(May 2009)  Curriculum Level 7.  This unit is used as the external case study material for the NCEA external achievement standard 2.1 ‘Describe the effect of an aspect of society on people’.   Currently it is taught in a very content- focussed way, with a tight lesson frame and very little good pedagogy.   Most lessons are extremely teacher-centred with little input from students, who are required to “study the information and regurgitate it in exam conditions”.  However, the unit is very popular with students, and they have obtained very pleasing results in past assessment (i.e. exams).  Students want to know WHY this region is always on the news and are interested in the conflict that is linked to religious beliefs.  In year 13 we look at religious fundamentalism (and will continue to do so with the revised curriculum.   Therefore the unit begins to introduce students to key elements of this in the year 12 programme.  Authors:  Sarah Wakeford and Shona McRae

(May 2009)  Curriculum level 5.  The Treaty of Waitangi is a fundamental aspect of any junior Social Studies programme.  All students are expected to have a sound understanding of the Treaty and its impact on NZ society.  However, in the past, this has often been taught in a factual manner, with dates, places, people involved being the focus of teaching and assessment.  It’s been a sequence of events approach.  The values, significance and deeper thinking have not been emphasized.  The revised curriculum gives us the opportunity to change this, and our unit plan is based on the revised curriculum (NZC), the Best Evidence Synthesis and the Building Conceptual Understandings series.  If we want our students to successfully participate in society as critical, active, informed and responsible citizens, then they need to take their understandings of the Treaty and apply them to their real lives. This unit exemplifies the Treaty of Waitangi Principle (NZC p.9) and  the Values of equity and integrity (NZC p.10).  Authors: Shirley Beazley, Sarah Wakeford

(May 2009)  The interest in this unit comes from the differing perspectives people can bring to it. What is a definition of growth, why do we use GDP as a measurement, is growth desirable??  Author:  Simon Condon

(April 2009)    1.    Why this unit is worth re-working: This topic is taught by over 90% of schools; It is popular with teachers and students; Because it is topical in public media, there is a good bank of available resources; There is a range of perspectives, IGIs, future focus, etc. that can be woven through it; It has relevance to NZ re indigenous people, global warming, globalisation: real issues, values and ethics; It can be linked to a contemporary geographic issue.    2.    Re-thinking the unit - What follows is the current unit with annotations towards a first-draft change to a new curriculum teaching/learning plan.Individual teachers will think of other changes, and adapt the plan further to their own uses and situation.    Authors:  Brian Kendrick and Sarah Thorpe

(April 2009)    For many Social Studies teachers the Achievement Objectives relating to Economics pose a challenge due to their limited economic background. This is an attempt to show what a unit might look like in order to address the Achievement Objective: “Understand how people seek or have sought economic growth through business, enterprise and innovation”.  As such, there is no prior unit that has been reworked. (Curriculum level 5)    Authors:  Shirley Beazley and Simon Condon

(April 2009)    This unit on the Russian Revolution is popular with many students, who often enjoy the content material that relates to the Royal Family and Rasputin.   However, there needs to be a focus on the concept of revolution and how the establishment of a communist state influenced global history, including New Zealand.... At the moment we also teach another revolution, the French Revolution, and we make connections in class between the two, looking for common features in revolutions.   However, we are not really giving students the chance to transfer knowledge from one context to another.   There is an advantage in using a thematic approach because it is the ideal situation to transfer between contexts.   Authors: Carol Jarman and Maria Jefferson