Course Title: Humanities in the Middle: Participation, Civics and Citizenship

Part A: Course Overview

Course Title: Humanities in the Middle: Participation, Civics and Citizenship

Credit Points: 12.00

Terms

Course Code	Campus	Career	School	Learning Mode	Teaching Period(s)
TCHE2343	Bundoora Campus	Undergraduate	360H Education	Face-to-Face	Sem 2 2010, Sem 2 2011, Sem 2 2012, Sem 2 2013, Sem 2 2014

Course Coordinator: Narelle Lemon

Course Coordinator Phone: +61 3 9925 7808

Course Coordinator Email: narelle.lemon@rmit.edu.au

Pre-requisite Courses and Assumed Knowledge and Capabilities

None listed

Course Description

This is an elective course that focuses on introducing students to concepts and pedagogical approaches relevant to the teaching/learning of Humanities subjects within the middle school context (years 5-8). In particular, this course focuses on content relevant to civics and citizenship. Students will be introduced to different forms of Government and Human Rights via a critical examination of an ancient civilization and contemporary Australian society. Students will investigate significant Humanities themes such as: time; continuity and change; place and space, culture and identity, social systems, power and decision making.

Objectives/Learning Outcomes/Capability Development

This course is designed to assist students to:
• Become familiar and engage with concepts and pedagogical approaches relevant to the teaching of the Humanities, particularly those related to civics and citizenship perspectives.
• Deepen their knowledge about significant aspects associated with civics and citizenship.
• Compare and contrast contemporary Australian society and one ancient civilization deploying a ‘civics and citizenship lens.
• Deepen their knowledge about Human Rights, youth participation and global citizenship issues.
• Reflect on the nature of civics and citizenship and the implications for the learning and teaching of the Humanities.
• Develop professional understandings of Humanities teaching and learning principles and practices.

Upon completion of this course students will be able to:
• Design curriculum materials to support learning and teaching of the Humanities in the middle school.
• Apply analytic skills to primary and secondary sources to support learning and teaching in the Humanities.
• Convey personal knowledge about selected areas of Humanities knowledge.
• Discuss and be familiar with relevant Victorian, Australian and International policy documents and frameworks related to Humanities learning and teaching.
• Articulate and actualise an emerging Humanities teaching philosophy.

ICT Outcomes
At the conclusion of this course students will have demonstrated and/or acquired the following ICT capabilities:
• Awareness of a range of contemporary ICT resources suitable to the classroom.
• Understandings of the role of ICT in learning and implications for the classroom.
• Abilities to provide opportunities for students to be engage in ICT-enriched activities that are essential self-regulating and cooperative.

VIT Standards
This course is aligned with the following standards:
• Teachers know the content that they teach.
• Teachers know their students.
• Teachers create and maintain safe and challenging learning environments.
• Teachers use a range of teaching strategies and resources to engage students in effective learning.
• Teachers reflect on, evaluate and improve their professional knowledge and practice.
• Teachers are active members of their profession.

Overview of Learning Activities

Students’ learning in this course will involve a range of activities including but not limited to: lectures, workshops, groupwork, excursions, micro teaching, discussion, reading of academic texts and articles and curriculum design and materials incorporating Web based teaching and learning resources.

Overview of Learning Resources

See part B

Overview of Assessment

Assessment tasks are directly linked to the stated objectives and outcomes. Assessment in the course will be both theoretical and practical in nature. A range of formative and summative assessment types will be incorporated into the course (for example, written, oral or performance based assessment).

Students should refer to Part B of the course guide for further information on assessment.