Teaching Humanities and Social Science in Australia

Running head: TEACHING HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCE IN AUSTRALIA
Teaching Humanities and Social Science in Australia
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

TEACHING HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCE IN AUSTRALIA1
The HASS curriculum in Australia essentially involves the Humanities and the
Social Sciences. The study of the Humanities and the Social Sciences deals with the study of
the society, and the visions and goals for the future development of the society. The goals and
the visions should aim to encourage the educators and the teachers to adapt to the increasing
knowledge and the understandings that the student should be gaining in the field of social
sciences. Most often these new knowledge and the learnings are added with the existing
curriculum and the syllabus. Thus there is a constant debate whether or not to incorporate the
humanities and the social sciences to the new curriculum. The Australian children and the
students should be receiving the knowledge of the foreign cultures and the countries, such as
the Asian countries and the specific thoughts of the Western schools. The Australian
Government has decided ultimately the need for the essential information and the
understandings that for the students and their curriculum. There are details of facts that need
to be learned at one end of the system and on the other end, there are wide interpretations that
need to be explored with essential specific facts. In the latest curriculum of Australia, the
term humanities and the Social Sciences encompass more than what it had earlier
incorporated. In accordance with the aspects of social, citizenship education, and civics, it
also does encompasses the knowledge of the subjects of Geography, History, Economics, and
Business. Also the curriculum in the primary teaching does involve the concepts of the
interdisciplinary as well as disciplinary thinking which is included in the document of HASS
F-6/7.
The potential outcome of the Australian Curriculum involves to teach the
students to be self-reliant and inventive individuals. They are also taught to become active
and informed citizens of the country. The three core dimensions of learning areas, cross-
cultural priorities as well as general capabilities help to organise the curriculum (Clark &
Ashton. 2015). The areas of learning involves the groups of subjects that are combined – for

TEACHING HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCE IN AUSTRALIA2
example, history, geography, economics, business as well as the civics and citizenship are
included in the subject of humanities and social sciences. The general skills include the wide-
ranging abilities and skills that are developed all throughout. It also includes numeracy,
literacy, ethical comprehension and innovative thinking. The histories and the culture of the
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, the relationship between Asia and Australia and
sustainability are the three cross-curriculum priorities that are mandatory in the learning
subjects.
According to the 2013 ACARA statement and the general skills present in the
Australian Curriculum it has been asserted that the Australian children should have the
capabilities to connect well with the others and have the ability to be self-reliant, managing
their own well-being. The students are also expected to be make the best choices about their
lives, act with the ethical honesty, being able to relate to the different cultures and
communicate with them. This is very important for the students to act responsibly in
different situations of global, local or regional importance. (ACARA, 2013).
By the phrase inquiry based learning, we mean a broad approach which involves the
quest for the truth, information or any kind of knowledge. It involves the duty of the
educators and the education systems. There are different kinds of inquiry processes which
eventually become central to the gaining of the knowledge and development of the truth in
different learning domains. The inquiry process guided by the teachers and the educators,
should be a constructive approach where the primary and the overall goal for the students
should be extracting meaning from the inquiries. The Australian Curriculum involves this
inquiry based learning process. The most predominant area where this has been incorporated
is the “Learning areas” of the Humanities and the Social Sciences. The inquiry-based learning
is vivid in the new Australian Humanities and Social Sciences curriculum and most
importantly in the primary school practices.