PREREQUISITES
There are no prerequisites for this course.
AIM OF COURSE
The Modern History General Course provides students with an understanding of the driving forces behind present local and global issues. Investigating the past helps students to understand why and how groups and/or societies changed or resisted change over time.
This course will promote skills of research, hypothesis testing and analysis of information as students engage with investigations. Through inquiries, they learn that historical judgements are provisional and tentative in nature. They are encouraged to question and evaluate historical sources; to identify the various representations and versions of history.
DESCRIPTION OF COURSE
Students learn about the evolving nature of societies and the various forces for continuity and change that exist. Students learn that some values, beliefs and traditions are linked to the identity of a society and they question individual institutions in their investigation of the past. This analysis is achieved by evaluating events that caused significant change, by understanding how the decisions of leaders impacted the rights and freedoms of people and by investigating how political regimes can be born from revolution or participation.
The coursework for Year 11 and 12 focuses on four broad depth studies. In Year 11 these depth studies are based on People, Place and Time and Power and Authority. In Year 12, the depth studies are Continuity and Change and Historical Trends and Movements. Each unit then investigates these ideas based on the following curriculum:
Year 11
Unit 1: People, Place and Time in the depth study of Napoleon, the Revolution and the Empire
Unit 2: Power and Authority in the depth study of an Authoritarian State: Communist Russia and the USSR 1917 – 1953.
Year 12
Unit 3: The USA between the wars 1918–1941
Unit 4: Nazism in Germany
More detailed course info can be found HERE.
ASSESSMENT:
Historical Inquiry - 20%
Explanation - 25%
Source Analysis - 25%
Test - 15%
Externally set task - 15%