This document provides an overview of implementing the new HASS (Humanities and Social Sciences) curriculum at Nuriootpa High School. It discusses timetabling challenges, focusing assessments on understanding rather than content coverage, and integrating the cross-curriculum priorities of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures, Asia and Australia's engagement with Asia, and sustainability. Resources and exemplars are suggested to help bring the priorities to life across subject areas in an inclusive and meaningful way.
2. Overview
Our context
HASS and it’s place in the timetable
Focus on Year 8
General Capabilities
Cross-Curriculum Priorities – The “beating
heart” of the AC
Resources/ideas/exemplars
3. Our context
Nuriootpa High School has approximately 850 students
We are a country High School but close enough to Adelaide for
day trip excursions
History has been offered as an elective from Year 9 onwards and
is one of our most popular subjects
We trialled Australian Curriculum: History in 2010 and 2011
We have a number of History specialists.
S&E has often been taught by non-specialists, History and
Geography will be taught by some ‘non-experts’
I am in my sixth year as S&E/HASS Co-ordinator
Year 8 S&E have been split into separate semesters of History and
Geography this year (last year we only had History). Next year
we plan to teach the new HASS subjects during these lessons.
4. The timetabling dilemma at Yr 8
14%
More than Maths,
English and
Science
8%
Is not ½ of 12 so
are these one
semester subjects
or not?
6. The Final Product at Yr 8
Some considerations
• Phase 1 subjects clearly require more time to teach properly
• Staffing must be manageable
• Local priorities must be included
7. How do we make it all fit?
Think big.
What are the guiding principles of the Australian
Curriculum?
Melbourne Declaration
General Capabilities
Cross Curriculum Perspectives
What are the key inquiry questions in each subject?
Assess against the standard not the content. Plan your course
so that you can assess student’s knowledge and
understanding rather than so you can cover all the content.
(Understanding by Design)
8. Understanding by Design or
“Backwards Design”
Identify desired
results
Stage 1
Stage 2
Stage 3
Determine acceptable
evidence
Plan learning
experiences & activities“Begin with the end in mind”
What learning
needs to occur?
What will this
learning look like?
9. Some findings re: assessment
Working with the Achievement Standards and applying
backwards design principles has:
Clarified our understanding of assessment in the Australian
Curriculum
Streamlined aspects of course design
Raised a few questions –
How much evidence of specific skills is really needed?
Does this mean we can give less able students, or those
with learning difficulties, more time on fewer tasks?
Have we been focusing too much just on the content of the
Australian Curriculum? Since “assessment is the bridge
between teaching and learning” shouldn’t we be more
worried about how we check for understanding rather
than how we “get through” the content?
10. Key inquiry questions
History
How did societies change from the end of the ancient period to the beginning
of the modern age?
What key beliefs and values emerged and how did they influence societies?
What were the causes and effects of contact between societies in this period?
Which significant people, groups and ideas from this period have influenced
the world today?
Civics and Citizenship
What are the freedoms and responsibilities of citizens in Australia’s
democracy?
How are laws made and applied in Australia?
What different perspectives are there about national identity?
11. Key inquiry questions
Geography
How do environmental and human processes affect the characteristics of
places and environments?
How do the interconnections between places, people and environments
affect the lives of people?
What are the consequences of changes to places and environments and how
can these changes be managed?
Economics and Business
Why are markets needed, and why are governments involved?
Why do consumers and businesses have both rights and responsibilities?
What may affect the ways people work now and in the future?
How do different businesses respond to opportunities in the market?
13. 7 General
Capabilities
Sustainability
Asia and Australia’s
Links with Asia
Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander Histories and Cultures
3 Cross-curriculum
Priorities
Many cells will not include
material from all 3
dimensions
Languages
CivicsandCitizenship
Economics,Business
TheArts
HealthandPhysicalEducation
Technologies
Geography
History
Science
Mathematics
English
11 Learning areas
3D Structure
Source: ACARA
17. DECD Policy
Curriculum, Pedagogy, Assessment and
Reporting Policy for Reception–Year 10
This policy is available at
http://www.decd.sa.gov.au/teachingandlearning/pages/Yearsr10/curric/
18. Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander perspectives
Is this important?
Your school might not have many Indigenous students but
We have a social responsibility and a moral obligation
to help promote awareness of Indigenous
perspectives in an inclusive and sensitive manner
Indigenous students often suffer from low self-esteem
“As a nation Australia values the central role of education in building a democratic,
equitable and just society— a society that is prosperous, cohesive and culturally
diverse, and that values Australia’s Indigenous cultures as a key part of the nation’s
history, present and future.”
Melbourne Declaration
19. Has ACARA done enough?
“93% of the references to the Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander histories and cultures perspective are in
the History curriculum”
Is this a problem?
• Is the focus too narrow? What aspects of
Indigenous Culture have been ignored?
• Is this marginalisation? Do we really have a cross-
curriculum priority here?
Professor Peter Buckskin, Dean: Indigenous Scholarship,
Engagement, and Research, University of South Australia
20. Some missing content?
Issues Location Total
Citizenship Rights Yr6 2
Mabo Yr3, Yr10 2
Reconciliation Yr3, Yr 10 2
Land Rights 0
Human Rights Yr 10 1
Social Justice 0
Employment Yr8 1
Aboriginal Rights Yr6, Yr10 5
Civil Rights Yr 10 4
Self Determination 0
Stolen Generation Yr6, Yr9, Yr10 4
Deaths in Custody 0
Aboriginal activism Yr6, Yr10 4
Source:
Kevin Lowe
Newcastle University
21. Some missing depth?
K-2 3-4 5-6 7-8 9-10 Total
Remembering 15 13 5 13 2 48
Understanding 5 9 5 7 2 29
Applying 0 8 0 2 0 10
Analysing 1 5 2 4 6 18
Evaluating 0 0 0 4 0 4
Creating 0 0 0 3 0 3
Total 22 35 12 33 10 112
Cognitive Requirements of the Content
Source:
Kevin Lowe
Newcastle University
22. Where do we start looking for
solutions?
http://www.teacherstandards.aitsl.edu.au/Illustrations/Details/IOP00136
26. NSW Board of Studies
http://ab-ed.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au
27. Monash Uni Song Line Animations
http://artsonline.monash.edu.au/countrylines-archive/
28. Some other links
Embedding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Perspectives in
schools
http://deta.qld.gov.au/indigenous/pdfs/eatsips_2011.pdf
Reconciliation Australia
http://www.reconciliation.org.au/home/latest/aboriginal-perspectives-
in-schools-q-a
Framework for Embedding Koorie Cultures, Histories and
Perspectives in Victorian Schools
http://vaeai.org.au/_uploads/rsfil/000234_caba.pdf
31. ‘Engagement with Asia’ might
mean more than just ‘Asia’
“Global integration and international mobility
have increased in the past decade. As a
consequence, new and exciting opportunities for
Australians are emerging. This heightens the need
to nurture an appreciation of and respect for
social, cultural and religious diversity, and a sense
of global citizenship.”
Ref: The Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians,
2008, p. 4.
General Capability:
Intercultural Understanding
Doesn’t this imply the need for us to take a
broad view of global history?
32.
33. Asia-relevant capabilities
Knowledge and understanding
of the countries of Asia and its
peoples
- Geography
- History
- Media
- Everyday living
- Arts
- Literature
- Values and beliefs
- Language proficiency
To face the 21st Century (“the Asian
Century”) students will need:
adaptability, flexibility, resilience,
creative and design thinking and the
confidence and readiness to interact
with Asia
34. Links within the Australian Curriculum
Other General capabilities:
• Critical and creative thinking
• ICT capability
• Personal and social capability
• Ethical understanding
Australia Asia Engagement
• Asia and its diversity
• Achievements and contributions
of the peoples of Asia
• Asia-Australia engagement
Intercultural Understanding
Assists young people to become
responsible local and global
citizens, equipped through their
education for living and working
together in an interconnected
world.
How the Australian Curriculum supports
Asia-relevant capabilities
36. Out of Eden Walk
http://outofedenwalk.nationalgeographic.com/
A Walk Through Time
Paul Salopek’s Out of Eden
world walk is an exercise in
slow journalism. Moving at
the slow beat of his
footsteps, Paul is engaging
with the major stories of our
time—from climate change
to technological innovation,
from mass migration to
cultural survival—by
walking alongside the
people who inhabit them
every day. As he traverses
the globe from Africa to
South America, he is
revealing the texture of the
lives of people he
encounters: the nomads,
villagers, traders, farmers,
and fishermen who never
make the news.
40. Sustainability isn’t just ‘Environmental
Studies’
Sustainable patterns of living meet the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.
Actions to improve sustainability are both individual and collective
endeavours shared across local and global communities. They necessitate a
renewed and balanced approach to the way humans interact with each
other and the environment.
Education for sustainability develops the knowledge, skills, values and
world views necessary for people to act in ways that contribute to more
sustainable patterns of living. It enables individuals and communities to
reflect on ways of interpreting and engaging with the world. Sustainability
education is futures-oriented, focusing on protecting environments and
creating a more ecologically and socially just world through informed
action. Actions that support more sustainable patterns of living require
consideration of environmental, social, cultural and economic systems and
their interdependence.
http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/crosscurriculumpriorities/sustainability
41. Sustainability in History
Some Examples
Yr 8 – Rise and fall
of the Khmer, land
use in Tokugawa
Japan, Easter
Island (Rapa Nui)
Yr 9 – Impact of
the Industrial
Revolution and
Colonisation
http://libguides.jcu.edu.au/content.php?pid=218339&sid=2165445
50. Twitter and Facebook
• Free and easy to
use
• Like individuals
and organisations
you want updates
from on Facebook
• Follow leaders in
educational trends
on Twitter
• Engage in
professional
conversations like
#histedchat
67. For further information
Contact me
giles.bartram510@schools.sa.edu.au
Twitter @BartramGiles
Download this presentation
http://www.slideshare.net/GBartram/where-to-now-in-
HASS-HTASA-2014