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A visit to the Sydney Jewish Museum provides opportunities for students to gain knowledge and understanding about the interrelated strands of the HSIE Syllabus, namely, change and continuity, cultures, environments, and social systems and structures. The values and attitudes relating to Social Justice, Intercultural Understanding, Democratic Processes, Beliefs and Moral Codes, Lifelong Learning, embedded in the content of the Syllabus are reinforced in the themes, perspectives and displays of the Museum. Education staff of the Museum is able to structure the content of a class visit for students from stage 1 to stage 3 consistent with Syllabus subject matter and in consultation with teachers, to support learning at appropriate stages for expected outcomes and indicators. Examples follow:

Stage 1: Content Overview – Implications for Learning and Teaching

Cultural Diversity: students will have opportunities to:

• Learn about families and groups from familiar and unfamiliar cultures and communities through various sources, (e.g. visit to Museum and interaction with guides and age appropriate worksheets and displays)
• Become aware of cultural differences among students and their family and community groups and between communities

Change and Continuity: students will have opportunities to:

• Collect and display evidence of local history by providing students opportunities to listen to oral histories…and to visit local museums…(e.g. Oral history of a Guide at the Museum). Teachers will provide opportunities for students to interview and listen to people about life in past generations

Cultures: the Museum visit will provide teachers with the opportunity to:

• Point out that diversity is important and that we value difference, and provide opportunities to consider negative attitudes towards diversity, including racism, stereotyping and discrimination

Stage 2: Content Overview – Implications for Learning and Teaching

Change and Continuity- Time and Change: students will have opportunities to:

• Investigate aspects and versions of local history e.g. arrival of different cultural groups and the effects of change in the area. (e.g. interaction with Survivor Guides; worksheets, displays impact of Jewish migration)

Cultures –students will have opportunities to:

• Observe life in the community, looking for shared and diverse characteristics such as languages, spiritual beliefs, religions, customs and symbols (e.g. prepared worksheets – Museum visit)
• Consider examples where individuals and groups are treated unfairly, e.g. discrimination based on race, skin colour, language, religious belief, gender. (e.g. age appropriate exhibits, displays, worksheets).

Stage 3: Content Overview – Implications for Learning and Teaching

Change and Continuity –students will have opportunities to:

• Critically investigate the contributions of events and people of significance to Australian heritage using a variety of primary and secondary sources (e.g. displays and Museum exhibits, prepared worksheets)
• Develop an understanding of democracy as a form of government in which political control is exercised by all people, either directly or through their elected representatives. (e.g. introduction to other forms of government such as Nazi Germany)

Teachers will create opportunities to:

• Encourage discussion on fundamental Australian ideals such as freedom of political belief, religion, speech, freedom from racial persecution (e.g. contrast with Nazi Germany; prepared worksheets, appropriate exhibits)

Cultures – teachers will create opportunities to:

• Select resources that represent a variety of cultural groups and provide different viewpoints including first hand experiences of a particular culture (e.g. visit to the Sydney Jewish Museum)
• Point out and illustrate the cultural diversity of Australia as a whole as well as within different cultural groups

Social Systems and Structures- teachers will create opportunities to:

Encourage students to appreciate that their actions affect others and reinforce the notion of accepting responsibility for their actions. (e.g. See "Heroes" in "Teaching the Holocaust" Years 6-9; concept of "Righteous Among the Nations" worksheets, age appropriate exhibits)
• Draw attention to the meanings of terms such as "discrimination", "equality" and "fairness" and provide opportunities to consider these terms in relation to possible conflicts and solutions. (e.g. historical perspective, Nazi Germany)
• Explore covert examples of racism, their causes, and strategies for addressing them. (e.g. introduction of concept through Jewish experiences of the Twentieth Century)
• Show concern for the welfare, rights and dignity of all people by contributing to school based activities and the work of community organizations