Monica Burnell

I.D. 13142526

Assignment 1
Rationale for Teaching Society and Environment

Society and Environment

Education 315
309278
Lecturer: Greg Dick
 Personal statement by me to clarify my decision about teaching S &E. Addressing
the significance of Society and Environment as a Learning area.

• Over view - introduction

• Definition:”SOSE is the study of humans an their interaction with their society

and environment.”,(Reynolds, 2009, p.)

• “Global education is teaching for understanding the world through multiple
perspectives; social, economic, historical, spiritual, cultural, environmental and
political - to promote positive values that will enable students to reflect critically
on their own value systems in order to contribute towards being global citizens

who contribute locally to a more peaceful, just and sustainable world.”

• Julie Dyer Deakin University, Melbourne 2005

• “Cameron et al. (2001) argued that young people under the age of seven would not have the cognitive capacities to
truly exhibit prejudice although they will display in group favouritism towards those they perceive to be the same as
them. Attitudes towards others, however, seemed to have been fixed by about the age of ten so it is the primary teacher
who must work hard in this area and it seems that there is a small window of opportunity”. Reynolds 2009
 An understanding of the aims and purposes of teaching S&E and its seven outcomes in schools.
It is through the teaching and learning of knowledge and information in the areas of Resources, Place and
Space, Culture, Natural & Social systems, and Time, Continuity & Change that we teach the skills of
Investigation, Communication and Participation that enable and empower a student to be an Active Citizen
of the World now and in the future.

Through the studies of society and environment students will explore the the relationship between human
living and the world around them, including the relationships of the past and the consequences we face
because of past decisions, and the present and the implications for the future. They will investigate the
relationships of the people and places in their immediate environment, their community, their country and
the world. They will learn that their actions have consequences and that they can make a difference in their
immediate family, their community and globally.

The Soc Learning Area: “Its basic aim is to give individual students the ability to make reasoned and
informed decisions as citizens of a culturally-diverse, democratic society in an interdependent world.”pg 251
Curriculum Council, 1998.

The purpose of learning Social Studies includes the application and practice of new knowledge
which can be described as
Technical (work) knowledge - in-depth knowledge eg of subject matter or skill (eg. how to research)
Practical knowledge (understanding) - processing skills eg knowing what and when to research
Critical (emancipatory) knowledge - attitudes and relativeness eg why research?
(Habermas cited in Reynolds, 2009; Newman cited in Marsh,1998)

It is this learning that will enable students to participate as globally aware, active citizens.
• List seven outcomes
• Refer to CF
• National curriculum
 An understanding of the way S&E can facilitate integration across the curriculum and be
conducive to authentic learning.

• How does S&E help with integrated learning because the study of S&E is the study of how humans integrate in their world, it needs
to be studies in the same way.
• How it S&E conducive to authentic learning - integrating can be good for effective time management - includes higher order thinking
skills as knowledge and skills need to be applied - Authentic learning is learning through experiences or activities that relate to the
world outside the classroom which shows relevance and meaning and so is motivating - learning is self-directed - includes genuine
problems or needs -
• Ways integration can occur - thematic (content), Skills(Thinking, learning, organizing, investigation, Key Competencies. Pg 178
• How to integrate - integrate knowledge and understandings, skills, values, and attributes. Integrate or connect learners with their
strengths and weaknesses, various contxts of learning, multiple ped agogical approaches, values,.,,,content integration - to create a
play about australian women and their role in WW2 you need to know about women roles in WW2 and how to write, produce, act a
play, skills integration ie ways of problem solving/thinking thru use of blooms or debonons, or working together thruough
cooperative learning skills, learner integration - consider the learner and how they learn (gardiners, ability levels), context
integration ie human rights ie peace ie sort of like topic or thematic, pedagogy integration ie cultural awareness ie deep
understanding of something, values integration teachers teach the values and the classroom live-by the values ie they integrate
them into their classroom community.
• What is integration?”an integrated curricuulum is when the knowledge and understandings, skills, values, and attiudes are
intertwined in a cohesive manner with the learners, the context,the pedagogy and the overall purpose of the learning so that it
presents as a united package of learning”. Reynolds. 2009 p. 174.
• What is Inquiry learning ?”Students are both problem posers and problem solvers p 10 Wilson a Jan 2003)” “It is the task of the
teacher..to haness these natural curiosities into ways of thinking which are logical, rational and sustainable” Newman cited in Marsh
p 214
• Students are trained in processes to conduct their own research (including surveys and observations) to ascertain information to
answer questions or solve problems, and reflect on the result and make decisions about action they may or may not be able to take
or on how their attitudes and understadnings may have change.
• IL provides a meaningful context for skills to be learned and an integrated curricluulum, multiple intelegences
• Need to use thinking skills, meta-language to describe their thinking ie their metacogiion
• What is Authentic Learning?is when the learning os most like how the task/learning will relate to real life.
 Use of teaching strategies which support the principles of learning, teaching and assessment
to allow students to gain skills, expand knowledge and develop values.

• Learning teaching and assessment - CF

• Skills knowledge and values - CF?

• Teaching Strategies
• - ALL FROM CF - might need to quote/papraphrase acknowledge in references.
• Opportunity to learn - apply to real life - dewy quote re kids live in the moment.Take advantage of what is interesting to the
students, in current affairs,a question asked.Use real examples i.e. voting, fundraising, visiting oldies etc.Reflect on what
difference they can make in another persons life, make a connection/make a difference.
• Connection and Challenge - start with tier world, then connect to wider community, global community.use what is important to
them, compare contrast what is important to others - challenge them to respect it, not just tolerate it. What is valuable to one
student is not valuable to another, what is valuable to one society is not valuable to another.
• Action and Reflection - Before we act, we need reseach/information to make a good plan of action. Investigate, take surveys, read.
After ‘seeking the truth’ make an informed decision or opinion. Reflect on how values change after becoming an informed citizen.
• Motivation and Purpose - Connect learning, skills, values, knowledge to life, in and out of school.Make curriculum decisions with
the students, what do you want to learn about, why? How will you learn this and how will you demonstrate your learning. I will have
a blooms poster on the wall to guide the students and myself through this process, to make sure we are addressing higher order
thinking., Activities that have students applying their learning to practical endeavours is motivating eg documenting for the local
council, or their school or church, presentation for parents night/other students etc on an information night for a fundraising
endeavour.
• Inclusivity & Difference - by negotiating what students are learning and how they will demonstrate their learning they are able to
accommodate for different learning styles, abilities and needs. Just as I will use Blooms to help students negotiate the curriculum I
will use Gardiners to help students choose in creating different ways of learning and presenting their knowledge for assessment.
• Autonomy and Collaboration - by including students in curriculum decision, they will be able to make decisions on how they will
work - individually or in pairs or in small groups. Sometimes students will need to be directed in their choice in order to experience
working independently, in a pair a small group to ensure they experience a range of learning experiences.For example, student s
may decide to work as a whole class if they are conducting a large survey, or independently if they are research a special, and
personally engaging, topic.
• Supportive Environment - Respect, Responsibility, Rights will be the corner stone of my classroom as teaching these values will
provide a context for students to appreciate the value of equality and equity. This needs to be explicitly taught and practiced to
develop a classroom culture where students feel safe and empowered to achieve to their potential, have their point of view
respected and problems validated and resolved in a peaceful way.

• Values are social justice, democratic process and ecological sustainability in WA. Othe values are the CF
ones - not for discussion on this slide.
 Assessment
• Assessment is the beginning of the
learning cycle as we need to discover
students prior knowledge.
 Teaching Strategies
• As a teacher of S&E I will:
• Creative and supportive learning environment - eg opinions and values expressed and
respected
• Environment to promote independence, interdependence and self-motivation through
individual research, cooperative learning and a negotiated curriculum
• Student centred - the background, interests and needs of the child will direct the curriculum
• Blooms will be a permanent feature on the classroom wall to remind me and the students of
what needs to be achieved through our learning experiences
• Students in my classroom will engage in activities that serve their community or a community
they choose to create connections and relationships with others outside of their classroom

• Good pedagogy will Link learning to real life, to their society and to their societal issues.
• Skills required for soc: Flexibility, Creativity, collaboration, self-direction, communication and
reflective thinking
• Inquiry approaches -define Inquiry and authentic learning? - is that the strategy?
• Values focus - weave ‘value’ of the week into the classroom.
• Authentic civic situations - what can we do to make a difference? as an individual, as a
group, as a class?
• Supportive learning environment - in soc that means respect for others opinions and ideas,
set up rules based on respect, responsibility and rights of members of the class
• Higher order thinking skills - and application through authentic learning
• Learning connects strongly with community and practices beyond the classroom. - research
and making a difference.
• Practicing active citizenship - writing letters, solving problems, conducting surveys to find
answers /solutions.
 Values - look again at chap4

• Teach them explicitly - name them - drama - wle school if possible, such as one a week, integrated into
classroom and play ground practice
• Student displays of what values mean, photos of dramatisation ,
• Role models - mandela, mother teresa
• Values and feelings and bias - personal - may need to provide a variety of ways of expressing ie art, music,
non threatening ways
• What are the alternatives/implications - p 71 reynolds
• Making a plan of action p 71 reynolds
• Becaue it strengthens self esteem , optimism, and commitment to personal fulfilment, helps students
excersise ethical judgement and social responsibility - straight from reynolds pg 63
• Be guided by Peace Education - UNESCO page from other power point!!
• Strategies such as - one a week, taching about own culture and family values and comparing differences
and sames,
• Teach to the developmental age of students
• Use ‘in the moment’ experences ie problem in the playground, bullying, classroom rules/breaking to
discuss and apply values
• Use injustice in news, current affiars, fundraising issues to discuss values in wider community and how
taking responsibility for ourselves and human beings of the wrld is what human nature is meant to be about
• VALUES from the CF!!!! - link them to the teaching strategy - basically of inquiry and authentic
• Need to connect to childs understading - some values in CF are not in child language - teacher needs o
discuss, rewrite or maybe kids re-write, use simple words.
 Ways of being inclusive of all students and the need to accommodate their developmental

range and preferred styles of learning.

• Gardiners - diagram - examples

• Differentiated instruction - examples
• I would argue that the solution to this dilemma, a third way if you like, is an entitlement approach to social education,
where students are given the technical mastery and the best available knowledge of concepts and values as resources for
building a desirable society. Students are entitled to be provided with the concepts, processes and skills associated with
contemporary institutions and practices, and required for effective participation in society, but students are also entitled to
apply these learnings in ways which respect their cultural origins and their personal desires and commitments. Mastery is
not a form of compliance, but an empowering resource for transforming the world in response to future challenges.

• For such learning to be authentic and useful, it must be applied in a collaborative context where decision-making and action skills are
developed through authentic pedagogy as close as possible to real social situations. In this approach, traditional and contemporary values are
not assumed to be absolute, but are seen as resources which allow us to understand and critique current social arrangements, and to scrutinise
the adequacy of these values as a base for desirable futures. For instance, the ultimate grounds for assessing values of democracy and justice
lie in the moral imperatives of respecting people's individual integrity and worth, and the reflexive criteria which the values provide for
themselves and for each other. In other words, mastery of contemporary knowledge forms and an exploration of core social values are bases
for building desirable futures. As such, they cannot be prescribed as unchanging absolutes free from critical assessment, nor seen as purely
individual choices free from the 9 test of application in collaborative and democratic action. An entitlement curriculum would then ･ be
discursively empowering (through mastery of technical discourses); ･ include a negotiated curriculum (to incorporate present felt needs and
develop collaborative decision-making); ･ be culturally responsive (to recognise and incorporate different views, perspectives and
aspirations); ･ include immanent critique focusing on an emancipatory ethos and improvement of the human condition; ･ focus on active
participation, initiative and personal and social adaptability and change; ･ be governed by values of entitlement, competence and
transformation.
• SEAA Tomorrow: SOSE and the future Rob Gilbert James Cook University
 Ways in which S&E could be used to connect to school and community needs and values.

How does teaching and learning in Soc do this?

(Use examples for needs and values?)
• What does the school value I.e. values in CF - democracy, learning, individual,
community, family, service, excellence, financial support
• Community and school needs - rules, justice, equity, serving others, informing

others, environmental needs?, communication?,

 Conclusion
• jjjjj
 References and further information ie websites

• DYE05656 Opportunities and challenges for global education in Social Education curriculum By Julie Dyer
Deakin University, Melbourne Paper presented at Australian Association for Research in Education,
University of Western Sydney, Parramatta Wednesday 30th November 2005 retrieved 30th august, 2010
http://www.aare.edu.au/05pap/dye05656.pdf

• At the 2003 biennial conference Professor Rob Gilbert's keynote address provided an overview of
the past and challenges for the future, on the occasion of SEAA's twenty-first birthday. This is a
wide-ranging discussion that focuses on SOSE and an entitlement approach to the curriculum that
is concerned with teaching about society and environment. The address was published in The Social
Educator Vol. 21, Spring 2003 retrieved 1st september, 2010 http://www.afssse.asn.au/seaa/

Reynolds, R. (2009). Teaching Studies of Society and Environment in the Primary School.
Melbourne: Oxford University Press.

• Reynolds, R., & Lane, S. (2009). Crossing boundaries between cultures and disciplines: Using Geography
and Creative Arts to build bridges with community groups in one school.Refereed paper presented at
Teacher education crossing borders: Cultures, contexts, communities and curriculum ﾕ the annual
conference of the Australian Teacher Education Association (ATEA), Albury, 28 June 1 July. Retrieved 1

sept, 2010 http://atea.edu.au/ConfPapers/2009/Refereed/Reynolds.pdf