Developments in Curriculum and Assessment in the Early Years in Australia

Abstract

Recent curriculum and assessment developments in Australia have changed approaches to early childhood education in the before school and early years of school sectors (birth to 8 years). In before-school contexts where early childhood settings cater for children from birth to the age of 5, educators have been required to use a nationally mandated learning framework since January 2012. This includes play-based approaches to enact the learning framework, what is called “intentional teaching,” and five outcome statements for educators to use to make judgments about children’s progress in learning and development. This chapter describes and analyzes aspects of the mandated learning framework in the context of current curriculum and policy debates and in conjunction with prior approaches to curriculum and assessment used in early childhood education in Australia.