contemporary dance such as class protocols, behaviour and responsibility to self and others should be made explicit.

In Composition, teachers need to deliver content on the ethics and conventions of choreographic practice and address protocols and responsibilities of working safely and respectfully with others. Including respecting personal space and gaining, giving and/or denying consent. Examples of this could include physical contact and digitally recording, using or publishing student work and engaging in safe, legal and ethical online behaviour.

In Appreciation, it's acknowledged that different contexts can change the perspective of the viewer. The role Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander dance protocols play in how the viewer responds to their works must be addressed and ethical processes for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander dancers, including the protection of Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property should be explicitly taught. Writing has been identified by NESA as a focus for Curriculum Reform.

Throughout the 7–10 Dance Syllabus content, there are many opportunities to embed writing in your teaching and learning activities, some are explicit and others are inferred through the content point verbs. In the focus areas of Performance and Composition, some of the ways that writing can be approached are inferred through verbs, such as 'reflect on' and 'document'. Ways students could reflect on and document in writing could include formative assessment strategies like peer feedback, setting SMART goals, self-reflection, questions for videoed performances, quizzes, question formulation techniques and unpacking teacher feedback. They could also include logbook or process diary activities like storyboarding, quick writing, brainstorming, note taking, using graphic organisers and glossaries.

In Appreciation, the writing could be engaged in through content points starting with verbs such as 'describe', 'analyse' and 'evaluate'. However, the Appreciation content is the only place in the new syllabus where writing is made explicit in the content points. As you can see on the screen, in Stage 4, students are to identify and describe in written form how the elements of dance have been used by the choreographer in a professional work to communicate the intent. And in Stage 5, they are to create written texts to show appreciation of how the choreographer communicates the intent of a professional dance work. As we know, backward mapping is an effective strategy to help students meet necessary learning outcomes. Currently, Stage 6 dance students are required to formulate extended responses that describe and explain the prescribed dance works. Consider the progression of learning of writing content from Stage 4 to Stage 6. How can you prepare your students through the stages of learning for the requirements of Stage 6 Appreciation?

Finally, it's important to note that the Elements of dance have been refined. The new syllabus glossary simply define the elements of dance are space, time and dynamics. The components are listed in the definition of each element, which you can see now on the screen. For space, the aspect planes have been removed entirely. Performance space has been replaced with stage space, and pathways and floor patterns have been split into 2 separate components. For time, phrasing has been removed and rhythmic patterns has been replaced by rhythm. The components of dynamics remain essentially the same with release of energy, weight and/or force and movement qualities all being mentioned in the definition.

It's time for you to dive into the new 7–10 Dance Syllabus to explore these key changes and start planning, teaching and learning for the new outcomes and content. There are many models of curriculum implementation that you could use to guide your planning. This graphic should help you visualise how different implementation models might work with NESA's current published timeline for the new Stage 6 dance syllabus being examined for the first time in the 2028 HSC.

Now is a more important time than ever to stay in touch with our Creative Arts curriculum team. Use the QR code to sign up for our e-news and Creative arts Statewide staffroom. Join today to stay informed and be involved through this critical phase of curriculum reform. You can also email us directly. Best of luck with your planning.

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