Democratic Values

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Year 7 | Year 8 | Year 9 | Year 10

An understanding of the Civics and Citizenship concepts is developed through a focus on Australia’s democracy and legal system. The teaching ideas in this resource assist students to gain knowledge and understanding regarding the values on which Australia’s legal system and citizen participation are based. Links to curriculum codes: AC9HC7K03 / VC2HC8K05

An understanding of the Civics and Citizenship concepts is developed through a focus on Australia’s laws, the responsibilities and freedoms of citizens and participation in the democratic process. The teaching ideas in this resource assist students to gain knowledge and understanding regarding the purpose of laws and how direct action can support this. Links to curriculum codes: AC9HC7K02 / VC2HC8K02 / VC2HC8K04

An understanding of the Civics and Citizenship concepts is developed through a focus on how Australia’s legal system works to support a democratic and just society. The teaching ideas in this resource assist students to gain a knowledge and understanding of how the values on which our laws are based and the responsibilities of a citizen supports the application of justice. Links to curriculum codes: AC9HC9K04 / VC2HC10K05

An understanding of the Civics and Citizenship concepts is developed through a focus on Australia’s global roles and responsibilities and the values and practices that enable a resilient democracy to be sustained. The teaching ideas in this resource assist students to gain a knowledge and understanding of how the values on which our laws are based and the responsibilities of a citizen protect our democratic system. Links to curriculum codes: AC9HC10K01 / VC2HC10K03 & AC9HC10K05 / VC2HC10K10

Introduction

We support the view that schooling should develop a sense of community engagement in students by increasing their potential to be informed, responsible, ethical and active participants in society.

Through practical tasks relating to real life experiences, these free resources help students develop a positive attitude towards their role in society. They enable teachers to select lesson ideas within a theme in any order, to best suit curriculum requirements and the interest of students.

Digital resources embedded in these resources comply with the Social Media Minimum Age obligation (SMMA obligation) and have been chosen with careful consideration to support learning and wellbeing. Some resources feature YouTube videos that can be seen without logging into an account. These should be viewed by students with teacher support.

We developed these to make the compulsory content of the Australian Curriculum Humanities and Social Sciences (HASS) Civics and Citizenship syllabus for Years 7-10 more engaging.

To make things easy, lesson ideas link directly to the Australian and Victorian content codes and key concepts, namely, Democratic Values, The Westminster System, Justice, Participation, and Rights and Responsibilities. The activities provided are just suggestions and should be adjusted to suit the student cohort.

Learning Intentions

Resource Focus

Community safety and well-being is enhanced by developing and following agreed expectations of individual behaviour

Students Understand:

That behaviour is an expression of the values held by an individual
That schooling aims to develop a student’s disposition towards the acquisition of particular values
That Australia has a set of values and principles which both Australians and visitors are expected to abide by
The notion of justice; behaviour that is fair, equal and balanced for everyone.
That they have a responsibility to act in protecting our system of democracy and justice

Lesson Ideas

Education Values School Rules Values Of Our Australian Society Upholding Society Values; Our Collective Responsibility

Further Student Enquiry

Students investigate the values underlying school rules/laws in other countries or at other periods in history.
Students investigate the process through which their school rules were developed. How were the views of individual stakeholders i.e. school staff, students and parents taken into account
Students design and promote a process for the ongoing review of the school rules.
Students investigate Australian case studies of citizens arrests
Students investigate an Australian case study of community information leading to a criminal conviction or the prevention of an unlawful incident.

Many of the themes explored in this resource are further developed within the other Crime Stopper resources provided on this website

Assessment

Formative:

Students individually develop a classroom rule that they can relate back to the values of schooling. Teachers might like to pool these ideas together to develop an agreed set of behaviours for the class.
Use the Taking Action scenario, in Lesson Idea # 4 Upholding Society Values; Our Collective Responsibility, to assess students understanding of a citizen’s responsibility in helping to ensure a just and fair society.

Summative:

Students design, for the school/classroom, a persuasive poster, role play, ICT presentation, story board, pamphlet or speech that promotes a particular Australian value and its role in ensuring we live in a fair society.
Students pose and investigate a question around school values and/or rules.
Students explain how the role of the citizen supports the notion of justice
Students investigate a particular law, either in Australia or abroad, focusing on the societal values it is designed to protect
With the support of case studies, students explain how society is better protected when individuals take action.
Students investigate how the principles on which Australian democracy is based assist in reducing particular threats to our society.