Collins+&+Knight+-+week+1

Topic 1 – week 1 Notes on eReserve reading: Collins, C. & Knight, S. (2006). //Where to Society and Environment.// The Social Educator

The current curriculum for Society and Environment focuses on ‘empirical inquiry’ alone. Although teachers agree that asking ethical questions is worth implementing in the classroom when teaching S&E. Since the aim of teaching S & E is to: teach children to develop the knowledge, skills and values which will enable them to participate, in a range of ways, as ethical, active and informed citizens in a democratic society within a global community (DECS) 200 p2. It is valuable that the HSIE/SOSE curriculum evolves so that it uses a combination of empirical inquiry as well as ethical inquiry. However teachers should be given direction and substantial opportunities to learn how to approach ethical inquiry in a classroom where S & E is being taught so that their fears of offending students, parents or school can be dealt with. Teacher training and materials need to be made available on the pedagogy of conducting ethical enquiry. For students to develop ethics, values and morals they need more that just research, they need to learn to question their own beliefs and the beliefs of others and learn to seek out knowledge so they can build their awareness and make better and more informed decisions.