Learning about democracy

For our HASS lessons in the coming weeks students will be engaging with the Civics and Citizenship aspect of the Australian Curriculum. The Curriculum aims at developing students into ‘active and informed citizens’ (Gilbert & Hoepper, 2014) and by the end of grade three students should be exposed to the importance of ‘making decisions democratically (ACHASSK070)’ (ACARA, 2018). 

(ACARA, 2018)

Students will be exposed to the role and importance of rules within society, in line with the Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians goal number two, which is “all young Australians become… active and informed citizens (Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs 2008).

To introduce the concept of a democracy, we will be using a relatable task (Tudball & Brett, 2014) which requires the class  as citizens to design a playground for their school. Firstly, the task will involve the teacher as the ‘leader,’ meaning students will all get to share their opinion on what they would like to be inside the park, however the teacher will have the final say. The class will then repeat the same activity, but instead all the students will have their say in what goes inside the playground with a voting system. Students will be asked how they felt throughout both tasks and which version they preferred. Through this task students will be exposed to the idea of a democracy and alike with the idea developed in ancient Athens, a ‘citizen’ refers to an individual playing a role in the decision making in society, which students will become familiar with. 

(Pixabay, 2019)

This activity will lead us into discussing the rules of our classroom as well as our school. As students are now in year three, they are entering the senior end of the school. Students have been following the rules of our school community for numerous years now, however we will begin to discuss the reasons rules are put in place and why they are different for certain environments as per the curriculum “who makes rules, why rules are important and the consequences of rules not being followed (ACHASSK071)” (ACARA, 2018). 

(ACARA, 2018).

As a class, we will brainstorm why there are certain rules in the school, who makes them and their purpose, for example safety.

(Pixabay, 2019).

As parents, you can get involved with this unit of work by engaging in conversation with your child in relation to this topic of rules and democracy. The year three curriculum requires students to:

(ACARA, 2018).

You may choose to discuss the rules in your household, or the rules you remember having in your school and together come up with similarities and differences. In doing this, your child may become more confident in posing questions relating to the ‘who, what, when and why’ of scenarios. 

References

Australian Curriculum, Assessment & Reporting Authority [ACARA]. 2018). HASS. Retrieved from: https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au

Gilbert, R., & Hoepper, B. (2014). Teaching humanities and social sciences: history, geography, economics & citizenship. South Melbourne, VIC: CENGAGE Learning.

Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs. (2008). Melbourne Declaration on the Educational Goals for Young Australians. Retrieved from: http://www.curriculum.edu.au

Tudball, L., & Brett, P. (2014). What matters and what’s next for civics and citizenship education in Australia? Civics and Citizenship, 22(4), 35-43. Retrieved from http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.utas.edu.au/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=7cdc61fb-5228-4cf0-a9ea-b818c621f5ee%40sessionmgr4005&vid=0&hid=4202