Subjects in Humanities aim to build the skills for lifelong learning and to encourage resilient and creative thinkers. The course material is informed by the Australian Curriculum and Victoria’s VCE to develop student knowledge and understanding of their social, physical, cultural, economic and political environment. As they progress, their horizons are widened to encompass the wider world. With the skills and knowledge being taught in the earlier years, the foundation is laid for success in the VCE years.

Year 9

Geography - Environmental Studies

From the Lakes to the High Country, our towns to our farms, our local environment is rich in resources. It is also very globally connected. Environmental Studies is a study of these many environments which aim to ensure a greater understanding and appreciation of and respect for a variety of ecosystems and our relationships with them. The students undertake regular fieldwork while participating in Outdoor Education programs.

History - Modern History and Australia

Year 9 History investigates Australia’s place in the broader context of world history between 1750 and 1918. This course will present multiple perspectives on the making of the Australian nation, beginning with Aboriginal settlement and culminating with Australia’s involvement in World War One. Integral to all topics covered is the continued development of skills such as analysis, research and critical thinking skills through discussions, presentations, research projects and comprehensive study. Students’ understanding is further enhanced by practical activities such as the election of a Year 9 Council, as well as a visit to Parliament House and the Shrine of Remembrance during the Melbourne Experience. An indigenous perspective will form part of all of these studies.

VCE

Accounting

Accounting involves modelling, forecasting and providing advice to stakeholders through the process of collecting, recording, reporting, analysing and interpreting financial and non-financial data and accounting information. This data and information is communicated to internal and external stakeholders and is used to inform decision-making within the business with a view to improving business performance. Accounting plays an integral role in the successful operation and management of businesses. VCE Accounting prepares students for a university or TAFE vocational study pathway to commerce, management and accounting, leading to careers in areas such as financial accounting, management accounting, forensic/investigative accounting, taxation, environmental accounting, management and corporate or personal financial planning.

Unit 1: Role of accounting in Business

This unit explores the establishment of a business and the role of accounting in the determination of business success or failure.

Areas of Study

1. The role of accounting;
2. Recording financial data and reporting accounting information for a servicebusiness.

Unit 2: Accounting and decision-making for a Trading Business

In this unit students develop their knowledge of the accounting process for sole proprietors operating a trading business, with a focus on inventory, accounts receivable, accounts payable and non-current assets.

Areas of Study

1. Accounting for inventory
2. Accounting for and managing accounts receivable and accounts payable
3. Accounting for and managing non-current assets

Unit 3: Financial accounting for a Trading Business

This unit focuses on financial accounting for a trading business owned by a sole proprietor and highlights the role of accounting as an information system.

Areas of Study

1. Recording and analysing financial data
2. Preparing and interpreting accounting reports

Unit 4: Recording, reporting, budgeting and decision-making

In this unit students further develops their understanding of accounting for a trading business owned by a sole proprietor and the role of accounting as an information system.

Areas of Study

1. Extension of recording and reporting
2. Budgeting and decision-making

Business Management

In studying VCE Business Management, students develop knowledge and skills that enhance their confidence and ability to participate effectively as socially responsible and ethical members, managers and leaders of the business community, and as informed citizens, consumers and investors. The study of Business Management leads to opportunities across all facets of the business and management field such as small business owner, project manager, human resource manager, operations manager or executive manager. Further study can lead to specialisation in areas such as marketing, public relations and event management.

Unit 1: Planning a business

Businesses of all sizes are major contributors to the economic and social wellbeing of a nation. This Unit provides an opportunity for students to explore the factors affecting business ideas and the internal and external environments within which businesses operate, and the effect of these on planning a business.

Areas of Study

1. The business idea
2. External environment
3. Internal environment

Unit 2: Establishing a business

This unit focuses on the establishment phase of a business’s life. Establishing a business involves complying with legal requirements as well as making decisions about how best to establish a system of financial record keeping, staff the business and establish a customer base.

Areas of Study

1. Legal requirements and financial considerations
2. Marketing a business
3. Staffing a business

Unit 3: Managing a business

In this unit students explore the key processes and issues concerned with managing a business efficiently and effectively to achieve the business objectives.

Areas of Study

1. Business foundations
2. Managing employees
3. Operations management

Unit 4: Transforming a business

Businesses are under constant pressure to adapt and change to meet their objectives. In this unit students consider the importance of reviewing key performance indicators to determine current performance and the strategic management necessary to position a business for the future.

Areas of Study

1. Reviewing performance – the need for change
2. Implementing change

Economics

Economics examines the role of consumers, businesses, governments and other organisations in the decision making about the allocation of resources, the production of goods and services and the affect that these decisions may have on material and non-material living standards. Developing students’ understanding of economics will enable them to appreciate the reasons behind these decisions and the intended and unintended consequences.

Through studying economics students develop a range of skills including the ability to gather, organise, analyse and synthesise a wide selection of economic information. They undertake independent inquiry, think critically and work collaboratively with their peers to develop viable solutions to contemporary economic issues. They utilise the economic models and tools of economists effectively to analyse and evaluate the decisions made by key economic agents and, in the process, appreciate the different viewpoints about the issues that may affect a modern economy.

Unit 1: The behaviour of consumers and businesses

Students explore some fundamental economic concepts. They examine basic economic models where consumers and businesses engage in mutually beneficial transactions and investigate the motivations and consequences of both consumer and business behaviour.

Areas of Study

1. Thinking like an economist
2. Decision making in markets

Unit 2: Contemporary economic issues

Students focus on the possible trade-off between the pursuit of growth in incomes and production and the goal of environmental sustainability and long-term economic prosperity.

Areas of Study

1. Economic growth, long-term economic prosperity and environmental sustainability
2. Economic efficiency and equity
3. Global economic issues

Unit 3: Australia’s economic prosperity

In this unit students investigate the role of the market in allocating resources and examine the factors that are likely to affect the price and quantity traded for a range of good and services.

Areas of Study

1. An introduction to microeconomics: the market system, resource allocation and government intervention.
2. Domestic macroeconomic goals
3. Australian and the world economy

Unit 4: Managing the economy

In this unit, the ability of the Australian Government to achieve its domestic macroeconomic goals and its significant effect on living standards in Australia is investigated.

Areas of Study

1. Aggregate demand policies and domestic economic stability
2. Aggregate supply policies.

Geography

VCE Geography enables students to examine natural and human induced phenomena, how and why they change, their interconnections and pattens they form across the Earths surface. In doing so, students develop a better understanding of their own place and its spaces and those in other parts of the world. These special perspectives, when integrated with historical, economical, ecological, and cultural perspectives, deepen understanding of places and environments, and the human interactions with these.

Unit 1: Hazards and Disasters

This unit investigates how people have responded to specific types of hazards and disasters.

Areas of Study

1. Characteristics of hazards
2. Response to hazards and disasters

Unit 2: Tourism

In this unit students investigate the characteristics of tourism, with particular emphasis on where it has developed, it’s various forms, how it has changed and continues to change and its impacts on people, places and environments, issues and challenges of ethical tourism.

Areas of Study

1. Characteristics of tourism
2. Impact of Tourism

Unit 3: Changing the land

This unit focuses on two investigations of geographical change: change to land cover and change to land use.

Areas of Study

1. Land cover change
2. Land use change

Unit 4: Human population – trends and Issues

Students investigate the geography of human population. Students study population dynamics before undertaking an investigation into two significant population trends arising in different parts of the world.

Areas of Study

1. Population dynamics
2. Population issues and challenges

Global Politics

Global Politics is the study of the political, social, cultural and economic forces that shape interactions between state and non-state actors in the twenty-first century. It examines the interconnectedness of twenty-first century global citizens and the impact of globalisation on culture, language, human rights and the environment. It examines the nature and effectiveness of key global actors in the twenty-first century and global challenges, including human rights, people movements, development issues and weapons proliferation. It explores the nature of global challenges such as environmental degradation, war and terrorism, and the effectiveness of responses and proposed solutions by key global actors.

Unit 3: Global Actors

In this unit students investigate the key global actors of contemporary global politics. They use evidence to analyse the key global actors and their aims, roles and power.

Areas of Study

1. Global Actors [United Nations, International Criminal Court, International Monetary Fund, Terrorist Organisations, Transitional Corporations, NGOs, States)
2. Power in the Asia Pacific [China]

Unit 4: Global Challenges

In this unit students investigate key global challenges facing the international community in the twenty- first century. They examine and analyse the debates surrounding two ethical issues that are underpinned by international law.

Areas of Study

1. Ethical Issues and Debates [Human Rights and Arms Control]
2. Global Crises [Terrorism and Climate Change]

History

VCE History incorporates a consistent approach to disciplinary thinking which is based on research about how students learn history. Within each unit there is explicit reference to historical thinking concepts. These concepts underpin the treatment of key knowledge and are an explicit part of the key skills in each area of study. The discipline of history consists of substantive and procedural knowledge. Substantive knowledge refers to an understanding of individuals, groups, events, ideas, practices and movements in specific places and times. Procedural knowledge deals with how meaning is constructed in history as a form of inquiry. These forms of knowledge are interdependent and promote depth of understanding.

Units 1 and 2: Empires

In Units 1 and 2 Empires, students investigate the foundations and features of empires and the significant global changes they brought to the wider world in the early modern period. Empires at their core were expansionist, dominating trade and political influence in their regional or global contexts. A range of key factors arising from the social, political, economic, cultural, religious, environmental and technological features of Empires played a role in the ambition and quest for power, prestige and influence over rival and competing states.

Unit 1: The making of empires 1400–1775

The Early Modern era, 1400–1775, was a time of transition between medieval feudalism and the modern, secular nation-state.

Areas of Study

1. Exploration and expansion
2. Disruptive ideas

Unit 2: Empires at work 1400–1775

In this unit students explore the operation of European colonies and the challenges they faced from within and without.

Areas of Study

1. New colonies, new profits
2. Challenges of empires

Units 3 and 4: Revolutions

In Units 3 and 4 Revolutions students investigate the significant historical causes and consequences of political revolution. Revolutions represent great ruptures in time and are a major turning point in the collapse and destruction of an existing political order which results in extensive change to society. Revolutions are caused by the interplay of events, ideas, individuals and popular movements, and the interplay between the political, social, cultural, economic and environmental conditions. Their consequences have a profound effect on the political and social structures of the post-revolutionary society. Revolution is a dramatically accelerated process whereby the new regime attempts to create political, social, cultural and economic change and transformation based on the regime’s ideology.

Unit 3: American Revolution

Areas of Study

1. Causes of revolution
2. Consequences of revolution

Unit 4: Russian Revolution

In this unit students investigate the continuing development of the nation in the early part of the twentieth century and the dramatic changes that occurred in the latter part of the century.

Areas of Study

1. Crises that tested the nation 1929–1945
2. Voices for change 1965–2000

Legal Studies

Legal Studies examines the institutions and principles which are essential to Australia’s legal system. In contemporary Australian society there is a range of complex laws that exist to protect the rights of individuals and to achieve social cohesion. These laws are made by bodies such as parliament and the courts and are upheld by a number of institutions and processes within the legal system. Members of society interact with the laws and the legal system in many aspects of their lives and can influence law makers.

The study of VCE Legal Studies enables students to become active and informed citizens by providing them with valuable insights into their relationship with the law and the legal system.

Unit 1: Guilt and liability

In this unit students develop an understanding of different types and sources of law and the existence of a court hierarchy in Victoria. Students investigate key concepts of criminal law and civil law and apply these to actual and/or hypothetical scenarios to determine whether an accused may be found guilty of a crime, or liable in a civil dispute.

Areas of Study

1. Legal foundations
2. The presumption of innocence
3. Civil liability

Unit 2: Sanctions, remedies and rights

This unit focuses on the enforcement of criminal law and civil law, the methods and institutions that may be used to determine a criminal case or resolve a civil dispute, and the purposes and types of sanctions and remedies and their effectiveness.

Areas of Study

1. Sanctions
2. Remedies
3. Rights

Unit 3: Rights and justice

In this unit students examine the methods and institutions in the justice system and consider their appropriateness in determining criminal cases and resolving civil disputes.

Areas of Study

1. The Victorian criminal justice system
2. The Victorian civil justice system

Unit 4: The people and the law

In this unit, students explore how the Australian Constitution establishes the law-making powers of the Commonwealth and state parliaments, and protects the Australian people through structures that act as a check on parliament in law-making.

Areas of Study

1. The people and the Australian Constitution
2. The People, the Parliament and the Courts