| CODE | EPE5012 | ||||||||||||||||
| TITLE | Teaching Humanities, Democracy and Ethics in the Primary School | ||||||||||||||||
| UM LEVEL | 05 - Postgraduate Modular Diploma or Degree Course | ||||||||||||||||
| MQF LEVEL | 7 | ||||||||||||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 5 | ||||||||||||||||
| DEPARTMENT | Early Childhood and Primary Education | ||||||||||||||||
| DESCRIPTION | This study-unit is divided into two parts. The first part of this study-unit focuses on the Humanities and Democracy. The second part focuses on the teaching of Ethics in the Primary schools. Humanities, sometimes called Social Studies, in Maltese State Schools is mainly made up of history and geography and social studies. These may be taught separately or as part of an integrated scheme, this study-unit provides an opportunity to explore effective ways of teaching these areas which make up Social Studies. There will be an emphasis on the skills and concepts particular to each of the three areas. Ethics has been introduced in Maltese schools as an alternative for students who opt not to take Religious Education. It is based on a secular approach to the teaching of values. The National Curriculum framework stipulates that the methodology for the teaching of ethics in schools should be the Philosophy for Children (P4C) approach. Within this approach, ethical issues are identified and discussed in ‘texts’ children encounter in their everyday environment, be it stories, the classroom, the school, family and community. The basic approach in P4C is the Community of Inquiry (CoI). The goal of this study-unit is to link P4C and CoI with the Teaching of Ethics. Study-Unit Aims: - To expose student teachers to effective methods of teaching the Humanities in the Primary school. - To show trainees how to implement these methods in school environments. - To introduce teachers to the Philosophy for Children approach and to help them identify good strategies for using this approach in the teaching of ethics in schools, to introduce them to the ethics curriculum and its assessment. Learning Outcomes: 1. Knowledge & Understanding: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to demonstrate knowledge of what is the pedagogy involved in Geography and History, and how this can be integrated within a Humanities programme. Teacher trainees will be given the theortical background on democracy and how the values of democracy can be found in the Humanities Maltese curriculum. The student will also be able to demonstrate knowledge of the ethics curriculum and be able to describe the Philosophy for Children approach and the methodologies associated with it. They should also demonstrate familiarity with the ethics syllabus and its assessment in line with the Learning Outcomes Framework (LOF). 2. Skills: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Identify and implement the pedagogy skills needed on how to use the 'Source Method' in the Primary classroom and how to target different history thinking skills and concepts like Cause, Consequence, Change, Continuity, Empathy and Time when teaching History in Primary school. - Apply the concepts and skills in geography relevant to the primary curriculum and use the appropriate pedagogical approach to teach them in primary school. They will be able to do this through practical approaches and clear examples that includes mapskills. - Apply these developed pedagogical skills to integrate democratic principles within Humanities learning, in preparation for future citizens of a democracy. - Design lesson plans for Ethics following the Philosophy for Children approach. - Facilitate the Community of Inquiry in the teaching of ethics. - Design material for assessment of ethics. Main Text/s and any supplementary readings: Main Texts: - Nichol, Jon and Fines, John (1997) 'Teaching Primary History' Neffield Publication. - Holden, Cathie and Clough, Nick (1998) 'Children as Citizens' Routledge. - Palmer, Joy (1994) 'Geography in the Early Years' Routledge. - Cam, Philip, (2012) Teaching Ethics in Schools, Camberwell, Vic.: Australian Council for Educational Research. Supplementary Readings - Cooper, H., Rowley, C.and Simon Asquith (2006) 'Geography 3-11, a guide for teachers', David Fulham publications. - Gatt, S. & Vella, Y.(2003) 'Constructivist Teaching in Primary School Social Studies' Agenda Book Shop. - Haynes, Joanna, (2008) Children as Philosophers, 2nd. ed., New York: Routledge. |
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| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Lecture | ||||||||||||||||
| METHOD OF ASSESSMENT |
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| LECTURER/S | Glorianne Borg Axisa Yosanne Vella (Co-ord.) Lucianne Zammit |
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The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2024/5. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
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