Image above: 4th July celebrations in Philadelphia.
The focus of the workshop at the Humanities conference at Pennsylvania University
This year I was lucky enough to attend and present at the New Directions in Humanities Conference in Philadelphia from 5-7 July. My workshop explored the distinction between the so called "vocabulary" of subjects such as history, geography, economics, and civics and the "grammar" of these humanities subjects. A conversation was initiated to explore the idea that the most important aspect of humanities education is the development of conceptual thinking rather than just learning content and skills. It was suggested that the concepts developed in the Humanities curriculum in the new Australian Curriculum provide a conceptual lens for teachers and students to make sense of their world and to think in a particular way in the Humanities classroom. The workshop initially demonstrated the nature of the concepts in the Australian Humanities Curriculum and provided practical illustrations that could be used in the classroom. The majority of the workshop involved participants in a simulation activity developed to demonstrate how student conceptual thinking can be encouraged and developed when studying the myriad of topics encountered in the humanities curriculum.
The point was made that considerable professional learning is being conducted in Australia using this workshop simulation to move teachers beyond the "vocabulary" of humanities and to use conceptual thinking to develop a high degree of "meaning making" when studying humanities in the classroom.
Here are some of the Australian Humanities and Social Sciences (HaSS) resources and links I profiled at the conference.
HaSS links
HaSS Association Australia
Australian Geography Teachers' Association website
Geography Teachers Association of South Australia
History Teachers Association of South Australia
History Teachers Association of Australia
Humsteach
GeogSpace
Geogaction
* The Australian Curriculum Portal
* South Australian Parliament teaching resources
* Parliamentary Education Office resources
* The Virtual War Memorial
A great resource for commemoration activities, historical research and work on Australian identity in the Civics and Citizenship curriculum.
* South Australian Aboriginal Cultural Studies Curriculum
http://dlb.sa.edu.au/tlsmoodle/enrol/index.php?id=83
Click on ACS Aboriginal Cultural Studies course, log on as a Guest and then in the next screen,enter password in reverse.
Geography Teachers Association of South Australia
History Teachers Association of South Australia
History Teachers Association of Australia
Humsteach
GeogSpace
Geogaction
* The Australian Curriculum Portal
* South Australian Parliament teaching resources
* A primary school resource from Parafield Gardens Primary School for Civics and Citizenship
* A primary school resource from Parafield Gardens Primary School for Economics and Business
* A primary school resource from Parafield Gardens Primary School for Economics and Business
The Working with curriculum' resource has been designed to support the teaching and learning of the Australian Curriculum: HASS.
* The Virtual War Memorial
A great resource for commemoration activities, historical research and work on Australian identity in the Civics and Citizenship curriculum.
* South Australian Aboriginal Cultural Studies Curriculum
http://dlb.sa.edu.au/tlsmoodle/enrol/index.php?id=83
Click on ACS Aboriginal Cultural Studies course, log on as a Guest and then in the next screen,enter password in reverse.
