James Cook University Subject Handbook - 2001

ED3090:03

Social and Environmental Education for Young Children

Townsville, Cairns

Prerequisites: ED1451 or ED2990
Inadmissable Subject Combination: ED3001 ED3101

26 lectures, 13 hours workshops. First semester.

Staff: Ms H McDonald (Townsville campus); Dr P Fitzsimons (Cairns campus).

The subject is organised around teachers’ decision making in planning and implementing learnings in social and environmental education in early childhood settings in keeping with new syllabus developments in Queensland, and current trends within Australia and beyond. It aims to develop preservice teachers’ competence in planning, implementing and assessing engaging and effective learning experiences and programs that position young children as active participants in their society. Students are introduced to key concepts, processes and values in social and environmental education.

Learning Objectives:

  1. students analyse young children’s development in social and environmental understanding;
  2. students understand the theoretical orientations, sources of knowledge and pedagogy of social and environmental education for young children;
  3. students explore links between principles and policies in studies of society and environment and their implementation in planning, delivering and evaluating such programs in early childhood settings;
  4. students display familiarity with recent syllabus developments by preparing engaging, effective and inclusive units which provide significant learnings in social and environmental education and cater for a variety of learner characteristics, needs and contexts.

Assessment by group workshop presentation (30%); curriculum unit (70%).