Humanities and Social Science Assignment Sample

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• Subject Name : Social science

Table of Contents

Part 3: What makes a place special? (Australian Curriculum, Year Foundation)

Part 4: Analyse assessment strategies for Part 3

Part 5: Uncritical Teaching

Part 6: Engagement with Humanities concepts outside of the formal classroom context

References

Part 3: What Makes a Place Special? (Australian Curriculum, Year Foundation)

Understanding of one’s personal world is extremely important in the Foundation Year of the students. Personal and family histories are stressed upon and the student can draw emphasis on their own history and memories related to a certain incident or place. Exploring places is an important part of the curriculum as it raises curiosity, triggers memories and emotions, which tie them to the ‘special’ feeling. By the end of the year, the students need to identify the important years of their own lives and should be able to recognise which certain places are special to them. It is an important learning area that tie to their own past and create a sense of belonging in them.

If a teacher were to explain this question to a student of the foundation year, the ‘special’ word needs to be stressed upon. The place needs to be related to a particular feeling. It can be where they feel safe, or where families live, or where a special member of the family live, like their grandparents, aunts and others and most important a place where they belong. Visuals are a very strong way to explain to the students where their special place might be. Geographical tools can also be used to describe a space and an environment (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA), 2020). These places are usually familiar places to the students were heightened emotions are triggered and thus, a teacher must explain to the students their ‘happy’ place which gives them strong emotional vibes. These places can also develop interest about a certain subject or a place. For example, to a little boy, a special place might be a tree house which acts as a friendship club for their friends, or Grandma’s house, where they receive ample love and cookies from their beloved grandmothers (Inquisitive Pty Ltd, 2020).

While explaining to student, a teacher can also stress on important observations like activities that they can do at this place. This may be related to the fact that they may be special because of what they can do there. For example, the tree house mentioned earlier. Important questions must be tied to this observation like, ‘What am I doing?’, ‘How old am I?’, ‘How do I feel about the place?’, ‘Where does this show?’ and others (ACARA, 2020). The teacher must be prepared with a set of visuals to explain further what a special place means. Audio visual kits may be also used to show what ‘special’ may be to a student. The students at the end must be encouraged to ask various types of questions so that the concept of ‘special’ can be cleared. The ultimate goal is to target knowledge and understanding and raise enquiry and sharpen mind skills. Various parts of history and geography are related and the order in which they are taught solely lies on the programming decisions. The overall process must be interactive and playful so that curiosity is aroused at all levels.

Part 4: Analyse Assessment Strategies for Part 3

After any completion of project or a lesson it is important to develop an effective assessment strategy which shall analyse student learning process. It must be noted that assessment is a process that extends beyond the participation and access to education, but focuses on the actual learning part of each student. Gathering information on where the student stand is an important part of the evaluation. The information gathered is also used to go to the next step of the instructions and prepare classroom syllabus for the future. Teachers for this purpose has to make observations in a number of ways so that performance can be assessed. This is mainly done through classroom dialogues, enquiry and questioning skills, understanding of the subject, quizzes, projects and others.

For the above topic, which focuses on ‘Special Place’ of the students, cognitive and reasoning principles are at play. An important aspect of curiosity is targeted here which directs at asking questions by the students. The more questions a student asks, the clearer is the subject for them. The teacher can also direct a question to the student, and the wait time is calculated to assess the understanding of the student. It must be mentioned here that there are no right or wrong answers, as the topic is subjective. The concept of ‘special place’ must be open to discussion as students need to explore curiosity, assumptions, emotions and reasoning. Questions asked by the students must be answered in their task for effective assessment.

To explain further, formative assessment as mentioned above is a radical process and requires change in strategies for better assessment. However, for record keeping purposes stress must be given on summative achievement, which reflects learning in order to certify the learning process. However most educators stress on the fact the finding the right balance between formative and summative assessment is required, as the purposes of these assessments are not always clear (OECD, 2013).

However, for the ‘special place’ assessment a mix of summative and formative must be applied as the concept is different to different people. The key learning area is to make sure that the student identifies emotions which there special place. The point of view of the student must be analysed which shows the learning outcome. Comparing various objects of their memories is important which is directly related to the special place. Creative and critical thinking and personal and social abilities are what needs to be reflected in the task (National Research Council; Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education; Center for Education Board on Testing and Assessment; Committee on the Foundations of Assessment, 2001).

Lastly, in order to measure achievements, summative assessment must be applied and marks or grades must be provided to the student who represents the closest understanding to the assessment strategies mentioned above. Overall, it can be said that strategies must be aligned with metacognitive awareness of the students. This is because cognitive development studies suggest that the work of the student is highly qualitative and consistent in the process.

Part 5: Uncritical Teaching

This part of the report deals with a controversial topic revolving around the cost of uncritical teaching by most teachers. These issues are a part of the learning experience and the most complex and sensitive issues which may affect the students. It must therefore be explained in the simple possible ways yet triggering curiosity in the minds of the students to explore the issue further. In the words of Albert Einstein, “If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't understand it yourself.” This report shall target Year 4 curriculum students. The main goal for Year 4 student is interaction between people, places and environment. As such this is an ideal topic for discussion.

Critical thinking is an important part of intelligent tutoring that is revolving around the education system. The actual problem lies in the fact that most lessons are too boring for the students to interact. While teachers complain that students are not attentive enough or intellectually lazy, they fail to understand that the actual problem lies in the methodology. The typical classroom atmosphere is not always interesting enough for students and as a result of which the student loses interest. Traditional methods of learning here are challenged such as quizzes and lecture. As per the article by Winn (2004, pp. 496-497), different individuals employ different pedagogical options as per their intelligence, sense of perception and knowledge. However, this fails to identify the interest in the subject. Although teachers think that they are thinking critically while teaching, the concept relies on their prevailing wisdom. To be simply put as per the minds of Year 4 students, the questioning must be encouraged while respecting all point of views.

Critical teaching must direct at raising questions and catering to exploring alternative solutions. The complex situation must be simplified and the sensitivity of the issue must be understood. A healthy scepticism must be applied to explore the existing theories and concepts and most important there should be a willingness to challenged and be challenged. Although, this subject is debatable, it raises a vital issue in the society of how education must be approached. Education is the most significant area of change on which depends the future of any country and thus critical teaching as well as thinking ability must be considered. Teacher’s role must be reflected on and the students must be encourage to question the existing system but also develop a healthy attitude towards them.

Certain aspects are focused here: responsive, active, creative and learner focused. This means that critical teaching must be flexible, so that the focus is on structure and spontaneity and child-led and educator led learning experience. The students must actively take part in the classroom process, motivated and eager to learn more. Creative teaching tools need to re-discover and possibilities must be explored and lastly, a teacher must accept the fact that children learn in different ways and learning is a highly individualised process (Department of Education and Training, 2020). Thus, methodologies must also be creative to stress on critical teaching process.

Part 6: Engagement with Humanities Concepts Outside of The Formal Classroom Context.

Teaching and learning experience is not just a part of the classroom process, but extends way beyond the confines of the four walls. The main aim of these concept of humanities is to foster civic responsibility among the students. Various activities and modules are developed which focuses on empowerment and respecting values, cultures and beliefs, history of a region of group and also citizenship duties. The most common value revolve around duties of students as Australian citizens and respecting its aboriginal culture.

Concepts of humanities outside the formal classroom is basically a student-centric learning process which activates engagement among students, interaction, and curiosity and encourages personal and social development of an individual. It is said that academic performance also improves as the minds is explored through these activities. It also calls for higher levels of motivation and exposes the students to various forms of experiences. As learning is an individual experience, the same module can trigger various parts of the minds in students (Behrendt & Franklin, 2014). Most schools for this purpose develop field trips, exchange programs, laboratory work, school magazines, student councils, citizenship and civic programs, community help programs and others.

These provide engagements among various people and the students by which they learn and experience first-hand on how things are. Outdoor learning activities are also hugely popular for learning biodiversity and are mostly included in alternative pedagogies curriculum. Many researchers like (Waite, 2010) is of the opinion that experiences like these trigger all five senses in the student with develops authenticity in the learning process. This is also helpful in creating leadership and teamwork among the students and to enable individual decision making process. It also encourages democratic participation which in turn improve the school’s values and beliefs. This is especially seen in Student Representative Councils which aims at community outreach, fundraising for various local and regional issues and service learning opportunities. Field Trips also provide unique experiences regarding various subjects like plants, soil, geology and others.

The Stanford University Humanities Center explains the subject of humanities to be the study of how people document and process human experience (Reiter, 2017). This is strongly reflected in outside the classroom modules that target the experiences of students. In other words activities beyond the classroom helps in establishing connections between people, places and things. This in turn is responsible for laying the foundation for innovative thinking. Creative teaching as mentioned earlier is also embedded in this concept. For the students it encourages critical thinking process, creativity, interaction and innovation.

According to many researchers like (Claiborne, Morrell, Bandy, & Bruff, 2020) these are value-based experiences and enriches one’s moral and beliefs. They believe that exposing students to such experiences gives them an opportunity to think about global issues and also critically analyse complex problems and develop solutions. Thus, outside formal experiences increase the qualitative abilities of the students. Although this subject is highly debated and discussed, the importance of learning modules outside the classrooms cannot be undermined.

References

ACARA. (2020). Humanities and social sciences / Foundation / Inquiry and skills / Questioning. ACARA.

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA). (2020). Humanities and Social Sciences. Sydney: Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA).

Behrendt, M., & Franklin, T. (2014). A review of research on school field trips and their value in education. International Journal of Environmental and Science Education, 235-245.

Claiborne, L., Morrell, J., Bandy, J., & Bruff, D. (2020). Teaching Outside the Classroom. Nashville: Vanderbilt University.

Department of Education and Training. (2020). Characteristics of age appropriate pedagogies evident in this example of practice. Queensland: Queensland Government.

Inquisitive Pty Ltd. (2020). Special Places. New South Wales, Australia: Inquisitive Pty Ltd.

National Research Council; Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education; Center for Education Board on Testing and Assessment; Committee on the Foundations of Assessment. (2001). Knowing What Students Know: The Science and Design of Educational Assessment / Assessment in Practice. The National Academic Press.

OECD. (2013). SYNERGIES FOR BETTER LEARNING: AN INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE ON EVALUATION AND ASSESSMENT. OECD Publishing.

Reiter, C. M. (2017). 21st Century Education: The Importance of the Humanities in Primary Education in the Age of STEM. California: Dominican University of California.

Waite, S. (2010). Teaching and learning outside the classroom: personal values, alternative pedagogies and standards. International Journal of Primary, Elementary and Early Years Education, 65-80.

WINN, I. J. (2004). The High Cost of Uncritical Teaching. Sage Publications.

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