Teacher Awards 2024: Curriculum Design and Implementation

The winners of the Teacher Awards 2024 have been announced and over the last few weeks we’ve been sharing more details of the outstanding practice that’s been recognised through a series of profile articles.

Today, we’re catching up with Kristie Shulz, Head of Curriculum (Secondary) and Elizabeth Willman, Head of Curriculum (Secondary), from Parklands Christian College in Queensland – winners of the 2024 award for Excellence in Curriculum Design and Implementation.

The Excellence in Curriculum Design and Implementation award is open to an individual or team of educators involved in the design and implementation of either a whole-school, subject or topic-specific curriculum. The Teacher Awards 2024 Judging Panel recognised Kristie Schulz and Elizabeth Willman for their work using evidence-based practices to build, test, and evaluate the STEM curriculum, which also draws on students’ interests and local issues.

Willman says making the initial Teacher Awards shortlist was a ‘phenomenal feeling’, and then going on to win it was a fantastic surprise. ‘It was incredible to be recognised in that way,’ Schulz adds. ‘I think you sort of do these things behind closed doors a little bit … so it's been a cool way to get the word out there about what we've been doing.’

Parklands Christian College (PCC) is an independent Christian school in Park Ridge, Logan. Home to 900 students and 130 staff, it’s going through an exciting period of growth, with enrolment expected to reach 1,200 by 2027.

PCC first designed and enacted the transdisciplinary and student-centred STEM program in 2017, and it has continually evolved since then. It began as an elective subject in year 9 and 10, before being expanded to year 8. The Teacher Award recognises the work of Schulz and Willman since 2023 to successfully translate the STEM program for prep and year 1 classes.

Adapting the approach for younger students

Schulz says one of the motivations for expanding the program to the younger cohort was to help students develop creative and critical thinking skills from an early age, which they can then take through into their secondary years of schooling. That meant a big shift in curriculum planning.

‘I think for us, it was so important to have this mutual planning relationship,’ she reflects. ‘Each of us brings really incredible expertise to this area – me having worked in the space for quite a while, bringing the pedagogical framework understanding of it, but Liz being an absolute master of little children … the collaborative relationship is actually the key to the success of all the work that we've done in prep.’

Willman says the fact the program was already running in secondary offered a perfect learning opportunity. ‘Kristie was doing all of this amazing stuff in STEM … and the beauty of being a P-12 school meant I was able to pick up some secondary classes and teach them and be a part of STEM in that space; and that’s where Kristie’s expertise came in [for me].’

One aspect Teacher Awards judges look for in this awards category is an explicit and sequenced curriculum with clear expectations for teaching and learning. In their submission, Schulz and Willman explain the structure of the course at PCC is drawn from the Australian Curriculum General Capabilities, and Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority’s 21st Century Skills, and follows iterative cycles of investigation, modelling, problem-framing, solution design and implementation.

[The transdisciplinary pedagogical framework for STEM education at PCC.]

‘We have like a “pseudo syllabus”, I guess, in those curriculum statements in the General Capabilities, so we had something to base it on,’ Schulz says. ‘But all of the STEM projects are bespoke. We come up with ideas and concepts based on those General Capabilities and then they're scaled to the age group that we're pitching to. [That’s] where that interplay of our expertise is really helpful.’

They’re both also keen to highlight the ‘professionalism and courage’ of all the teachers involved in STEM at PCC. ‘Each and every one have given generously of themselves, been open and flexible to new and challenging ways of working, been committed to professional growth, and have had incredible hearts for student learning that extends well beyond the traditional bounds of classrooms.’

Collaboration across year groups

One of those projects has turned out to be a surprise collaboration across year groups – driven by the students themselves. And it was singled out for special praise by one member of the Judging Panel, who commented: ‘I particularly appreciate the projects that were based on concepts from the year 1 cohort and supported by the year 8 and year 9 cohorts, this shows the students are clearly engaged and involved in this program while fostering collaboration between the year groups and building the community; showing the younger students the stepping stones to higher study and building the confidence of older years in teaching and engaging with STEM topics.’

STEM X PCC Bees is a project focused on environmental sustainability that originated in year 1, but was expanded to year 8 and 9 after the older students heard about it through sibling conversations and teacher pitches.

‘The friendly bee garden project has been just the most incredible thing that I've ever been involved in,’ Shulz says. ‘We had other projects ready to go for the [year 8 and 9s] for this term anyway, but they decided that they wanted to get on board with it. So, I think that student choice is really key in this kind of collaborative effort. They've come up with such good ideas, it’s just been lovely.’

Monitoring, evaluation and improvement

The educators say monitoring and evaluation (and tweaking) is a permanent fixture of the STEM program. ‘Whether it's a lesson by lesson debrief as we're finishing up and we're making plans for the next lesson, or we do wider, project-level implementation evaluations, making sure that it did its job…’ Schulz explains. ‘But I think the key one that we're working on at the moment is actually going to be a pretty wide stakeholder evaluation; we want to involve the students as well as the staff and our wider community.’

Willman adds the focus for next year is on bringing the initial younger cohort through, expanding as those students go into year 2. ‘So, that's the full early years phase. And, as Kristie said, it's just constant refinement – we have our unit plan and topic and idea, but it's never a ‘set and forget’, it’s a different cohort, different kids, different project to focus on.’

In what ways is your school engaging students in STEM subjects? How are you helping students to develop their creative and critical thinking skills?

One aspect of the STEM program at PCC that impressed the Teacher Awards 2024 Judging Panel was the collaboration across year groups. Think about your own context and curriculum area. Are there opportunities to bring together different year groups on collaborative learning projects?