Humanities Philosophy
A broad understanding of society is essential if students are to take their full place within it as confident, informed and responsible participants.
Through the Humanities, students will develop the knowledge and sense of perspective needed to understand and appraise the world's changing societies and issues that have been identified as critical in the next 25 years. They will examine the ways in which people from different cultures, times and places make decisions, and meet their physical, social, emotional and spiritual needs. Students will be helped to understand their rights, roles and responsibilities as members of a family and as citizens in a global society.
Students will be challenged to think clearly and critically about human behavior, to explore different values and viewpoints, and to discuss and reflect upon such ethical questions as: What should be done in order to promote equity and fairness within and among societies? What should be the balance between protecting the environment and meeting human needs? What should be done to cope with population growth and children in poverty? and What should be done to develop shared (universal, global) values while respecting local values? Such learning will help them to clarify their own values and to make informed judgments while fostering commonly valued attributes, such as individual initiative, effort and responsibility.
Students will also develop a wide range of general and specific skills that lead to a fuller understanding of concepts covered as they progress from primary to secondary. These skills will include maps and mapping, participation in the decision making process, as well as humanities investigations and values exploration.
Students will learn how and why change and continuity have affected people's lives in various contexts and times. They will examine the events, beliefs and forces, which have shaped our world. They will explore the influence of different groups and individuals on society. Students will develop their understanding of their own culture and heritage, and those of others. They will study different historical periods and will gain an awareness of different interpretations of the past.
Students will gain an understanding of how people in different places have interacted with their environments. They will explore the physical features of the world around them and how they make decisions about, and manage or mismanage its resources. Students will learn about economic processes, such as how people produce, exchange and use goods.
Structure of the Humanities Curriculum
The Strands
History – Time, Continuity and Change – is the study of what we think is important about the human past. Through it we develop an understanding of the past, its influences on the present and its implications for the future.
Geography and the Environment – is the study of the relationship between people and their environment, both natural and built. Through it we develop a sense of place and an understanding of the interactions between patterns of human activity ad the earth’s surface and resources.
Society, Culture and Heritage – is the study of people and their relationships in society. Through it we develop an understanding of the ways in which individual groups and societies interact with each other and how their values shape our social systems.
Resources and Economic Activities – is the study of the nature of resources and of the ways people use them. Through it we discover how specialisation and interdependence relate to exchange and trade and learning about the rights of consumers and workers and how these may change.
The Humanities Skills – Investigation; Values Exploration and Appreciation;
Participation in Social Decision Making and Maps and Mapping – use the process of inquiry to investigate and research information to support learning in each of the social studies strands. Through it we develop an appreciation of the cultures and values of others in the past, present and in the future.
Humanities Teaching and Learning Methodology
In a world which is a complex mix of races, cultures, languages, religious affiliations and social class, students need to recognize that there is no one way of looking at events, situations, issues or problems. When their own school experiences allow them to hold positions which may differ from others and reflect that such positions are valid and valued students will be able to seek and value other people’s points of view.
Inquiry-based units of study are the entry points into the Humanities learning. Each unit has a primary focus into one of the four strands of the Humanities, but inquiry will not be restricted only to that strand. Student will experience what it is like to think and act likes a historian, a geographer or a social scientist. Students and teacher identify together what they want to know, what they already know which might be relevant to the inquiry, what they need to know to answer their questions and how best they might find that out.
Students learn best when constructing meaning about questions which are significant and meaningful in their own lives, building on prior knowledge. An inquiry-based Humanities programme enhances the likelihood that students will feel they belong to a community of learners. It helps them to develop problem solving skills and become decision makers. As a result, they will later be able to choose between and among political alternatives and make economic choices. They will work in groups to solve local and global problems and make responsible choices about themselves, others and the environment.
Students engage in research, applying and acquiring a variety of thinking and learning skills; using multiple sources; looking at different points of view; applying historical, geographical and societal concepts, skills and attitudes to current issues and problems. Activities are selected which directly and most effectively answer the questions being researched. They allow for a variety of learning styles and language levels. Through these activities students apply skills and concepts in new contexts as well as learn new skills and concepts in meaningful contexts.
The teacher as a knowledgeable member of the teaching staff, facilitates, structures and guides student inquiry; models the questioning approach; provides students with the time and ambience to promote inquiry; and builds up a variety of diverse resources. The teacher also ensures that learning materials reflect positive images of diverse groups and does not allow any one cultural or gender perspective to dominate.
The social world is influenced by science and technology. Scientific questions may need to be answered and scientific concepts understood, in the course of what is primarily a Social Studies inquiry.
Humanities, like the arts, including literature, are an exploration of life. These parts of the curriculum value the subjective and introspective as ways of knowing. Students will enhance their understanding of the Humanities through art, music, dance, and reading literature. Mathematics and language are both server curricula to Humanities. The Humanities needs language to define its concepts and mathematics to quantify them. Students in language classes (whether ESL, Bahasa Indonesian or French) learn through appropriate Humanities content.
Humanities Assessment Practices
The purposes of assessment are to promote student learning, to provide information about student learning and to contribute to the evaluation of the effectiveness of the Humanities programme.
Student learning is promoted through:
assessing the students’ prior knowledge and experience brought to the topic or tasks in order to plan and /or refine the teaching and learning programme or to meet individual or group needs;
building a profile of students’ understanding;
engaging students in reflection on their learning and in assessment of the work produced by themselves and by others.
Information about student learning is provided by:
representative examples of students’ work or performance;
compiling statistics based on explicit achievement standards and rubrics;
records of test results, observations and self and peer assessment.
Programme evaluation uses a variety of student assessments to:
assess student performance in relation to the standards and the specific learning outcomes of the programme;
assess group performance in relation to other classes or groups both internally and externally;
inform others, including students, colleagues and parents.
To ensure that assessment occurs to fulfil the above purposes, the Humanities program:
plans for and builds in specific learning outcomes and achievement standards as a part of each theme in each strand;
identifies what is worth knowing and provides suggestions for assessment;
provides criteria that are known and understood in advance;
provides a learning environment that allows students to demonstrate the range of their conceptual understandings, their knowledge and their skills;
provides tasks that require the synthesis and application of students’ learning;
focuses on big ideas and transdisciplinary skills;
is based on real life experiences and can lead to other problems or questions;
has a focus on producing a quality product or performance;
has a focus on the students’ strengths and expertise rather than what they do not know;
builds in collaboration between the student and the teacher or among students;
employs many ways for students to demonstrate their expertise;
takes into account different ways of learning and knowing and are sensitive to personal circumstances;
allows students to express different points of view and interpretations;
promotes self-evaluation and peer-evaluation;
uses scoring that focuses on the essence of the task;
produces evidence that can be reported and understood by students, parents, teachers, administrators, and board members;
provides for continuous and cumulative assessment;
is subject to continuous review and improvement.
Continuous assessment informs every stage of the learning and teaching process. Continuous assessment provides insights into students’ understanding, knowledge, skills and attitudes. These are necessary to plan further activities that address issues of concern to the teacher and the students. Continuous assessment is also a means of exploring the learning styles and individual differences of the students in order to customise each learning experience.
