Science - Student Diversity

The Western Australian Curriculum values diversity by providing for multiple means of representation, action, expression and engagement, and allows schools the flexibility to respond to the diversity of learners within their community.

All schools have a responsibility when implementing the Western Australian Curriculum to ensure that students’ learning is inclusive, and relevant to their experiences, abilities and talents.

For some students with diverse languages, cultures, abilities and talents, it may be necessary to provide a variety of curriculum adjustments so they can access age-equivalent content in the Western Australian Curriculum and participate in learning on the same basis as their peers.

The Science curriculum is for all students. It is recognised that some students may require adjustments to support how they see, hear and/or process language. Students may require access to a wide variety of approaches, including but not limited to:

• providing multisensory visual, auditory, tactile, kinaesthetic and/or multimodal learning experiences and resources
• offering alternatives to making observations and representing understanding including through diagrams, physical models, role-play and digital tools
• demonstrating safe use of equipment and providing safety instructions in written verbal or pictorial forms
• demonstrating steps in an investigation before the activity and supplying a variety of labelled equipment for use during investigations
• creating a personal science dictionary that includes the scientific term, the pronunciation, a picture and the term in the student’s first language
• making thinking explicit, encouraging students to cite evidence or explain the logic they used in drawing conclusions.