1.2 Civics and Citizenship

 

Hello everyone, welcome to the final blog of term 3, 2016.

What students are learning about:

Throughout the term, students have been learning about Local, State and Federal Governments and the role each one of these has in the Australian context. Learning how society is built around decisions made within this government hierarchy and how each has specific jobs to ensure that our communities are safe and functional environments.

Curriculum Link:

      Humanities and Social Sciences: Civics and Citizenship, with the inclusion of General Capabilities: Literacy, Ethical Understanding, Numeracy and Critical and Creative Thinking.

Why it is important:

      To provide students with skills, knowledge and understanding of their community, which will assist them to become successfully informed Australian citizens.

      The Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians acknowledges that “students within Australia need to learn concepts that relate to civic processes of the Australian democracy and the skills and knowledge that accompany it”.

      To be an active citizen students not only need to understand the theory behind the Australian political system, they also need to be able to use this learning in real world scenarios.

How students are learning:

 Many activities were completed during this unit, to allow students ample opportunity to develop the necessary understanding and concept knowledge.

1.      Students worked through a range of scenarios to determine the government responsible.

2.      The voting process undertaken within Australia, and how this is used to form governments at both State and Federal level.

3.      Students demonstrated their understanding between ‘rules’ and ‘laws’ in our society and how/why these may be put into place. This was supported with a Bike Helmet Video where students discussed and gave personal opinions as to whether they agree or disagree with this law.

4.      Developing relationships with the wider community by inviting local members of parliament to meet students through an incursion. This allowed students to meet and interview these representatives, which allowed a real-life understanding about what/how our government works.

5.      A class parliament project was developed to scaffold and support their overall understanding. This process allows students to understand how proposals are handled within the parliament system. Through this hand-on learning students had the opportunity to role-play the voting process using different scenarios.

 Student’s found interesting:

      The history and reasons behind the adoption of three voting systems used in Australia.

       Australia’s voting systems was adopted in the late 1800's and are still seen as being the most reliable in the world.

Talking points with your child

•      What was the most interesting thing they learned during this unit?
•      Their thoughts on the parliament system; do they feel it works, why/why
•        not?