Table of contents for Vol. 58 no. 1 2023 in Agora

There have been many changes over the past decade on how Humanities is viewed and taught in the primary classroom. Numerous curriculum documents have been introduced, and they have varied across the states. Humanities has always been an important element of the curriculum, but with constant changes it is hard for teachers to have a shared definition of what is meant by ‘teaching Humanities’. Primary school teachers make a huge commitment to teach Humanities in the classroom, but they are confronted with a number of obstacles. Time is the largest factor. The emphasis on literacy and numeracy in the early years means that Humanities topics must be incorporated into these primary lessons. Based on this reality: Reynolds (2014) contends that primary teachers integrate curriculum areas wherever possible, in order to…

When it comes to cultivating historical thinking in the primary years, take the time to step outside the classroom and align the stories that exist in your own local community. Being an advocate for place-based learning, I know first-hand the power that local associations can wield when harnessing student curiosity and authentic learning opportunities. Students not only make meaningful connections to curriculum content, but also relate a personal dimension that allows for a deeper understanding of self and place. Place and History simply embody each other. Students at Ballarat Grammar’s Year 4 campus spend a year at the school farm immersed in a place-based curriculum that encompasses the histories and cultures belonging to the students and the surrounding environment. Located at the foot of local landmark Mount Rowan—bordering Wathawurrung and…

You’re working on the implementation of an inquiry approach to teaching and learning with a wide variety of schools and teachers. Are you finding that inquiry learning is already in place, or are you still sometimes finding places where it’s not part of the teaching approach? I have partnered with most of these schools for many years, so they have already engaged, but I am aware that many schools are not using this approach or might be working in ways that I associate with what we once called ‘integrated curriculum’ back in the nineties, and haven’t moved on from that. But the schools I work with are really taking the approach forward and treating it in a more contemporary way. I don’t know how you properly attend to the achievement…

Teaching Years 4 and 5 Australian History for most of the past decade-and-a-half has enabled me to develop some effective strategies and learning platforms. I have also enjoyed disrupting the ‘one topic per term’ model of organising the curriculum. Teachers often aim to simplify the concepts in the curriculum. I encourage teachers to engage in a complex class project to ensure deep learning. Drawing inspiration from such complex learning platforms as John Hunter’s World Peace Project, I design the curriculum to emphasise how complex and interconnected the relevant concepts are. While students may spend some time in a state of confusion, stick with it and great thinking will happen. Years 3 and 4 The Victorian Curriculum keeps History as a separate discipline, and combines Levels 3 and 4 in one…

The past few years have seen a growing uptake of Minecraft: Education Edition in the primary classroom as teachers discover the diversity of ways it can enhance learning.1 Minecraft worlds come in many shapes, from prebuilt worlds that immerse students in a time and place to blank spaces that students develop to showcase knowledge and understandings gleaned through their research. Minecraft-based lessons can be used to kick off a topic and acknowledge prior learning. Minecraft can equally be employed to reinforce learning, or even as an instrument of assessment where student builds reveal visible evidence of their learning. Why Minecraft Works Well in History Education Often when teaching History, we ask students to imagine stepping back in time to a place that is foreign to their modern life and experiences.…

The Place of Thinking in the Curriculum Both critical and creative thinking play a role in primary History education, but how do we know what each student is thinking when investigating the past? This is a critical question to answer if we want to determine which students are working at, towards and above the standard, regardless of the curriculum framework being used. Not only do we want students to have knowledge and understanding about the people, events and places central to a historical investigation, but we also want them to use historical sources as evidence when developing an understanding of historical concepts. Thinking occurs at all stages of an investigation, from asking questions to collecting and interpreting sources. Interpretation should consider perspectives as well as how the source can help…

Entering the History Classroom as a Graduate Teacher The nervous excitement as you enter your classroom on the first day of school with the students. The burst of energy and hopefulness for the year as you sit in on your first planning day. The daunting, overwhelming sensation as you try to understand and grasp all of the preferred pedagogical practices and styles of teaching in your new school. These are all familiar sensations for graduate teachers. Starting out as graduate teachers in 2020, we were excited, nervous and hopeful for the year ahead. As lovers of history, we were looking forward to developing and implementing authentic and enriching learning experiences that highlighted the History curriculum. Over the course of the past three years, our pedagogical practices have shifted and adapted…

When we were invited to contribute to this edition of Agora, my Initial Teaching Education (ITE) History students were keen to share some of the strategies they have trialled, developed and adjusted during their professional placement experiences and studies. They were especially passionate about selecting strategies that encouraged students to read and think like historians. They found that these ensured that the study of History was engaging, challenging and meaningful. Based on the range of school contexts and communities in which my ITE students find themselves teaching, they have tried to design strategies that are aligned with Universal Design for Learning principles.1 Several of the strategies have been selected because they provide engaging and authentic learning experiences for primary students to develop the knowledge, skills and capabilities identified in the…

Historical knowledge about Australia’s ancient past is based on three major sources: Dreaming stories, archaeological evidence from excavations, and descriptions of the Indigenous way of life from European explorers like Charles Sturt.1 So far, no fossils of the ancestors of modern Homo sapiens have been found in Australia. People first arrived on Australia’s shores from about 65,000 years ago. We might never know the earliest date because the very first locations have been buried by rising seas. Originally there were about 500 nations, each with their own language, culture, beliefs and practices; today there are about 250. Archaeological evidence proving their arrival includes wall paintings in caves, trees used for ceremonies and canoes, quarries for stone tools, shell heaps called middens (some of which have been dated to 29,000 years…

History, in the purest definition of the discipline, relies solely on the written record to tell the stories of past peoples, events and landscapes. The period before the written record—‘pre-history’—lies within the purview of archaeology, a highly multidisciplinary field that brings together anthropology, chemistry, geomorphology, botany, geology, zoology and anatomy (among many others) to reconstruct our human story across deep time. Since its establishment in Australia in the 1950s, archaeological research has shed light on the changing cultures and landscapes of this continent, from the earliest evidence for First Nations peoples 65,000 years ago to the arrival of Dutch mariner Willem Janszoon in 1606.1 With at least 99.6% of cultural history occurring before the recording of written histories in Australia, archaeology therefore plays an essential role in the recognition and…

In a Grade 1 classroom, a teacher puts a map of South-East Asia and Australia up on the board. ‘Have a look, and see if you can find Indonesia. We learned this yesterday. There are lots of islands pictured here. Which belong to Indonesia? That’s the question. I want everybody to think.’ Students scan the map, many eagerly throwing their hands in the air, keen to show what they know. The teacher chooses a student to come forward. The little girl accurately identifies Indonesia, being careful not to point to Papua New Guinea or Malaysia, which she has learned are close neighbours. ‘That’s right!’, the teacher exclaims. ‘There is Indonesia. Last lesson we learned about the land of Indonesia. Today, we will start learning about its history.’ The lesson continues…

Primary teachers typically excel at building empathy and activating imagination. The activities that are the mainstay of primary teaching include creative responses, discussions bringing texts to life, personalising stories, and using personal histories to build points of comparison. These approaches stretch across the learning areas of the Victorian Curriculum, and as pedagogical dispositions they gel with some of the Aims of the History learning area: • interest in, and enjoyment of, historical study for lifelong learning and work, including their capacity and willingness to be informed and active citizens • knowledge, understanding and appreciation of the past and the forces that shape societies, including Australian society.1 On a broad level, the approaches commonly taken by primary teachers are in alignment with the History curriculum. However, teaching becomes more complex when…

One of the most common questions I’m asked by my pre-service teachers is, ‘I really want to teach the Stolen Generations in my primary class, but I’m not sure. How can I do this effectively?’ When I hear this question, I invariably struggle to answer it because the question of ‘how’ to teach something is subject to an uncountable number of variables that often make the lesson look very different from the plan. Indeed, every few years a story will emerge about a teacher attempting to teach about the Stolen Generations for impact and doing it so poorly that it makes the papers.1 For many pre-service and experienced teachers, the anxieties when covering the Stolen Generations in a primary setting are roughly split into three main categories: • those who…

2022 marked the 150th anniversary of the Education Act 1872, which continues to shape education in Victoria. The tenet of the Act was that education should be ‘free, compulsory and secular’.1 It aimed to ensure that the parents of children of not less than six years, nor more than fifteen years, attended school for a period of sixty days in each half year. The move for educational reform in Victoria was underpinned by the ideal that free, compulsory and secular education would lay the foundations for a democratic society, and that educating all children in Victoria would ensure a future society with citizens who were more prosperous, moral, and less likely to commit criminal acts. If you are looking for a history that deals in both pride and outrage, and…

Old Parliament House was the site of Australia’s parliament for 61 years between 1927 and 1988. During this time, many significant political and social events impacted the lives of everyday Australians. Within these walls politicians, journalists, diplomats, public servants and the general public gathered, discussed important issues, and made decisions on behalf of all Australians. The Ladies in the House podcast explores significant women who worked in or were associated with the history of Old Parliament House. We have released three series, and are busily working on our fourth.1 Each podcast episode runs for around five minutes, and the lessons include pre-listening vocabulary, ‘before you listen’ questions, comprehension questions, and a call to action activity. The call to action activities have been built into each episode, and are designed to…