Queensland, Australia organizes their standards into three main objectives:

Forming (improvisation, designing, playwriting)
Presenting (monologues, student written work, collage drama, scenes, plays)
Responding (essays, exams, reflections, evaluations, forums, discussions)

These require that students communicate ideas and information that involve planning and organizing activities, as well as collecting, analyzing, and organizing information.

These three areas are seen as equally important and interrelated. Any of the three areas can be a starting point for an activity.

The state uses two main perspectives to study theater arts. Heritage, which is work created prior to 1980, and contemporary, which is work created after 1980.

The standards are written according to the following categories:

Ways of Working (essential learnings)- These describe the essential processes that students use to engage in learning, and to develop and demonstrate their knowledge and understanding. This section uses verbs such as: students will know and be able to, develop, create and shape, present, modify, identify, respond, reflect.


Knowledge and Understanding (conceptual statements)- These describe the focus and essential concepts, or big ideas, of the key learning area. This section uses words such as: roles, characters, and relationships are interpreted to define motivation and purpose, elements are manipulated to create tension and status, dramatic action and texts are created and interpreted through specific styles.