ARTICLES
Watching the pendulum swing (continued)
DIMENSION 2001 (CURRENT) SYLLABUS 2018 (NEW) SYLLABUS
Rationale Reduced content, embedded ‘nature and history
of Science’ and contexts, intended to increase
accessibility to wider group of students Increased mathematical content, reduced ‘social’
dimension, removal of contexts, opportunities
for authentic practice of science (depth study),
reduced opportunities for ‘rote learning’
Organisation Content organised under ‘Prescribed Focus Areas’
(e.g., Moving About, From Ideas to Implementation),
separate ‘option’ topics (e.g., medical physics,
geophysics and electronics). Organised under topics (e.g., Thermodynamics,
Advanced Mechanics etc.). New type of content,
known as ‘depth studies’, intended to allow
autonomous ‘deep learning’ of a particular content
or skill area. No options
Mathematical Content Decreased but still prominent (Newton’s Laws, Motor
Effect, Photoelectric effect etc.) Increased. Vector algebra in Year 11, derivations
across the board, twice as many equations as the
current syllabus.
Topics Cover a broad range of content: e.g., equations of
motion, specific scientific breakthroughs and scientists
(e.g., J.J Thomson’s cathode ray tube experiment
and Planck and Einstein’s view of science), and social
issues (e.g., impact of transistors) Mostly ‘classical’ physics topics (waves,
mechanics, electricity, thermodynamics) with
astrophysics and particle physics becoming part
of the core, rather than options.
Assessment Mixture of school-based assessment and state-wide
Though assessment has not been finalised at the
HSC examination, which contains a mixture of multiple time of writing, it has been conjectured that the
choice, short answer and longer response questions. essay-type (longer response) questions will
be greatly reduced, less opportunities for rote
learning are a feature (as an overall philosophy
among all new syllabuses in NSW).
Table 1: Comparison of the‘current’(2001) and‘new’(2018) NSW HSC syllabus
Syllabus changes and consequences
fundamentally identical, except in name. What we see now in
science education reform in Australia, NSW specifically, is an
example of such a contestation: a syllabus that is broad in scope,
contextualised and focused on the nature and history of science
will give way to a modular and mathematical syllabus, focused
on ‘classical’ physics (See Table 1). But it’s more complicated
than that. Though aspects of the syllabus have become more
‘traditional’, there has been a stronger emphasis on the scientific
practice within the subject (e.g., Depth Studies) and in general
across the whole reform (e.g., Extension Stage 6 and the new
subject, Investigating Science). The question then arises; what
does this change mean and how should we respond to it?
Though there are some who debate the significance or magnitude
of the ‘STEM crisis’, the value of having strong scientific literacy is
clear and the impetus for change is profound [8]. The mechanism
most available and possibly influential in affecting students’
scientific literacy is the school curriculum and thus, contestations
around it have always existed. In an article outlining the history of
physics education reform in the United States, for example, Otero
and Meltzer [9] demonstrate that from as early as 1880, calls
for more ‘authentic’ studies of science (rather than ‘lectures’ of
‘facts’) have featured every few decades in successive curricula
reform; at first it was laboratory work, then inquiry, scientific
practice, the nature of science, the scientific method, and so
on. They also interestingly suggest that “current reformers have
failed to acknowledge similar efforts and issues from previous
times.” (p. 54), implying many of these suggested reforms are
The likely consequences of the new NSW
physics syllabus
Contestations around the syllabus are frequent and often quite
vociferous, and with good reason; changes in policy do make a
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SCIENCE EDUCATIONAL NEWS VOL 67 NO 1