Breadth subjects in Education

Widen your horizons through breadth subjects!

The Melbourne Graduate School of Education has developed 13 adventurous 'Breadth- subjects - four sequences and a single subject - for students enrolling in any of the University of Melbourne-s New Generation degrees in 2008.

You can choose single subjects at each year level or follow through a three-year sequence for the duration of your course. Each of these subjects will count as 12.5 points towards the 75 points of 'Breadth' subjects you will need to complete your degree.

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Studies in digital technologies, social identities, creative play in children, sports coaching, and the nature of knowledge will expand the breadth and depth of your learning, and enrich your sense of yourself in the world.

The breadth subjects offered by Education are:

Creativity, young people and learning
This sequence will be of special interest to students undertaking majors in the creative or performing arts, or who are considering a future career in early childhood or primary education.

Year Level 1:  Creativity, Play and the Arts	more info
Year Level 2:  Youth/Arts: expressing cultural identity	more info
Year Level 3:  Engaging youth: art/media/performance	more info

Creativity and learning communities
This sequence will be of special interest to students enrolled in music, performing arts, fine arts, multimedia, literature and cultural studies majors

Year Level 1: Creative Projects - Digital Technologies	more info
Year Level 2: Story, Symbol and Meaning in the Arts	more info
Year Level 3: Creativity, Arts practice and the community	more info

Understanding knowledge
This sequence, which explores the nature of knowledge and how we know and learn, has relevance to all of the New Generation degrees and will provide you with insights to take back and apply to your core studies. It will be of special interest to sociology, politics, history and philosophy students. An analysis of a topic chosen from your major field of study will constitute a significant proportion of the assessment in each of the three subjects.

Year Level 1: Understanding knowing and learning	more info
Year Level 2: Story, Symbol and Meaning in the Arts	more info
Year Level 3: Creativity and knowledge enhancement	more info

Youth, citizenship and Identity
This sequence will be of special interest to students undertaking majors in the social sciences, cultural studies, gender studies, and media and communication.

Year Level 1: Citizenship, participation and well-being	more info
Year Level 2: Concepts of childhood	more info
Year Level 2: Youth, Identities and Social Change	more info
Year Level 2: Youth and Popular Culture	more info
Year Level 3:Childhoods, identities and popular culture	more info
Year Level 3: Ethics, gender and the family	more info

Sports Coaching: Theory and Practice - Year Level 1 only
This subject will introduce students to the practical and theoretical aspects of sport and exercise coaching, and will enable students to develop both personal and interpersonal skills that will be of use not just in the sports arena, but also in the wider world. Through the medium of sports coaching, students will be encouraged to develop their leadership, organizational, communication and analytical skills.

Short description of breadth subjects

Creativity, young people and learning: Explore the creative world of the young

Year Level 1:  Creativity, Play and the Arts

Through the arts children play and imagine and in doing so satisfy a fundamental human need to explore, express and create. In this practice-based subject students discover the close connections between play and the arts, creativity and learning, with examples and activities drawn from a broad range of disciplines.

Year Level 2:  Youth/Arts: expressing cultural identity

This subject will explore how young people create their social and personal identities through artistic media, and will include visits to galleries and cultural sites, a 'street research- project integrating video and multimedia, and a contribution to an exhibition of student-produced
'mini cultures- such as installations and street drama.

Year Level 3:  Engaging youth: art/media/performance

This subject investigates the professional and community provision of cultural performance and artistic product for children and adolescent in the age of the 'digital native-.  A practical arts-based presentation for a specific youth audience will comprise 50 per cent of the assessment.

Creativity and learning communities: Express your own creativity

Year Level 1: Creative Projects - Digital Technologies

This subject allows students with little formal arts backgrounds to explore creativity, design and innovation in music drama and the visual arts using digital technologies, through workshops, seminars and fieldwork.

Year Level 2: Story, Symbol and Meaning in the Arts

This subject involves a practical and theoretical study of how humans construct and communicate meaning through the expressive symbol systems of the arts, focusing on narrative in drama, literature, visual arts, music and dance. Assessment includes a practical creative project.

Year Level 3: Creativity, Arts practice and the community

This subject examines links between creativity and arts practice in adult communities, through workshops seminars and field work. Assessment will take you into arts settings for observation and analysis.

Understanding knowledge: Illuminate your core studies

Year Level 1: Understanding knowing and learning

This subject will lead you to increase your understanding of the various 'ways of knowing- and develop personal theories of knowledge and its enhancement.

Year Level 2: Knowledge, learning and culture

This subject will focus on the significance of cultural and contextual framings of knowledge and learning, exploring topics such as the sociological, historical, political and cultural influences on knowledge.

Year Level 3: Creativity and knowledge enhancement

This subject will encourage students to develop their understanding of the processes involved in knowledge enhancement and transfer in the context of their own tertiary studies and to understand themselves as -knowledge enhancers-..

Youth, citizenship and Identity: Discover the roots of social identity

Year Level 1: Citizenship, participation and well-being

This subject examines the concept of citizenship, especially as it relates to youth, with a focus on how geography, gender, race and class affect citizenship.

Year Level 2: Concepts of childhood

This subject explores changing concepts of childhood through significant twentieth century research, with a focus on the rights of the child in contemporary society. or:

Year Level 2: Youth and popular culture

This subject explores the emergence of new forms of popular culture by different groups of young people, especially through music, and how global forms, such as hip hop, are appropriated for the expression of local culture. or:

Year Level 2: Youth, identities and social change

This subject explores the impact of changing social conditions on young people-s identities, focusing on changes in workplace relations, education, digital communications and family life.

Year Level 3: Childhoods, identities and popular culture

This subject explores how children construct and reconstruct their sense of self against the background of pervasive popular culture. Or:

Year Level 3: Ethics, gender and the family

Towards the end of the 20th century, feminist thinkers challenged the view that the family is a private domain. This subject will examine the growing tradition of using alternative perspectives, such as gender and childhood studies, to re-examine the family as a site of contestation over the rights and responsibilities of its members.