Unit Synopsis
Curriculum Foundations and Decision-making builds students’ knowledge and understanding of the key learning theories of behaviourism, humanism, constructivism, social-constructivism and connectivism as a basis for exploring pedagogical approaches to curriculum construction and decision-making. Analysis and critique of the view of learners and approaches to teaching and learning articulated in the Early Years Learning Framework and Australian Curriculum documents are an important focus of this unit. Students reflect on how learners are positioned to make transitions to new learning contexts and evaluate strategies for designing authentic relevant curriculum and environments for diverse learner groups with a focus on inquiry, active investigation and problem-solving. Students collaborate in groups to apply these strategies across selected learning contexts including early years settings to either: (a) the design and presentation of child-centred open-ended learning experiences; or (b) the creation of a learning environment with possibilities for developing literate, numerate, scientific, technological or environmental understandings
Details
| Level | Undergraduate |
|---|---|
| Unit Level | 1 |
| Credit Points | 6 |
| Student Contribution Band | SCA Band 1 |
| Fraction of Full-Time Student Load | 0.125 |
| Pre-requisites or Co-requisites |
There are no pre-requisites for the unit.
Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework). |
| Class Timetable | View Unit Timetable |
| Residential School | No Residential School |
Unit Availabilities from Term 1 - 2026
Term 2 - 2026 Profile
Attendance Requirements
All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes - in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).
Recommended Student Time Commitment
Each 6-credit Undergraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.
Assessment Tasks
| Assessment Task | Weighting |
|---|---|
| 1. Written Assessment | 50% |
| 2. Practical and Written Assessment | 50% |
This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of ‘pass’ in order to pass the unit. If any ‘pass/fail’ tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully (‘pass’ grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the ‘assessment task’ section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%).
Past Exams
All University policies are available on the Policy web site, however you may wish to directly view the following policies below.
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of policies are available on the Policy web site .
Term 2 - 2025 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 77.27% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 7.51% response rate.
Feedback, Recommendations and Responses
Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.
Source: Student Evaluation feedback
Potential use of quizzes
Include a quiz to assess students’ ability to recognise teaching strategies
No action taken
Source: Student Evaluation feedback
Assessment 2
Reword assessment task 2
Significant work on design, presentation, scaffolding and communication of requirements was completed in 2025
Source: Student Evaluation feedback
Use of examples used in tutorials
Include more examples that are inclusive of primary and early childhood
Additional examples added
Source: UC 2025
Assessment
Review assessment tasks.
In Progress
Source: UC 2025
Course materials
Course materials to be updated.
In Progress
Source: UC 2025 and student feedback
Activities for student engagement
Development of relevant activities in tutorials and Moodle weekly materials.
In Progress
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- Identify key ideas, contemporary influences and conflicting perspectives on curriculum development and planning
- Evaluate the application of key learning theories to the goals and priorities of 21st century learning
- Summarise the view of learners, teaching and learning articulated in current national curriculum documents and policies specific to educational and/or early childhood settings
- Analyse examples of teaching practice to evaluate the selection of teaching strategies for child-centred learning for students with a diverse range of interests, backgrounds and needs
- Design learning opportunities that incorporate a range of resources and strategies to promote language development, curiosity, inquiry, imagination, self-expression, higher-order thinking and problem-solving in a range of settings and learning areas.
Successful completion of this unit provides opportunities for students to engage with the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (Graduate Career Stage) focus areas of:
1.1 Physical, social and intellectual development and characteristics of students
1.2 Understand how students learn
1.3 Students with diverse linguistic, cultural, religious and socioeconomic backgrounds
2.5 Literacy and numeracy strategies
2.6 Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
3.1 Establish challenging learning goals
3.3 Use teaching strategies
3.4 Select and use resources
6.4 Apply professional learning and improve student learning
In addition, competency elements from the Diploma of Children’s Services (Early Childhood Education and Care) are taught and assessed in this unit.
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| 1 - Written Assessment | • | • | • | ||
| 2 - Practical and Written Assessment | • | • | |||
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| 1 - Communication | • | • | • | • | • |
| 2 - Problem Solving | • | ||||
| 3 - Critical Thinking | • | • | • | • | • |
| 4 - Information Literacy | • | • | • | ||
| 5 - Team Work | • | ||||
| 6 - Information Technology Competence | • | • | |||
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 10 | |
| 1 - Written Assessment | • | • | • | • | |||||||
| 2 - Practical and Written Assessment | • | • | • | • | • | • | |||||