Curriculum explorations
On this page: Curriculum areas | Key competencies
The screening of Frontier of Dreams offers a springboard for a range of learning discussions. Each episode explores a number of themes as the series tells the stories of a young nation maturing to take its place on the world stage.
The nature of the series provides a rich vein of content to explore within the context of Social Studies in the New Zealand Curriculum. NCEA studies in areas such as history, geography, economics, and social studies might also be enriched by programme content.
Curriculum areas
Other Essential Learning Areas are also likely to find an opportunity to leverage the content. For example:
| Curriculum area | Explorations |
|---|---|
| Technology | Exploring New Zealand's know-how and inventive development from our "can do/number 8 wire" attitudes to the sophisticated and professional capabilities we offer today. |
| English | Considering how English was used in a range of contexts - then and now - including the visual and oral language of media, past and present. |
| Science | Reflecting on our early beliefs and processes, and our constantly changing knowledge today in areas such as astronomy, geology and physics, and the emergence of our environmental awareness. |
| Mathematics | Incorporating explorations of diverse information and data, from population statistics, to the precision of engineering feats and the taming of distance. |
| The arts | Exploring the events, people and history that have shaped our music, visual arts, dance and drama. |
| Learning languages | Considering the influence of a multi-cultural heritage, that has impacted on the formation of our language, idiom and expressions. |
| Māori education | Exploring the themes within Māori medium and Māori world view contexts. |
| Pasifika education | Unpacking the nature of our Pacific influences with regional and national perspectives. |
back to topKey competencies
The New Zealand Curriculum Marautanga Project aims to redevelop the New Zealand curriculum and marautanga and has as its goals, to:
- clarify and refine outcomes
- focus on quality teaching
- strengthen school ownership of curriculum
- support communication and strengthen partnerships with parents and whanau, and communities.
Sector consultation has been ongoing and one area of focus is that of key competencies. The proposed framework has five overarching (and interconnected) groups of key competencies:
- Thinking (critically, creatively, logically)
- Relating to others
- Managing self
- Making meaning (multi-literacies and making meaning using movement, symbols and technologies)
- Participating and Contributing
The Frontier of Dreams series provides an opportunity to consider these and anticipate how a key competencies focus might be enable different teaching and learning strategies.
The per episode Teacher's Notes provided in this learning environment will include rich questions which have a key competencies focus.
Videoconference with the creators of Frontier of Dreams
Join Vincent Burke, co-producer and David Filer, director of research for the television series Frontier of Dreams, to learn about how the series was researched and produced. This is a great opportunity to find out about the people behind the scenes and the challenges they faced in creating the series.
http://www.digitalconversations.org.nz/frontier/index_e.php
More information
Visit the Ministry of Education's New Zealand Curriculum Marautanga Project community on TKI for more information about this initiative.
The site also provides latest version of the working document Key Competencies in the New Zealand Curriculum.