As requested, please see below for the original post in English
In a previous post, I described the various changes to the new HSC syllabus in NSW for sciences and noticed that not many are aware of the consequences of these changes.
Most university students struggle in the first 6-12 months because of the large gap between what is taught in sciences within the HSC compared to University entry expectations. This new science syllabus is a major overhaul. It aligns extremely well with University courses in medical, science, and engineering programmes.
However, students face significant challenges with this new syllabus.
1. Syllabus Misinterpretation
Despite the best efforts by most teachers to adapt to the new syllabus, I have already seen significant issues from several well-known selective and private schools across NSW.
a. Teachers are not following the main focus of the new syllabus. This is likely because the syllabus content has largely remained consistent with previous years, but the focus of the content has significantly changed. This is made worse by the fact that the previous science syllabus remained relatively unchanged for 17 years, and old teaching habits are difficult to overcome. So what impacts does a shift in focus have? For example:
In the old chemistry syllabus, 80% of it was devoted on the inventor, how they developed the ideas, and how it impacted modern society. The new syllabus, however, is now focussed on how the invention or concept works at a scientifically fundamental level, how it evolved over time, and what impact it had on other areas of chemistry.
The old syllabus was focussed on memorizing.
The new syllabus is focussed on logic.
b. Exam misalignment. In year 12, the ATAR is calculated based on 50% from school assessments, and 50% from the actual HSC exam. If the focus misalignment continues, then students will be preparing for the HSC exam based on misinterpretations. The worst case scenario is that students will not find out until they have sat the HSC exam. For example:
A student scores 90% in their collective school assessment because his teacher is the examiner, and creates school assessments based on their interpretations. However, the student will struggle in the actual HSC exam because their teacher has prepared them for the wrong focus. This has already occurred once back in 2001 in the last syllabus overhaul, where the average school assessment grade was significantly higher than the HSC exam grade across NSW.
2. Content Cramming
Out of all the students I look after, all of them are significantly behind in the syllabus. All their teachers have spent 2/3 of the year to teach only half the course. This means that it is extremely likely that teachers will have to rush through the rest of the course before year 12 starts. That equates to teaching the second half of the year 11 course within 8 weeks. Even more concerning is that the later half of the course is significantly more complicated that the first half, and much of the year 12 course depends heavily on those topics.
Some teachers have even deployed desperate tactics in order to catch up. Rather than teaching the content, two teachers from two different schools have given my students a 30-page booklet for ‘self-study’ over the term holidays, and were given topic tests in the first week back just to ensure students have ‘self-taught’.
3. Skills Development
The new syllabus has placed a significant degree of emphasis on skills development. What are skills and why is it important? Skills are what we need to solve realistic problems, and this has been a long-standing issue for students entering universities, as they struggle to solve problems without being given precise instructions.
For example: Out of 800 students I lectured every year in University, only 20-30 of them are capable of solving problems without any instructions. These students have developed scientific and critical thinking skills at an early stage, which are highly regarded in industry and academia.
=================== Chinese Translation Below ===================
在有一篇关于选课的帖子中我回答了关于the new HSC syllabus in NSW for sciences的问题，贴子名为“纠结中，究竟是physics & biology还是chemistry & biology.“ 大家有兴趣的话可以搜来看。看起来大家对此话题比较感兴趣，所以专门开帖浅议一下新的教学大纲以及学生们面临的挑战。
大部分的大学生在初入学的6-12个月感觉有些难以适应，因为HSC范围内所学的sciences跟大学开始后的sciences之间有较大的鸿沟。新的sciences 教学大纲是个彻底的改革，它与大学课程如medical，science，以及engineering等课程完成了非常好的对接。但是，学生们面临很大的挑战。
1. 教学大纲的误读
尽管大部分的教师尽全力适应新的教学大纲，但是我从一些就读悉尼精英以及私立中学的学生们那里看到了很多问题。比如，
（a）老师们并没有依照新教学大纲所提出的重点来教，这可能是因为多年来按以前的教学大纲形成的教学习惯。而新大纲的内容重点已经完全改变，可是17年来形成的旧的教学习惯却一时难以改变，冲突就产生了。
教学重点的转变在哪里呢？例如，在旧的化学教学大纲里，80%的内容都放在发明者和他们的发明，以及这些发明对社会的贡献等。而新的大纲则将重点转移至此发明或概念在科学的基础层面如何应用，随着时间推移它的进化，以及它对化学其他领域的影响等。
旧的教学大纲重点在memorizing.
新的教学大纲重点在logic.
（b）考试内容定位的偏离。在12年级ATAR分数的50%来自学校的测试成绩，另50%来自HSC 考试成绩。如果学校考试内容重点偏离持续下去的话，那么就会导致学生在误读中准备HSC 的考试。最坏的是学生直到考完HSC 才发现这个问题。
例如，一个学生在学校的考试中拿90%的成绩，当然以他老师自己的定位来评分。但是，这个学生却在HSC 的考试中考砸了，因为老师考他的内容重点与新大纲的重点是偏离的。这个在2001年教学大纲的大改革中已经发生过了，学校考试的评分远远高于整个NSW HSC的考试分数。
2. 填鸭式的教学
我所接触的学生中几乎所有人的学习进程都远远落后于教学大纲的内容。他们的老师花了2/3的时间来教前半部分的课程，那么他们就要在12年级开始之前匆匆赶完剩下的内容，这就意味着要在11年级的最后八周时间学完另一半的课程。而更令人担忧的是，后一半的课程比前一半更复杂，且12年级大部分的课程大都依赖于后半部分。
有些老师为了能赶上想出了一些desperate的策略。有两个来自不同学校的学生从他们各自的老师那里拿了30多页的笔记，老师让他们在假期期间完成自学，而且开学之后的第一周就会针对这些自学内容进行考试。
3. Skills的培养
新的教学大纲十分强调skills的培养。什么是skills ？为什么skills很重要？Skills是我们解决实际问题的必须，而这却是初入大学的大学生们一个长期欠缺的能力-----如果不给他们详尽的指导，就完全不懂如何独立去解决问题。例如在大学里每年我讲过课的800个新生中，仅有20-30个人不需要指导去独立解决问题。这些学生在每一个阶段都养成了科学的和评判性的思维能力，而这些才是各行各业最看重的能力。
新的教学大纲改革的方向和重点是非常具积极意义的，目的是使学生们与大学学习甚至进入社会接轨，而老师和学生们能不能尽快适应改革的内容，这是老师，学生和家长们不可忽略的挑战。
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新州以前的Science教学大纲真好笑，以至于考学生时的考题尽是 “哪谁啥时发明（发现）了哪啥玩意儿？有啥用？”
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这么看：光知道何时何地何人发明/发现何事，是完全没有意义的。
但如果连这个都不知道还学什么科学？！
何时可以体现时代背景
何人可以追述成功经历
何地可以感受历史变迁
何事可以观察文明发展
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估计好多老师把科学当科学史来教了。
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恩，我给孩子先说大爆炸，人类史，科学史，看纪录片，看百科全书。
然后有了扎实的数学基础后才渐渐给他介绍正式科学学科的理论（我们刚刚开始home schooling物理、计算机和化学）。
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知识太丰富成绩太好会削弱领导力和气质吧！
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孩纸要追求宇宙真理，我们也挡不住
只能用各种世俗补习、艺术和运动占据他的时间，让他不能太专心太醉心于科学
孩子还小，我不想让他太偏科。等他大点了要自主了就随他去吧！
他注定要成为理工男了，领导力和气质神马的...难
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感谢分享！ 现在中学里合格的science 老师不多。
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那楼主你有啥建议吗？
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Apologies I must respond in English. I can read Chinese but I can't type it (My wife translated my original post )
To be brutally honest, there is not much we can do to change how teachers are teaching right now. Not that they are stubborn or irresponsible, but they are also under a lot of pressure and stress because of this change. So I would recommend a more proactive approach. Below is what I usually advise my students and their parents when faced with these challenges:
Follow the syllabus closely
With any new change in the syllabus, both teachers and HSC examiners are very reluctant to deviate from the syllabus learning outcomes that is published by NESA (National Education Standards Authority NSW). Therefore I strongly encourage my students to follow the syllabus closely as a starting point. You should be able to find the syllabus by searching for "NESA Stage 6 Syllabus". The learning outcomes are under the subheading "Year 11 Course Content". Please see my attached images for a guide to access and find the syllabus.
What my students now do is to track the progress of their teacher's lessons by ticking off what was covered and what wasn't. This has two benefits:
1) The student becomes responsible for their own learning and they will develop a sense of self-evaluation and critical analysis.
2) The student is also able to prepare early for knowledge gaps rather than finding out about it in exams and tests, which is then too late.
Stay Ahead
If you find that the teacher has indeed been teaching too slowly, the only way to resolve this would be to stay ahead of the pack. You can do this by either looking for additional textbooks (Pearson, Surfing, Dot Points) that complements the one your school is using (Most likely the In Focus Series), or look for tutoring help (Please be cautious with choosing the correct tutoring method). Most importantly, get into the habit of making notes for yourself regularly. Manage your time and limit yourself to 2-3 hours a week in notes refinement. It forces your brain to work more effectively rather than mindlessly copying down notes. You will be surprised how much this benefits you in the long-term, for the HSC and beyond.
Apply your knowledge
This may sound strange, but it works well, especially if you start early. Start developing the habit of trying to explain things you see using the science concepts you've just learnt. The reason is that this new syllabus is focused on both depth and logic. This means that a core skill requirement of this syllabus is the ability for students to apply their knowledge in any setting. This is not something that can be memorized, but it needs time to be developed.
For example, if you have just learnt about how a hot object transfer heat to a cold object in Chemistry (thermodynamics), see if you can explain why condensation sometimes form inside a car, and sometimes it forms outside a car. The act of trying to logically deduce this using real life examples is the core skill that this new syllabus is trying to develop.
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金句啊
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我女儿转了一个学校后，说之前学校感觉SCIENCE是文科，到新学校才觉得SCIENCE是理科。
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I think this is a classic case of different teachers using different teaching methodologies and focus. If it feels like it's a social science subject, then that's the way of the old syllabus. Your daughter should be in a better position now in the new school. Best of luck!
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我儿子就是受了这个影响，整天看天文地理的书
结果这次考精英，作文是团队合作，给我写了一个GLOBAL WARMING,每人都努力点，就不会热了
我说你低调点写个蚂蚁拉饼干不就结了，全球变暖这种题材，现在科学家都无解，人多是根源，你还来团结就是力量
最后11分。。。。。
好在第二志愿也进了，真是气死人
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非常感谢楼主分享，尤其是应对措施和建议。
楼主可以直接英文分享，这样大家可以直接分享给小孩子们看看了解这些变化和应对措施。
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感谢分享！
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非常专业，非常有用！
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大侠，昆州的有变化吗？昆州和新州的不一样吧？
一头雾水
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You are correct that the NSW and QLD curriculum are completely different. In fact the QLD University entrance exams are much more complicated than NSW (Perhaps I will post something in the future about this).
However, the QLD government has introduced a new curriculum that was designed by an independent body (The Australian Curriculum, Assessment, and Reporting Authority, ACARA) back in 2015 for Prep - Year 10, in the subjects English, Mathematics, Science, and History and this is currently implemented in the QLD curriculum for all schools.
The rest of the subjects from Prep to Year 10, including the senior curriculum for years 11 and 12 still follow the Queensland curriculum governed by the Queensland Assessment and Curriculum Authority.
What this means is that within the next two years, it is unlikely that we will see major changes to the senior curriculum, but considering that there has already been major changes up to year 10, they are in the process of designing and deploying a new senior schools curriculum, similar to that of NSW.
The key point here is not only to update the curriculum (which is quite old if you look at specific subjects), but also there is a strong drive from the Federal Department of Education and Training to create better alignment between the subjects taught in schools across Australia with both Tertiary educational programmes and industrial internships.
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Thank you for your suggestion :) Perhaps next time I can start with English, and provide a chinese translation if requested :)
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希望楼主将来有时间再多讲讲昆州的，愿闻其详。
多谢
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请问从什么地方能了解到小学，或者中学的教学大纲？ 家里的小孩子现在上小学，一个四年级，一个一年级，但是从来没见过什么教学大纲，也不知道这个学期学生应该学会什么东西，想多了解一些。谢谢。
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If you would like to find out about curriculum and the learning outcomes for children between K-6, you can visit NESA's website:
https://syllabus.nesa.nsw.edu.au/
In this site, you can see various 'Stages', where each stage represents two years of schooling. You should be able to navigate into each of these stages to see a clearer breakdown of each subject.
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Yes.
Compared to Chinese, personally I think English would be better since all students understand English while only some talented one could read Chinese.
Thanks again for sharing all these which is very helpful for both of the students and parents.
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I have now included the original English version of my post. Hopefully this will be helpful to your children
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You are so nice:) thanks heaps and have a nice weekend:)
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多谢LZ啦
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谢谢
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