Primary Humanities Education

This subject has the following teaching availabilities in 2009:

For the purposes of considering request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Cwth 2005), and Student Support and Engagement Policy, academic requirements for this subject are articulated in the Subject Overview, Learning Outcomes, Assessment and Generic Skills sections of this entry.

It is University policy to take all reasonable steps to minimise the impact of disability upon academic study, and reasonable adjustments will be made to enhance a student's participation in the University's programs. Students who feel their disability may impact on meeting the requirements of this subject are encouraged to discuss this matter with a Faculty Student Adviser and Student Equity and Disability Support: http://services.unimelb.edu.au/disability

This subject aims to build teacher candidates’ capacities for teaching in Primary Humanities. Teacher candidates will be introduced to the Humanities as a broad, complex and dynamic field concerned with people as social beings who interact with one another and with natural and social environments through time. They will explore social and environmental issues that school students need to understand to participate in the world as informed citizens in socially just and sustainable ways. Through the experience of an excursion to a site linked to school students’ Humanities learning, teacher candidates will further consider how the Humanities can be linked with other curriculum areas in contexts outside the school classroom.

Emphasis will also be placed on effective teaching and learning practices in the Humanities, with a particular emphasis on inquiry, problem solving and decision making strategies. Teacher candidates will apply their understanding of these processes in a critical inquiry project on an issue of interest for Humanities teaching.

On completion of this subject teacher candidates will be able to:

• become familiar with some of the contemporary themes and debates within Humanities as they relate to the primary school setting;
• demonstrate knowledge of the Humanities learning area in the VELS and personally evaluate this;
• be able to identify the ways in which Humanities can be integrated across the curriculum in primary schools;
• begin to critically analyse their own values, attitudes and beliefs especially about issues of social and ecological concern;
• demonstrate the knowledge, attitudes and behaviours they intend to teach in the Humanities;
• have applied a critical inquiry to classroom practice.

There are 2 assessment tasks:

• A critical inquiry project (1200 words or equivalent) due mid-semester (60%)
• A presentation (oral, written or performance) (800 words or equivalent) due end of semester (40%)

This subject is not available as a breadth subject.

• Be skilled communicators who can effectively articulate and justify their practices as knowledgeable agents of changes.
• Be flexible and able to adapt to change through knowing how to learn;
• Understand the significance of developing their practice on the basis of research evidence;
• Work in teams with skills in cooperation, communication and negotiation;
• Be independent of mind, responsible, resilient, self-regulating;
• Have a conscious personal and social values base.