A Democratic Classroom


Welcome back to our class of 3B. Today our children will be beginning the new topic of democracy. Students will learn this within the school context to keep it relevant, such as making decisions in the classroom, however, will be encouraged to see the ‘laws of the classroom’ as sort of an analogy for the laws and rules which govern our society.
We will begin by discussing the purpose of rules. First of all, students will discuss what rules are and the different forms they can take. This follows the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) asks for students to explore rules and who makes them (2016a; ACHASSK071), so students will be guided into the lesson with three inquiry questions in mind.
1.      Why are rules created?
2.      Who creates rules?
3.      Who do rules serve?
Using an inquiry-based approach within learning has been shown to stimulate student engagement (Nthontho, 2018).
From this, students will explore the consequences of not following rules.
Students will use their prior knowledge to discuss these questions initially with their peers before sharing with the class. Then they will apply their understanding and use the questions to analyse some of the school rules, such as our cyber safety, and playground guidelines. This will keep the topic relevant and the students will be encouraged to reflect on parallels between classroom rules and rules outside of school. It can be a great opportunity for parents to discuss rules within the household, or within the community such as road safety guidelines.
Once students understand the purpose of rules, we will explore how we can promote sustainability within our classroom. Gilbert & Hoepper state that the exploration of civics and citizenship within the classroom can promote students to think sustainably, by making considerations for the environment with respect to an ethical framework based on care for the community of life (2017). This will explore content descriptor ACHSSK072 (ACARA, 2016a), where they discover ways in which they can participate within the community, by using their prior knowledge of recycling learnt within another subject and applying it to a class debate. This debate will be about what rules they can introduce within the classroom to make it more recycle friendly.
At this stage students will begin to understand the importance of making decisions democratically (ACARA, 2016a; ACHSSK070), by making sure all students have a say and vote in what rules they believe should be introduced. This will also ensure students are working towards the cross-curriculum priority of sustainability by taking actions which will help preserve our environment (ACARA, 2016b).


References
Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority. (2016). Australian Curriculum: Cross-Curriculum Priorities: Sustainability (Version 8.3). Retrieved from https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/cross-curriculum-priorities/sustainability/on Thursday 28th March, 2019.
Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority. (2016). Australian Curriculum: Humanities and Social Sciences: Year 3 (Version 8.3). Retrieved from https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/humanities-and-social-sciences/hass on Thursday 28th March, 2019.
Gilbert, R., & Hoepper, B. (2013). Teaching humanities and social sciences: History, geography, economics and citizenship in the Australian curriculum (5th Ed.). South Melbourne, VIC: Cengage Learning.
Nthontho, M, A. (2018). Inquiry-based approach: Reconstructing the undergraduate teaching and learning space. The Independent Journal of Teaching and Learning, 13(1), 28-40.

Comments

  1. missinnesApril 2, 2019 at 4:48 PM

    Hi Aaron, have you thought about how this is set out and giving a clear ending? I thought there was more to the post purely because it did not seem to have a definitive ending that was clear cut. You could change the structure a little to make it more clear cut for parents if you felt it correct. We have also been told to reference 4 pieces of literature and you have only used Gilbert & Hoepper and Nthontho, which does not meet the requirements. There is so much curriculum based content here that it could be offputting and there is little justification for why you are choosing these activities, which is the main purpose of the second section of the blog post required structure. Just thoughts to consider.

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  2. Claire GaleApril 3, 2019 at 8:06 PM

    I like how you suggest discussing rules with parents at home and make a connection to rules at school. This is great for parents, particularly surrounding issues of cyber safety. I think you could make more explicit some concepts of sustainability in the classroom that the lesson will cover, maybe by posing some questions as you did before. I agree with Bethany about links to ACARA which in places affect the flow of your text and may make your readers a little discombobulated. Maybe they could go in tables. Great ideas for a first draft.

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