Understanding Our Community

Strands: The unit package is designed to bring about students’ learning experience covered in the 6 stands of PSHE curriculum.

1.Personal and Social Development: Self and society

Knowledge / to understand the importance of valuing oneself as an active community member
Skills / to clarify the values and beliefs underlying his/her own decisions
Values and Attitudes / to show concern and care for the community issues

2.Time, Continuity and Change:Understanding the past, change and continuity

Knowledge / to understand the significant historical developments of local community
to understand the positive and negative impacts of changes on local environment and life of people from historical developments
Skills / to master ways of constructing major historical events in local areas,the relationships between events and people in the community, as well as to make logical inference on cause and effect
to respond to various information on community heritage conservation
Values and Attitudes: / to cultivate an enquiring mind through learning changes taken place in an area

3.Cultural and Heritage:Customs and traditions

Challenges and repercussions ofa society

Cultural diversity and interaction

Knowledge / to understand culture and heritage of major communities of our society and identify different ways of conserving cultural heritage
Skills / to make use of different sources of information for the understanding and comparison of major features of different cultures
Values and Attitudes / to support work relating to the preservation and conservation of our heritage
to respect the customs and cultures of peoples from different communities, people and places of different backgrounds

4.Place and Environment:Natural and human features of a place

People-environment interrelationships

Conservation and sustainable development

Knowledge / to understanding how the interaction of natural and man-made environments affects human activities and explain why people living in different places respond differently
Skills / to use maps and other graphical representations to explain patterns observed and processes at work in different places and environment
Values and Attitudes / to participate actively in promoting environmental awareness to others

5.Resources and Economic activities:Production and consumption

People and work

Knowledge / to recognize the contributions of primary, secondary and tertiary sectors to the economic development of local community

6.Social systems and citizenship: Rights, responsibility and social virtue

Social system political system and interaction

Knowledge / to know the key features of local social groups and political bodies
to understand the causes and effects of some social and political issues
Skills / to develop enquiry skills in relation to public issues / civic affairs
to develop civic competency in order to participate in local affairs
Values and Attitudes / to keep informed about current affairs, and be willing to contribute to resolving problems / issues at local level

The Design Rationales

The design of this unit aims at providing a flexible framework with supports of multi-level teaching and learning materials for school use. It is also designed to suit unique school cultures and contexts, individual teacher's interests and areas of study, diversified learning needs of students and availability of community resources.

The unit package consists of 3 parts:

Part One- Sections A - C: 3 core units are designed to carry out investigation on the relationship between the community and people. These units cover topics on population, demography, urban design and planning, community facilities and community problems. After studying the core units, students will have a basic understanding on the community they live in.

Part Two - Sections D - F:3optional units are available for schools with interests and resources on economy-environment interaction, culture-natureinterface and people-environmentinterrelationships. The units provide students authentic learning experiences in the contexts beyond classroom.

Part Three - Section G: The extended learning unit provides guidelines and planning tools for teachers to carry out an enquirylearning project. Students, with the support from teachers, engage in active learning and benefit from hands-on learning experience.

Unit structure and focus:

Section / Contact hours / Unit Title / Focus / key concepts
Part One– Core Units
A / 3 / Geographical characteristics and surroundings /
  • local scenic spots
  • built features
  • natural environment

B / 3 / Popoulation in the community /
  • population structure,
  • birth rate and aging population
  • population changes
  • local socio-economic development

C / 3 / Community features and planning /
  • community infrastructure and facilities
  • environment and hygiene
  • town planning

Part Two– Optional Units
D / 3 / Economic activities and our living environment /
  • local economic activities
  • living environment
  • life in community

E / 3 / Culture and nature /
  • origin and history of an area
  • built and cultural heritage
  • heritage conservation
  • local community characters

F / 3 / Community needs and supports /
  • government organizations
  • non-government organizations
  • social needs
  • social supports and services

Part Three– Extended Learning Unit
G / 6 / Local developments and community actions /
  • local problems and developments
  • local groups (social / political)
  • community care and actions
  • interviewing and survey
  • forum and role play

Aims and objectives:

This unit is designed to help students understand better the community they live in. Through various activities in this unit, students have opportunities to explore physical features and characteristics of their community. They also study authentic information and materials about their community so as to understand the community development and issues taken place in their living environment.

Knowledge -Through the activities in this unit, students will be able to:

  • describe the physical features, community facilitates and socio-economic characteristics of their community;
  • identify the needs of the people in the community and evaluate living environment;
  • demonstrate their understanding of community issues and explain the impact of the issues to the community; and
  • evaluate information, make judgment according to a set of criteria and suggest resolutions to an issue.

Skills -Through the activities in this unit, students will be able to:

  • make sense of various sources of information (e.g. data, text and graphics);
  • apply previous knowledge and given / collected information to carry out evaluation and to reach decision individually and collaboratively;and
  • make use of different sources of information for analysis and for decision-making.

Values and attitudes -Through the activities in this unit, students may:

  • respondto and respect views and suggestions of others ;
  • cultivate respect for and appreciation of the cultural and historical aspects of people and places;and
  • show care and concern for the people and the environment.

Unit objective and description

A. Geographical characteristics and features
Learning objectives / Activities
In this section, students have an overview on the places they live through collecting pictures and photos, describing the places and activities. / Activity 1
Students collect photos and pictures that represent the uniqueness of physical and natural setting of the community. They also suggest what to see and do in the places they selected.
Activity 2
Students design an itinerary for visitors to go around in the community and explain how their design fits the visitors of different interests in a place.
B. People in the community
Learning objectives / Activities
In this section, students pay attention to the socio-economic characteristics of the people living in a place by using and studying the statistical data. / Activity 1
From the statistical data in the local area, students find out the population composition and compare the information with that of Hong Kong. They also suggest the problems / issues to be alert for community development.
Activity 2
Using the data and information, students find out the changes taken place about the population composition over 10 years in thelocal area.
Activity 3
Studying the recent census data, students show how the information is useful to their understanding of the socio-economic aspects of a place.
C. Community features and planning
Learning objectives / Activities
In this section, students explore the features and characteristics of local area and suggest improvement on their living environment through using their observationsand a set of criteria. / Activity 1
Students collect information and give examples of community facilities from their observation / investigation.
Activity 2
Students use the given assessment tools, combine comments of their own with those of their groupmates and come up with a consensus on 3 problems needed to resolve in the area.
Activity 3
Students read a local report on a development project related to the area from a district-based newspaper and give their views and comments to the issue.
D. Economic activities and our living environment
Learning objectives / Activities
In this section, students reflect on their daily consumption and understand how local economic activities relate to daily life and living environment of the people in the area. / Activity 1
Students record the shopping listfor the past 3 days and find out how their daily life is related to a variety of economic activities in the local area.
Activity 2
Students collect examples of various economic activities in the area and illustrate how these activities cause impacts on their living and the environment.
E. Culture and nature
Learning objectives / Activities
In this section, students understand the values of community heritage and cultivateappreciation to them through discussingand applying the public views and concepts on heritage conservation. / Activity 1
Students read the 12 statements about the development of a community. They select the descriptions appropriately tell about their community and give evidence to support their selection.
Activity 2
Students read the 5 articles about community heritage and values. They discuss the relationships of community values and people’s attitudes towards their living environment.
Activity 3
Students select a building / a place of their favorite and apply the concept of community values (e.g. emotional attachment / collective memory) to their selections.
F. Community needs and supports
Learning objectives / Activities
In this section, students explore and are aware of the social services that support the people in need. They raise their concerns and care of people in the area through studying the given cases. / Activity 1
Students visit a local social service centre(government / non-government) and give a brief introduction to its organization and services.
Activity 2
Students study the 9 cases and identify their social needs. Using the information they collected in Activity 1, students suggest the social services that meet their needs.
G. Local developments and community actions
Learning objectives / Activities
In this section, students engage in a more in-depth study on local issues / problems and pay attention to local community actions initiated by local groups. They express their views and suggestions through participating into role-play activity and carrying out a small-scale opinion survey about the issue. / Activity 1
Students observe and choose recent community actions initiated by local parties and tell how their actions draw attention from the government to improve the living conditions of the people in the community.
Activity 2
Following up the issue selected in Activity 1, students collect more views on the issue and provide evidence to support / justify their points of views. In the role play activity, they prepare a meeting with residents and get ready to explain to them the selected issue.
Activity 3
Students carry out a small-scale opinion survey and find out how others respondto the issue/problem. They need to sum up the results and give a short report on the findings.