Australian Catholic University professor Paul Kidson says kids and teachers let down by monster curriculum

Paul Kidson spent 27 years as a teacher and school principal – one complaint persisted with teachers about the way we educate our children.

Australian Catholic University associate professor Dr Paul Kidson spent 27 years as a schoolteacher and principal before retiring in 2018. Picture: Supplied

Australian Catholic University associate professor Dr Paul Kidson started his career as secondary school teacher in 1991.

He had 11 years as a school principal under his belt before retiring in 2018 to research the science of education.

Understanding what makes good learners tick, he said one of the biggest challenges facing children – and teachers – doesn’t begin in the classroom, but in Canberra.

Ask teachers what their biggest issue is and it’s likely not enough time for teaching.

“I never have enough time to get through all the curriculum” is a constant message I hear from teachers across the nation.

And it’s not a new issue. More than 25 years ago, as a deputy principal responsible for curriculum, I was constantly barraged with complaints from heads of academic departments about how little time they had to get through their curriculum.

At the end of each term, one dedicated chap would produce a spreadsheet of lessons where students were out of class for excursions or other school activities, followed by his persistent complaint that he “cannot get the academic improvement expected by the principal” with such disruption.

Australian Catholic University associate professor Dr Paul Kidson in 2010, as principal of St Paul's Grammar School Penrith. Picture: Supplied

We had numerous disagreements as I tried to explain the benefit to geography students of doing fieldwork, or of music students attending concerts, or of English students seeing a live production of a Higher School Certificate play.

But I also realised he was right. There was too little time. Then it dawned on me: another way of looking at it is that there is enough time, but there’s too much material.

Here’s one example, from the Australian Curriculum’s Year 7 English syllabus: “(Students) listen to, read, view, interpret, evaluate and perform a range of spoken, written and multimodal texts in which the primary purpose is aesthetic, as well as texts designed to inform and persuade”.

Quite a list! More than enough for the 100 hours typically provided to a Year 7 English class each academic year.

Dr Kidson said educators teachers are too time-starved to teach everything in the curriculum with enough detail. Picture: Supplied

Or, how about only one of the 33 Content Descriptions: “Understand and explain how the text structures and language features of texts become more complex in informative and persuasive texts and identify underlying structures such as taxonomies, cause and effect, and extended metaphors”.

Nine separate ideas in the one sentence … and there’s 32 others to get through too. A pretty tall order for your typical 12 or 13-year-old.

It’s little wonder teachers express frustration. Comments like “I’m just ticking boxes” or “good learning gets cut short when you have to move on to the next topic” are important evidence that teachers feel constrained by the size and scope of their task.

Good gardeners start by weeding before they plant. And because weeds also choke opportunity for desired plants to thrive, gardeners regularly pull them out.

Thousands of teachers are crying out for some weeding to be done to the Australian Curriculum, not continued excessive bureaucratic self-justification.

Originally published as Australian Catholic University professor Paul Kidson says kids and teachers let down by monster curriculum