AC9HC8K02 Year 8 Humanities and Social Sciences

AC9HC8K02 – Year 8 Humanities and Social Sciences: Government and democracy

Strand

Knowledge and understanding

Substrand

Government and democracy

This Content Descriptor from Year 8 Humanities and Social Sciences provides the specific knowledge and skills students should learn. Use it to plan lessons, create learning sequences, and design assessments that align with the Australian Curriculum v9.

Content Descriptor

the role of political parties and independent representatives in Australian democracy, including elections and the formation of governments

Elaborations

• examining the structure and composition of current parliaments, both federal and state/territory
• evaluating different voting systems such as preferential and proportional representation
• understanding how government is formed and may be lost, through discussing concepts such as parliamentary majority, the opposition, hung parliament, minority government, party discipline and balance of power
• investigating the roles of political parties and elected representatives, including independents

Achievement Standard This Supports

This Content Descriptor contributes to the following Achievement Standard:

Year 8 ASHASCIVY8

Year 8 Humanities and Social Sciences Achievement Standard

By the end of Year 8, students explain how Australians are informed about and participate in their democracy. They describe the roles of political parties and elected representatives in Australian government. They explain the characteristics of laws, how laws are made and the types of law in Australia. Students identify ways in which Australians express different aspects of their identity and explain perspectives on Australia’s national identity. Students develop questions and locate, select and organise relevant information from different sources to investigate political and legal systems, and contemporary civic issues. They analyse information and identify and describe perspectives and challenges related to political, legal or civic issues. They explain the methods or strategies related to civic participation or action. Students use civics and citizenship knowledge, concepts, terms and references to evidence from sources to create descriptions, explanations and arguments.