History

Concepts for developing understanding

The content in the history sub-strand provides opportunities for students to develop historical understanding through key concepts including sources, continuity and change, cause and effect, perspectives, empathy and significance. The curriculum in this year provides a study of colonial Australia in the 1800s. Students learn about the reasons for the founding of British colonies in Australia and the impact of a development or event on one Australian colony (continuity and change, cause and effect). They examine what life was like for different groups of people in the colonial period (sources), and explore the reasons for their actions (cause and effect, perspectives, empathy). They examine early migration, settlement patterns, people and their contributions, significant events, and political and economic developments (sources, continuity and change, significance, empathy). Students are also introduced to the concept of sources as they analyse sources to compare information and points of view in the past and present (sources, perspectives).

Inquiry Questions

• What do we know about the lives of people in Australia’s colonial past and how do we know?
• How did an Australian colony develop over time and why?
• How did colonial settlement change the environment?
• What were the significant events and who were the significant people that shaped Australian colonies?

(source: www.australiancurriculum.edu.au)