• Foreword
• Background
• Overarching Statement
  
  Learning Area Statements
• The Arts
• English
• Health and Physical Education
• Languages Other Than English
• Mathematics
• Science
• Society and Environment
  • Definition and Rationale
  • Society and Environment Learning Outcomes
    
  • The Scope of the Curriculum
    
  • Learning, Teaching & Assessment
    
  • Links Across the Curriculum
    
• Technology and Enterprise
  
  Appendix
• Acknowledgments
• Core shared values
  
  
• Support Documents
  
  
  
  Disclaimer & Copyright

The Scope of the Curriculum

PHASES OF DEVELOPMENT

EARLY ADOLESCENCE (typically years 7 to 10)

Students’ growing capacity for abstract thought enables them to generalise more appropriately from particular contexts. They develop their awareness of the complexity of the interdependence within Australia, and between Australia and other societies and environments.

As this understanding of society and environment becomes more sophisticated, students become aware of the tentative nature of their generalisations and leave those generalisations open to the logical consideration of alternatives.

Investigations into the nature, background and implications of significant issues in society and environment are facilitated. Students are encouraged to relate issues, where appropriate, to personal and global dimensions. The search for connections and relationships among ideas and experiences, beliefs and practices is the focus of these investigations.

Students use library systems, the Internet, e-mail and CD-ROMs to access and present a broader range of information. Issues in Australia today can be enriched by studies of people in other times, places, cultures and societies. The position of humans in the ecosystem and the different ways people view and use resources are important contexts. Students critically evaluate how they and others make choices, exercise power and plan for the future, while displaying a commitment to the values of social justice, the democratic process and ecological sustainability.

Investigation, Communication and Participation
The learning and teaching program should be designed to enable students to display a growing independence in decision making and a willingness to take on greater responsibility. Typically, by the end of this phase, students plan investigations and engage at a fundamental level in inquiry and problem solving.

They identify the consequences of using different tools and techniques. They are able to gather information from a range of sources, including electronic and print media, on local, national and global issues.

Students are encouraged to evaluate the reliability of sources of information by considering different perspectives and viewpoints which will enable them to develop a balanced investigation or inquiry.

It is in this phase that students typically become aware of their own values and beliefs and make judgments on issues as they examine the opinions and motives of others. They present their findings or argue for a personal view with a growing sense of confidence in their communication skills, by attending to the needs and perspectives of a range of audiences.

They identify and use a range of formats, conventions and genres and use maps, graphs, tables and diagrams as appropriate to show changing patterns and trends. These skills can be supplemented by controlled use of various media, including music, drama and video.

Students’ conclusions and viewpoints may be incorporated into a relevant social activity in the school or local community: for example, they could plan a program of action to remedy a school-based problem, evaluate ways in which groups and individuals can effect or influence change, or assist in the work of school or local organisations.

Place and Space
Students examine the factors and processes that shape and change the characteristics of natural and built features within places. They identify and account for similarities and differences between places and begin to understand the nature of spatial associations and variations over the earth’s surface. Students need to analyse and represent spatial data in a variety of ways, including, for example, using atlases and maps and interpreting maps and photos to identify relationships between phenomena.

Students further learn that there is a range of factors, processes and values that influences the interdependence of people and places, that changes occur in people’s use of the natural environment over time; and that patterns of settlement and agricultural and urban land use change.

Students are encouraged to reflect on plans of action and past actions in terms of the value positions underlying them, including their commitment to the principles of ecological sustainability.

They investigate the various positions and views held by people on issues. They offer explanations as to why individuals and groups may hold different views on issues that include the care of places.

They can apply their understandings about the consequences of human modifications to the natural and built features and predict future consequences of planned modifications to places.

Resources
Students recognise that resources can be broadly classified as land, labour, capital and enterprise.

They should understand that people manage and use these different types of resources to increase their ability to satisfy their needs and wants. As students investigate the use of resources, they consider important issues relating to ownership, access and equity.

Their knowledge of important business and economic concepts is expanded through examining the relationship between specialisation of production, exchange and effective resource use and their markets.

They learn about the workplace and how people act in various ways to make workplaces safe and effective. They gather information about occupations, entry requirements, changing vocational patterns and past and present trends in the labour market including work opportunities. They identify structural factors which influence employment opportunities, the general competencies required in the workplace and the occupational pathways available. All this contributes to their development of career-related action plans.

Culture
Students examine aspects of individual and group identity, including beliefs, values, norms, customs and practices. They learn that beliefs and traditions influence the nature of cultures and that groups in society have social organisations that reflect particular beliefs.

They further learn that these beliefs and social structures change over time in response to rapidly-changing social, political, environmental, and economic contexts. This adaptation results in the maintenance of both cohesion and diversity to varying extents.

At the same time, students should recognise that cultures exert a significant influence on people’s identities and their roles, rights and responsibilities. They further learn that aspects of gender, race and socioeconomic status, together with core values, influence personal, group and cultural identity.

Time, Continuity and Change
The learning and teaching program assists students to develop their understanding of the impact of people, events and ideas from one time period to the next, and over time. Further, they should be able to comprehend that the past has impacted on today’s society and environment.

They can describe causes and consequences of events or social and political movements or economic, technological and industrial developments. They can, for example, describe those features of Australian social, political and economic life which have changed over time and those which have remained the same.

They can identify the constructive and destructive consequences of continuity and change and describe examples of both evolutionary and revolutionary change. Typically, they are able to conclude that perspectives and interpretations of people, events and issues differ, depending on one’s beliefs and heritage.

They can compare different views of people about the same issue or identify sources which offer different perspectives on the same event and then suggest reasons why, over time, these portrayals and attitudes may have changed. A key context to be developed by the curriculum, among others, is Australia in the twenty-first century, through a focus on the nation’s identity and its place in the world.

Natural and Social Systems
The learning and teaching program for natural and social systems should provide opportunities for students to gather information on local, national and global environmental issues, to stimulate planning decisions and to debate alternative solutions. Students identify their own beliefs and perspectives on environmental issues and examine how they acquired them, to help them understand others’ beliefs and perspectives and to identify possible areas of agreement on which to base decisions.

Students identify key features of political, legal and economic structures and systems at local, State and national levels in Australia. This includes identifying decision-making processes; the different levels and arms of government; and resource allocations for production and consumption. They also provide a global perspective on political, legal and economic systems and begin to analyse their interaction on national and international scales.

They may do this by examining international disputes and attempts at cooperation through international agencies, covenants and treaties.

Active Citizenship
Students are given increasing opportunities to demonstrate behaviours of active citizenship which reflect a better understanding and a continuing commitment to the principles and values associated with the democratic process, social justice and ecological sustainability.

Students typically become more aware of their own beliefs and begin to develop more informed opinions and value stances. Learning experiences provide students with the opportunities to identify the positions and perspectives held by others, and to explore why they hold them. Further, issues-based investigations will enable them to engage in values awareness activities and development activities which will develop, in the first instance, their ability to evaluate people’s actions and to make some informed judgments about the appropriateness of these actions.

In the second instance, they begin to develop their own positions and commitments, which they need to be encouraged to articulate and to support with sound reasoning.