The Australian Curriculum

Inquiry based learning has existed in classrooms for many years, it develops a wide variety of knowledge and skills in students such as communication, collaboration, and critical thinking. These knowledge and skills are essential for students to participate and succeed in a twenty-first century environment which holds high expectations for both students and adults. Due to the vast amount of content in the Australian curriculum, and the time constraints placed on teachers, integrated programming is a recommended approach to covering all learning areas and allows students to learn in a way that suits their ability. This essay will consider twenty-first century learners and what they need to learn, why integrated programming is beneficial and

Students have great amounts of knowledge available to them at fast speeds, and they consume, produce and communicate that information in ways which require specific skills. The Australian Curriculum seeks to ensure each student develops skills in communication, collaboration, research, critical and creative thinking, metacognition, motivation, self-efficacy, conscientiousness, perseverance and problem-solving (New South Wales Department of Education [NSWDoE], 2017, p. 3). The Australian Curriculum also incorporates the development of general capabilities, linked to learning areas and subjects, to complement student’s acquisition of the above skills. These general capabilities include literacy, numeracy, information and communication technology competence, critical and creative thinking, ethical behaviour, personal and social competence and intercultural understanding (Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA],

These connections should be a natural evolution of a student’s investigation and research, driven by a key question or an area of focus. This leads into inquiry-based learning (IBL), an approach to teaching and learning whereby students seek to make meaning, with the teacher acting as a guide through the process. There are several different IBL models, yet, they all find their roots in constructivist theory, drawing on the theories of Dewey, Bruner and Vygotsky who advocated for students to play an active and immersed role in their own learning by researching and analysing data, making links, and acknowledging patterns in the data, which work together to build the students understanding of the concept (Murdoch, 2015, p.14). The concept of IP and delivering this using a model of IBL allows a teacher to incorporate the vast number of curricular areas to students in a way which fosters deep conceptual learning about connected