Cognitive demands of the reformed Queensland Physics, Chemistry and Biology Syllabus

Full description

The aim of this syllabus analysis is to determine the cognitive demand of learning objectives in the recently reformed Queensland physics, chemistry and biology syllabi and to analyse whether the development of students’ metacognitive and self-system thinking is embedded in the curriculum. Marzano and Kendall’s (2007) New Taxonomy of Educational Objectives was used as a theoretical framework for the analysis.

The dataset consists of:

• the methods and discourse analyses for the old and reformed versions of each syllabus, saved in MS Word (.doc) and PDF formats 

• syllabus analysis spreadsheet including charts, saved in MS Excel and Open Document (.ods) formats.

Each syllabus used in the analyses can be downloaded from the Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority as follows:

Physics Senior Syllabus 2007 (amended 2014)
https://www.qcaa.qld.edu.au/downloads/senior/snr_physics_07_syll.pdf
Please note the author used the 2007 version (pre-amendment issued under the same ISBN) which is no longer available from the website.

Physics General Senior Syllabus 2019 v1.2
https://www.qcaa.qld.edu.au/downloads/senior-qce/syllabuses/snr_physics_19_syll.pdf

Chemistry Senior Syllabus 2007 (amended 2014)
https://www.qcaa.qld.edu.au/downloads/senior/snr_chemistry_07_syll.pdf
Please note the author used the 2007 version (pre-amendment issued under the same ISBN) which is no longer available from the website.

Chemistry General Senior Syllabus 2019 v1.3
https://www.qcaa.qld.edu.au/downloads/senior-qce/syllabuses/snr_chemistry_19_syll.pdf

 Biology Senior Syllabus 2004 (amended 2006 and 2014)
https://www.qcaa.qld.edu.au/downloads/senior/snr_biology_04_syll.pdf

Biology General Senior Syllabus 2019 v1.2
https://www.qcaa.qld.edu.au/downloads/senior-qce/syllabuses/snr_biology_19_syll.pdf

The full methodology is available in the publication shown in the Related Publications link below.