On Friday at the Australian Curriculum day in Kadina I attended the General Capabilities session at the end of the day and thought I would share some of the information that was delivered. There is nothing mind blowing in this information but I do think it is important to have a look at the capabilities and understand their connection to the content.

The General Capabilities are (click here to view):

• Literacy
• Numeracy
• Information and Communication Technology (ICT) capability
• Critical and creative thinking
• Personal and social capability
• Ethical behaviour
• Intercultural understanding

Below are some key points that I got from this session:

• The General Capabilities are embedded within the Australian Curriculum and only need to be covered so far as they appear in the curriculum content.
• Even though the capabilities are embedded into the curriculum teachers should be aware of where they are in the content and their importance within the curriculum. This can be done by selecting the appropriate box on the website that shows the General Capability icons within the content.
• Although teachers know that the General Capabilities are embedded within the curriculum there is nothing to stop teachers from taking advantage of opportunities that arise to focus on a capability within a topic.
• There was some discussion around some of the General Capabilities(Personal and Social and Ethical Behaviour) being used in pastoral care.