The relationship between assessment and curriculum in improving teaching and learning

The New Basics currently being trialed in Queensland schools is an integrated framework for curriculum, pedagogy and assessment. It defines essential areas of learning, appropriate and effective approaches to teaching, affiliated modes of assessment and standards and assurances about student development at key points of schooling. The New Basics curriculum organisers are clusters of practices that are essential for survival in the worlds that students have to deal with. The framework incorporates Productive Pedagogies, which draw on the results of a recent longitudinal study conducted in Queensland state schools. The framework also includes Rich Tasks, which allow students to display their understandings, knowledges and skills through performance on transdisciplinary activities that have an obvious connection to the wide world. This paper elaborates these three elements, explores their interaction, and describes progress in trial schools towards the goal of improving teaching and learning.