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11–12Modern History Life Skills 11–12 Syllabus (2024)

Record of changes
Implementation from 2027
Expand for detailed implementation advice
OverviewRationaleAimOutcomesContentAssessmentGlossaryTeaching and learning support

Content

Life Skills

Life Skills for Stage 6

Through collaborative curriculum planning, it may be decided that Life Skills outcomes and content are the most appropriate option for some students with intellectual disability.

Investigating modern history – Case studies

The following case studies are suggestions only. Teachers may develop ideas and concepts from these case studies to support student interests and abilities. Students may participate in a single case study, part of a case study, or elements of content as appropriate.

Case studies from Australia, Europe and North America

  • Australia and the rise of communism
  • Making change: The Day of Mourning to the National Apology to the Stolen Generations
  • The changing nature of Anglo–Irish relations
  • The decline and fall of the Romanov dynasty
  • The transatlantic slave trade
  • The American Civil War
  • The rise of the American environmental movement
  • Women’s movements
  • Pemulwuy
  • Queen Victoria and the Victorian Age
  • Leon Trotsky
  • The American Revolution
  • Toussaint Louverture and the Haitian Revolution

Case studies from Asia, the Pacific, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America

  • The Boxer Rebellion in China
  • The British in India and Burma
  • The Meiji Restoration
  • Tibet in the modern world
  • Contact in the Pacific
  • The making of modern South Africa
  • The origins of the Arab–Israeli conflict
  • Empress Dowager Cixi
  • Sun Yat-sen and the end of imperial China
  • India under Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi
  • Ho Chi Minh
  • Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge
  • The New Zealand (Māori) Wars
  • The Kingdom of Kongo
  • The Mahdi and the siege of Khartoum
  • Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
  • The dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet

Teachers may develop their own case studies where appropriate to meet student interests and abilities. If they do so, they should consider the following aspects in their case study:

  • relevance to the present
  • key historical features and issues
  • the role of individuals and groups within their chosen context
  • key events and/or developments, and how they shape the past
  • the significance of the site, individual or society
  • impact and legacy
Connections and context

  • Significant events in own life

  • Chronology of events in own life

  • Significant people and places in own life

  • Features of where they live

  • Important characteristics of own family, familiar groups and the community

  • Chronology of the selected case study, including placement in time of the society

  • Location and geographical features of the selected case study

  • Significant people, places, artefacts and events of the selected case study

  • The defining characteristics of the society of the selected case study

  • Connections to people, places or events of the selected case study

Sources and evidence

  • Sites of importance for the selected case study

  • Sources and what they reveal about the selected case study

  • Different interpretations or representations of the selected case study over time

  • Areas of historical controversy

  • Changing perspectives over time

  • Reliability and limitations of sources

Features of the society

  • Significant people and their impact

  • Way of life for different groups of people

  • Beliefs, spiritualities and practices and why they were important

  • Role and status of different groups in the society

  • Interactions with neighbouring societies

  • The nature of weapons and warfare

  • Causes of conflict

  • Impacts of conflict

  • Significant aspects of culture, including traditions and celebrations

  • Developments in science, technology or medicine

  • How people participated in entertainment and recreation

  • Rise and decline of people, places and culture

  • Importance of sites to key groups of people

  • Status and depiction of different people, places and events

The nature of events, developments or movements

  • Causes of the historical event, development or movement

  • People who were significant to the event, development or movement and their actions

  • How the event, development or movement impacted people in the past

  • How the event, development or movement shaped the past 

Significance and legacy

  • 21st century ethical issues

  • Continuing traditions and practices

  • Influence of people, places or events of the selected case study on the modern world

  • Significance of a relevant site today

  • Appreciation of the impact of history on modern life

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