New HSC syllabuses released for consultation, less ‘ambiguity’ in maths courses

New draft syllabuses for Year 11 and 12 maths, English and history have been revealed. The aim is for the new courses to be clearer for students and teachers – have your say on the plan.

High school students and their parents will have an easier time keeping track of their coursework and teachers will gain time back in the classroom if new syllabuses for HSC maths, English and history are given the green light.

In draft documents to be released on Monday, NSW’s curriculum regulator has taken on criticism of overlapping outcomes and topic sequences that didn’t make sense in their Year 11 and 12 maths courses, tweaking the syllabuses to make them less ambiguous.

While the content itself isn’t changing much, new learning outcomes include explicit references to techniques, skills and knowledge that is currently being inferred by teachers, meaning how maths is taught – and how much maths is taught – can vary school to school, and class to class.

The NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) intends for the new course to save teachers time by avoiding them going into unnecessary levels of detail on certain topics, and make study more equitable for students.

“It’s part of our remit to be easing the burden on teachers and to give them extra time in the classroom to actually teach,” said NESA Executive Director of Curriculum Reform Dr Paul Cahill.

NESA CEO Paul Martin with Premier Chris Minns and Deputy Premier Prue Car at the beginning of the 2023 HSC exam period. NCA Newswire / Gaye Gerard

“We want the syllabus to be the source of all truth … it levels the playing field for students right across the state because teachers are clear on what they need to deliver,” said Year 11 and 12 Projects and Research head Adrian Kruse.

Students who take the Advanced and Extension mathematics courses currently have to endure duplication of topics from one course to the other.

Cherrybrook Tech maths teacher Eddie Woo solves a question on stationary points from this year’s HSC advanced maths paper.

In one such case, students currently taking Extension I and II are asked to learn how to “prove results for sums” and “divisibility results” using mathematical induction in both courses.

Under the new syllabus students would only be asked to use induction for other “results” in the highest-level course.

Normanhurst Boys head teacher of maths and NESA adviser Hubert Lam said even though “only about 10 per cent” of the syllabuses are actually changing, those changes will have a big impact, especially amid a statewide shortage of specialist maths teachers.

“There are parts of the current courses (for) which a lot of teachers who are teaching it for the first time just don’t know where to draw the line, because there’s not … certainty as to how deep or how far (content must be taught),” Mr Lam said.

Normanhurst Boys High School maths head teacher Hubert Lam. Picture: Supplied

“I’m at a school which has never run out of maths teachers, I’m very fortunate … but that’s not the case in some out-of-metro … (and) rural areas.

“Having that extra level of clarification … will actually help the students down further downstream.”

Over the next eight weeks, NESA is encouraging teachers, students and parents alike to review the draft syllabuses and have their say before the final versions are published.