Unit 2: Area of Study

1, Outcome One:
Ideas and Political Power
1945-2000

This Unit: Where

Weve Come From,
and Where Were
Going:

This Area of Study focuses on ideas, politics and power coming

out of the Second World War. In particular, there is a focus on
the United States and the Soviet Union as superpowers, and
examining how their contrasting views effected the remainder
of the world.
OUTCOME: On completion of this unit the student should be
able to analyse and discuss how post-war societies used
ideologies to legitimise their worldview and portray competing
systems
We envisage this Unit as being composed of 3 eight-lesson
segments covering:
-United States policies and ideologies
-Soviet Union policies and ideologies
-Vietnam War as a culmination of these

Weeks

Content
Knowledg
e

Activities

Resource
s

Assessment
& Skills

Weeks
1&2
America
as a

-Ideology
(Capitalism)
-Rise to Power
-Preparing for
War (Space
Race, Cuban
Missile Crisis)

-Collaborative
Learning
Research Task
(America and
the Cold War)

-School Text
Book

FORMATIVE:
Visual sources

Weeks
3&4
Soviet
Union as
a
Superpow
er

-Ideology
(Communism)
-Rise to Power
-Preparing for
War (Space
Race, Cuban
Missile Crisis)

-Mini-Debate

-School
Text Book

FORMATIVE:
Written
sources

Weeks
5&6
Vietnam

-Warefare
tactics
-Life as a
Soldier

-Source
analysis
(written and
visual)

-National
Archives
and Shrine
of

SUMMATIVE:
-Source
analysis
created by the

Superpow
er

(America vs.
Russia)

Key Knowledge and

Skills
KEY KNOWLEDGE:

the ways in which the competing groups represented themselves and each
other; for example, views on the individual in society, the proper function of the
state, tolerance of dissent and minority groups, view of nationalism

the propagation and maintenance of ideological views both domestically and

beyond their borders; for example, the use of the media, symbols, espionage,
competition, physical force and the law
KEY SKILLS:
use key concepts relevant to the selected historical conflict; such as ideology,
power, racism, communism, capitalism, imperialism, ethnicity and nationalism
analyse written and visual evidence

synthesise evidence to draw conclusions

present historical material using conventions such as quotations, footnotes
and a bibliography

Assessment
Formative:
In both of the Policies and Ideologies sub-units,
students will be required to complete source
analysis specific to the Superpower being studied.
This is in preparation for the summative
assessment task.
Summative:
The final assessment task will be a practice SAC
where students will demonstrate their knowledge
by completing a source analysis. This will be
designed by the students and we will decide on the
best three to be distributed.

How We Are Getting

Them There:
Warfare and Life As A Soldier
On The Home Front &
Resistance
The Propagation and
Maintenance of Ideological
Views

Warfare and Life As A

Soldier
Due to the nature of the summative
assessment task, there will be a heavy focus
on source analysis within this unit.
Activities include:
-Guerrilla inquiry task (ICT)
-Source analysis considering life as a
soldier during the Vietnam War
-Including statistics analysis, image
analysis and written sources.
These activities have been designed to
promote historical empathy.

Great Source Activity

This website has 29 sources
to analyse accompanied by
an information package.
http://www.anzacday.org.au
/education/activities/viet
_experience/images/experie
nce.pdf

On The Homefront
As the Vietnam War continued, opposition rose on
the home front due to conscription. In 1964
conscription was introduced. The activities that will
be included within this unit help students identify the
experiences of those at war, develop empathy
towards them as looking at primary evidence of
those who supported and opposed the war.
Develops and promotes historical reasoning and
critical thinking skills.
Identify a description of the literal and symbolic
elements in each poster, the historical context in
which the posters were produced, the target
audience for such material, what the posters reveal
about the conflict at the time (VCAA, 2014).

Propaganda Example

The Propagation and

Maintenance of
Ideologies
The focus will be on the way the
Superpowers expressed their ideologies in
the context of Vietnam. Emphasis will be
placed on historiography and well as
collaborative learning.
Activities include:
-Student led Teach for a Period
-Student-based inquiry task which will
ultimately culminate into the students
summative assessment
tasks.

Historiography
Pedagogy

Students are asked to find two contrasting

documents on the same topic of the
Vietnam War, focusing on the ideological
views of the Superpowers within this
context.

It is an essential part of understanding

the history profession and helps sharpen
students history skills and enhance
content knowledge. It can also be used to
teach important critical thinking and
reading skillsp42.

Collaborative Learning
Students broken up into groups of around
three to research key terms including:
media; symbols; espionage; competition;
physical force and the law.
Students then scaffolded to teach the class
about their topic and become the expert.
Gokhale (1995) The active exchange of
ideas within small groups not only
increases interest among the participants
but also promotes critical thinking1045.

Inquiry Pedagogy
Li and Lim (2008) emphasize the importance of
properly scaffolding any inquiry tasks to ensure
that students are getting the most out the activity.
Social studies educators believe that doing
inquiry in the online environment has great
potential in history teaching and learning. There
are several reasons as follows. First of all, online
inquiry can make history learning more interesting
and engaging through online inquiry tasks,
students can recognise their knowledge gap, which
then leads to curiosity and a focused motivation
to learn 1395.

References/ Resources
http://www.anzacday.org.au/education/activities/viet_experience/images/experience
.pdf
Cowie, H. R. (1987). Obedience or choice: the major issues of the modern world. Milton, Qld.:
Jacaranda.
Gokhale, A. (1995). Collaborative Learning Enhances Critical Thinking.Journal of Technology
Education, 7(1), 1045-1064.
Hoefferle, C. (2007). Teaching Historiography to High School and Undergraduate Students.
OAH Magazine of History, 21(2), 40-44.
Li, D. D., & Lim, C. P., (2008) Scaffolding online historical inquiry tasks: A case study of two
secondary school classrooms, Computers and Education, 50(4): 1394-1410.
Making history: middle secondary units : investigating people and issues in Australia after
World War II.. (2003). Carlton, Vic.: Curriculum Corporation.
Triolo, R. (2012). Home Front. Canberra: Department of Veterans Affairs (Propaganda Poster)
Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority, (2014) VCE History study design,
http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Documents/vce/history/history- sd.pdf