The aim of Human Society and Its Environment is to:

• enhance their sense of personal, community, national and global identity;

• enable students to participate effectively in maintaining and improving the quality of their society and environment.

Human Society and Its Environment K–6 is the key learning area in which students develop knowledge and understandings about:

• Change and Continuity

• Cultures

• Environments and

• Social Systems and Structures.

These strands organise the knowledge which is vital in developing understanding about Australia’s history and geography, the people that live within its territory and their social, cultural, economic and political lives.

Students also learn about Australians and Australia’s context in the Asian and the Pacific regions, and in the global context.

The development of skills is an important aspect of learning and teaching in Human Society and Its Environment K–6. In Human Society and Its Environment K–6 students develop skills in:

• acquiring information;

• using an inquiry process; and

• social and civic participation.

The development of attitudes and values underpins teaching and learning in Human Society and Its Environment K–6. By studying issues and events within this area, students identify, clarify, analyse and evaluate their attitudes and values as well as the attitudes and values of others.

They develop positive attitudes about:

• social justice;

• intercultural understanding;

• ecological sustainability;

• democratic processes

• beliefs and moral codes; and

• lifelong learning.

Human Society and Its Environment K–6 forms part of a K–12 continuum, providing a foundation for learning in secondary courses of the Human Society and Its Environment key learning area, including mandatory courses in History and Geography in Years 7–10.