History Teachers’ Association of Australia
Transformative Pedagogies with New Technologies
The World in the 1930s
A Case Study on Australia during the period of the Great Depression
Years 9-10
Hayley Pickett
The Friends School (TAS)
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CONTEXT
The Great Depression (1929-32) was a time of extreme hardship for people in Australia. The goal
was for the students to have an in depth understanding of how the depression affected everyday
Australians, giving them an insight into the issues, concerns and hardships – to examine the social
impact of the times upon Australian society. Many Australians were going without work and a
steady income; people losing their homes and forced to live in makeshift dwellings. Significantly,
many moments from this era were captured for the first time on camera – moving images of endless
dole queues, shantytowns and the everyday man on the street – and his family. These particular
sources were the focus of the unit and instrumental in encouraging students’ understanding of the
time.
General Educational Outcomes
This unit was designed to
• examine social and economic developments and events and evaluate their impact on
Australian life.
• select, organise and identify historical sources.
• present and evaluate source material using ICT
Thinking and planning:
This unit had both a global perspective and Australian focus. As an Independent School, Friends’
School has the flexibility to address different areas of curriculum and it is not restricted by
government-directed curriculum. The Year 10 course itself is quite flexible and follows aspects of
other history courses in Australia. It also incorporates preparatory work for students going on to
Year 11/12 Modern World and Australian History.
Sequentially, the Australian Unit on the Great Depression follows a study of World War One –
Global and Australian Perspective, Causes of WW1, Gallipoli, how Australian society changed due
to WW1 and the Aftermath of WW1 – Peace Conference, Treaty of Versailles.
The global aspect of the unit introduced students to consequences of such actions as the Treaty of
Versailles upon Germany, as well as examining in detail other significant international events of
this time. For the background to this unit, two weeks were spent on the following.
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Consequences of the Treaty Of Versailles on Germany (‘Boom or Bust’ BBC Documentary
Series)
Wall St Crash: Why? How? Repercussions.
Global Perspective 1920s – 30s What was going on around the world? (China, Japan,
Russia, Italy, Britain.) Students completed a group task which is outlined in Appendix 1.
Throughout the activities, we focused on the following criteria
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Demonstrates an understanding of terminology and concepts
Demonstrates an ability to analyse sources
Communicates ideas and information (Key Competency)
Plans, organises and completes activities (Key Competency)
Works constructively with others (Key Competency)
Selects and uses technologies appropriately and responsibly (Key Competency)
Activity1
Introduction to Australia in the Great Depression – Students undertook textbook readings:
‘Retroactive. Stage 5 Australian History. Jacaranda Edition 2’.
Activity 2
Norman Dean: Great Depression TLF ID L371
Students in pairs investigated The Learning Federation (TLF) learning object –Norman Dean: Great
Depression (L371) - creating a ‘story board’ which was printed and displayed in the classroom - a
whole class discussion followed, focussing on the diversity of storyboards and the selection of
examples to talk about.
I selected this particular TLF learning object because of
the visual and written content which covered an
abundance of material on the Great Depression. The
visual and written material content of the learning object
also had the potential to provide students with a great
deal of information and data for further analysis.
The learning object reflected the criteria above,
especially dot points two and six.
Acknowledgement – Photograph courtesy of State Library of Victoria.
Activity 3
The whole class viewed Bread and Dripping (R7423, R7424, R7425.). A class discussion followed,
looking at the relevant aspects of the film, linking it to ideas related to the social impact of the
Depression on the everyday person. Clips of the film from TLF were available for students to
highlight certain aspects of the Depression. These clips are available via australianscreen website http://www.australianscreen.com.au
Activity 4
Students were then introduced to the task of selecting a film clip from the Australian Screen
Internet site linked specifically to the Great Depression material provided by the teacher. This task
is outlined below.
Great Depression Film Analysis
The purpose of this task is to assist you to understand the use of film in explaining
and evaluating the impact of the Great depression on Australia.
You are to download one clip on the Great Depression using the link below.
http://australianscreen.com.au/education/history/great-depression/
You may wish to use these direct links to clips that have already been chosen as
representative of the time:
Great Depression film clips:
Bread and Dripping: http://australianscreen.com.au/titles/bread-and-dripping/clip1/,
http://australianscreen.com.au/titles/bread-and-dripping/clip2/
Love Nor Money: http://australianscreen.com.au/titles/love-or-money/clip2/
Winners: http://australianscreen.com.au/titles/winners-paperboy/clip1/http://australianscreen.com.au/titles/winners-paper-boy/clip3/
Use the Film Analysis Questions below to support your investigation:
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What is the purpose of the stimulus?
What extra knowledge is required in order to understand the stimulus?
Why was the stimulus produced?
What does the stimulus depict?
What feelings or attitudes are evoked by the stimulus?
When analysing a source we must always ask ourselves how reliable and useful
it is in establishing an understanding of the time.
Always ask yourself
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How accurate is this source?
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How truthful is this source?
What assistance does this source give a historian in understanding a particular
problem and issue?
Activity 5 Written Assessment
Australia in the Great Depression
Newspaper Article - Creative Writing
Read the background information in your textbook about the Great depression in
Australia.
You have looked at aspects of and heard about life in Australia in the boom time of the
1920s. Using the background information and using one of the photographs from the
websites below, imagine that you are a reporter for an Australian newspaper in the
1930s, writing a feature article on life for ordinary people in the Great Depression. Use
a photograph from the collections to illustrate and inform your article.
In the creation of your article refer to the material in the learning object, Norman Dean:
Great Depression(L371) as well as the documents provided in class that give first hand
accounts of the struggle working people encountered.
The following Criteria will be used to judge your article:
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Demonstrates an ability to analyse sources
Communicates ideas and information (Key Competency)
Resources:
Digital Resources – provided by teacher
Possible Websites:
http://www.pictureaustralia.org
http://australianscreen.com.au/education/history/great-depression/
During this unit students had the opportunity to work in various configurations. These included
• Individual/pair: this unit of work enabled students to undertake a number of activities in which
they had to make decisions, analyse, create and present items to the class and for individual
assessment. One example was the product they created in pairs, in relation to the learning object,
Norman Dean: Great Depression (L371).
As individuals, they had two assessment tasks: Film Analysis and the Newspaper Article.
• Whole class: Discussions took place throughout the unit. The purpose of these discussions was to
enable students to express and share their views.
Other technologies:
Laptops
Television/Video/DVD Recorder
Reflection
Students were interested in this area of the course. After a lot of work examining war and conflict,
looking at societal changes and daily life enabled a more sociological exploration and created a
deeper understanding of early Australian life. I think the main issue with conducting the Unit was
the time frame and, although the time allowed to ‘back end’ the actual Australian Unit was needed,
it did take away from the time allowance for the entire Unit of work. Other school activities also
took precedence over a number of the allocated classes ie. Cross Country, as well as Fire Alarm!
The learning object task was completed with varying success – some student pairs were not able to
complete the activity in the time allowed (55 minutes) – and as the learning object cannot be
‘saved’ it was certainly a problem if students hadn’t finished by the end of the allocated lesson. This
limited the decision-making time for each group – starting again the following lesson had to be an
option for one pair. If I were to do something like this again, I would not make the end product the
‘storyboard’ as a necessary ‘result’ of the task or even the assessment item. I would use the learning
object in a ‘critique’ type exercise, examining the material within rather than the creation of an
actual product. However, they did enjoy working through the activity – the material was varied and
at their level. The use of the learning object enabled students to explore new ideas through
technologies and investigate ways in which their ideas could be expressed in writing and by visual
text.
Appendix 1
10 History Group Assignment – Global perspective 1920 – 30’s
What was going on around the world?
Issues:
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Impact of WW1: treaties, land acquisition, economic hardship.
Societal structure: family, work, recreation.
Economic/Political changes and emerging ideologies: industry, technology: leadership
Issues which may relate to the outbreak of WW2
Topics:
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Japan
China
Italy
Britain
USA
Russia
1.
2.
Product:
Presentation to class – creation of slideshow (5 – 10 minute in length)
One A4 handout to distribute to all class members: Be aware of your audience.
N.B Bibliography Essential
Criteria Assessed:
Criteria 1 – Understanding terms and concepts
Criteria 3 – Communicating ideas
Criteria 8 – Working constructively with others
Criteria 9 – Selecting and useing technologies appropriately and responsibly
Acknowledgement – ‘Criteria Assessed’ based on Tasmanian Certificate of Education requirements.