The Curriculum And Reporting Authority - 1461 Words

Humanities is a learning area which all Australian children will be educated in when they go to school. Based on the Australian Curriculum, Humanities encompasses Geography, History and Civic and citizenship. (Australian Curriculum and Reporting Authority [ACARA], 2014). By studying this learning area, children will attain a comprehensive, informative view of their world and with the knowledge learnt, become active participants in the 21st century (ACARA,2014).It has been suggested, children in their early years of education could benefit from inquiry based learning strategies within a constructivist learning environment . This essay will therefore examine and evaluate this pedagogical approach to discover and determine if inquiry based†¦show more content†¦Therefore, an example of a constructivist learning environment in a pre- primary classroom would firstly begin with the educator observing a common interest or conversation amongst the young children, for example dogs. As a group the educator would ask the children and document everything they currently knew about dogs. Through this class discussion the educator would document questions about dogs the children did not know. Next through guidance the educator will support the young children in finding the answers to their unknown questions. Through various activities created by the educator, the children will build up knowledge about dogs. The children are then given the opportunity to display their learning to others including friends and family through a model creation or through role play for example (Project Approach, 2014). Inquiry based learning involves people posing questions to make sense of the world and how it works (Crombie, 2014). Traditionally, a child at school with a question would explicitly receive the answer from the educator (Crombie, 2014; Reynolds, 2012). The educator views themselves as the expert and provider of