General capabilities

The 7 general capabilities in the Australian Curriculum are: 

• Critical and creative thinking 
• Digital literacy 
• Ethical understanding 
• Intercultural understanding 
• Literacy 
• Numeracy 
• Personal and social capability. 

In the Australian Curriculum, general capabilities are addressed through the content of the learning areas; they are not separate learning areas, subjects or isolated skills The teaching of learning area content will be strengthened by the application of relevant general capabilities, as will the development of the general capabilities through appropriate learning area contexts.  

Opportunities to develop general capabilities in learning area content vary. Some general capabilities are essential to, and best developed within specific learning areas; others support learning in any learning area. General capabilities are identified in content descriptions where they are developed or applied through learning area content. They are also identified in content elaborations where they offer opportunities to add depth and richness to student learning.  

In the learning areas of the Australian Curriculum, general capabilities are identified, using icons, where they are developed or applied in the content descriptions and elaborations.  

Read more for information on how each learning area addresses the general capabilities 

Learning area key connections (key connections web page links or PDF docs?) 

Each general capability has an introduction that provides a description of the capability and a rationale for its inclusion in the Australian Curriculum.  

Each general capability is presented as either a learning continuum or a learning progression and is structured around elements and sub-elements.  

A learning continuum has been developed for 5 of the 7 general capabilities, and describes the knowledge, skills and behaviours that students can reasonably be expected to develop from Foundation to Year 10. The continua map common paths for the development of knowledge, skills and behaviours in each of the elements and sub-elements across 6 levels for Critical and Creative Thinking, Digital Literacy, Personal and Social capability, Ethical Understanding and Intercultural Understanding.    

For Literacy and Numeracy, more detailed learning progressions have been developed to describe the learning pathway(s) along which students typically progress regardless of age or year level. The National Literacy and Numeracy Learning Progressions describe the skills, understandings and capabilities students typically acquire as their proficiency increases in a particular aspect of the curriculum over time, and help teachers ascertain the stage of learning reached, identify any gaps in skills and knowledge, and plan for the next step to progress learning.