Discussion between Bronwyn Ward-Manson, Director DJM Personnel and Tracy Zilm from the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) in Sydney, New South Wales Australia.
Tracy and Bronwyn worked together implementing the Australian National Curriculum
Tracy: Bron. you have a reputation in the field of education as a well-respected leader, thinker and practisioner. You were a pioneer in the development of and implementation of programming, planning, assessment, recording and
reporting policies and practices that were based on education research and focussed directly on improving student learning.
Bron: For both of us, being a part of the development of the Australian National Curriculum particularly the Implementation of the National Statements & Profiles and the assessment was touch and challenging but it started the biggest change in the direction and focus in Australian education history.
We worked with staff in schools and Leadership teams on change and change processes & this is tough.
For me visiting most schools in South Australia facilitating seminars , conferences and workshops to share assessment and reporting strategies and processes in line with the requirements of the National curriculum was challenging. It meant changing how teachers and parents worked with assessment and reporting.
Tracy: You were instrumental in writing and leading state-wide assessment and reporting policy and professional learning strategies. You had an outstanding understanding of principles of assessment and the links between assessment, the teaching and learning cycle and curriculum standards. You also had a great skill in identifying and translating cutting edge educational theory into practice.
Bron: Yes it was a ‘radical’ time being a member of a curriculum team travelling school to school to support the National Curriculum implementation meant there were many changes to be faced and unknown territory to be explored both in understanding curriculum construction and in the impact this had on teaching methodology. We both know how tough it was.
I admire how bold this implementation was. It was revolution in education – nothing like this had happened before. It was a courageous move on the part of all Education systems in Australia. But it was a massive change for Australian Education. It happened too quickly and without time to consolidate the learning we were all going through.
Tracy: You were willing to move outside your comfort zone & think outside the box when it came to gathering information/data about student achievement. You always retained a focus on identifying an individuals key behaviours, skills and knowledge that showed their true abilities as an individual. Your strength is your ability to see below the surface and acknowledge and value the plethora of information people use and display(which is sometimes unconventional) about what they really know and can do.
Bron: Thanks Tracy. It was a natural thing for me to try something different; to look at the world from different perspectives. Doing this is challenging – I know this. It’s hard to tell people about ‘taking a leap’ into the unknown unless you have done it yourself. Being a risk taker isn’t always about climbing a mountain. It’s more about the inner person – about trusting yourself to have the resilience or skills to handle whatever comes your way. Life isn’t over if you have a difficulty to face or a problem to solve.
That’s what makes teaching London especially exciting, and challenging for every reason – the curriculum learning; methodology learning; assessment learning …these are all great challenges to face! London is about believing in yourself to ‘have a go’ and then handling the consequences. I loved that!
That’s the impact on me and you of the learning we went through implanting the Australian national curriculum – you change ; you grow; you learn. That’s the best of all!
