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Australian Curriculum
http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/HomeThe Choose a Ride film links to the Australian Curriculum, with a particular focus on the General Capabilities of ‘Ethical Understanding’ and ‘Personal and Social Competence.’
General capabilities are a key dimension of the Australian Curriculum. They encompass skills, behaviours and dispositions that students develop and apply to content knowledge and that support them in becoming successful learners, confident and creative individuals and active and informed citizens.
Throughout their schooling students develop and use these capabilities in their learning across the curriculum, in co-curricular programs and in their lives outside school. The Australian Curriculum includes seven general capabilities:
- Literacy
- Numeracy
- Information and communication technology (ICT) competence
- Critical and creative thinking
- Ethical behaviour
- Personal and social competence
- Intercultural understanding.
‘Ethical behaviour,’ and ‘personal and social competence’ focus on ways of acting, behaving and learning to live with others.
As they develop ethical behaviour students learn to:
- recognise that everyday life involves consideration of competing values, rights, interests and social norms
- identify and investigate moral dimensions in issues
- develop an increasingly complex understanding of ethical concepts, the status of moral knowledge and accepted values and ethical principles
As they develop personal and social competence students learn to:
- recognise and understand their own emotions, values and strengths, have a realistic assessment of their own abilities and a well-grounded sense of self-esteem and self- confidence (Self-awareness)
- manage their emotions and behaviour, persevere in overcoming obstacles, set personal and academic goals, develop self-discipline, resilience, adaptability and initiative (Self-management)
- perceive and understand other people’s emotions and viewpoints, show understanding and empathy for others, identify the strengths of team members, define and accept individual and group roles and responsibilities, be of service to others (Social awareness)
- form positive relationships, manage and influence the emotions and moods of others, cooperate and communicate effectively with others, work in teams, build leadership skills, make decisions, resolve conflict and resist inappropriate social pressure (Social management).
For further information on the General Capabilities go to http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/GeneralCapabilities
Teacher/Facilitator Notes
Before the Film
Conduct a think/pair/share activity and ask students what choices they have made recently, noting the nature of the choice and what influenced their decision.
During the Film
Have students reflect on the question: What influences your choices and decision-making? Record some thoughts (words, questions...) on sticky notes as you are watching the film. (These will be used in a follow-up activity to categorise ideas and understandings).
After the Film (PMI)
Ask students to group their ‘sticky notes’ from the film into positives, minuses and ‘interestings’ in the form of a PMI and display centrally.
Have students engage in a gallery walk and ask them to note any words that they think require more clarification. E.g. What was the word ‘stupidity’ referring to?
Follow-up Possible Discussion Questions:
General Questions:
- What is the message of the film about car stealing? Are there other messages?
- Is this a believable situation in the context of teenagers’ lives?
- Was there anything you found surprising about this video?
- Does this film help you understand decision-making?
- What is your interpretation of the ending?
Questions related to ethical behaviour
- How would you describe what was going on?
What were some of the choices that the characters made?
- What choices could they have made?
- Questions related to values?
- Who are the ‘winners’ and who are the ‘losers?’
- Why do we make some ‘good’ decisions and why do we make some we later regret?
- What makes a choice right?
- What makes a choice good?
- What is the difference between a right decision and a good decision?
Questions related to personal and social competence
- What are some of the strengths and weaknesses in the characters?
- Which characters displayed power?
- Have you ever felt like a character from the video?
- What are some of the feelings that you think were experienced by the characters?
- Did the people involved have choices or did other factors seem to limit their options?
- What are some of the questions we can ask ourselves when faced with difficult situations?
Conclusion
What words/concepts could you choose from the PMI list/s and the follow-up discussion to create a personal ‘mantra’ that will assist you in making decisions in the future?
Background
Use the Facts below to support your work from the Choose a Ride film.
- A car is stolen every eleven minutes in Australia.
- 127 car thefts every day adds up to more than 46,300 thefts a year.
- The majority of cars stolen are taken for short term purposes including joyriding, transport, to commit another crime or simply vandalism.
- Half of all cars stolen in Australia are stolen by someone under the age of 17. 1
- On any day there are around 1000 young people in juvenile detention in Australia with close to 6000 young people aged between 10 and 17 sentenced to detention each year. A very high proportion of the young people sentenced to detention have had involvement in vehicle theft offences. 2
- In the past five years 40 people have been killed in a motor vehicle theft related incident. Sixteen of these deaths were of young people aged between 10 and 19. 3
- Of the 40 people that lost their lives, 15 were the driver of the stolen car, eight were passengers in the stolen car and eight were innocent bystanders – either occupants of another car or pedestrians.
- In 80 per cent of cases involving death of a person, speed was a contributing factor in the crash.
- For every death there are many more people injured – occupants of the stolen car as well as innocent bystanders - in motor vehicle theft related accidents.
1 NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research; SA, QLD and VIC Police Annual Reports 2009/10.
2 Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Juvenile Justice in Australia 2008-09.
3 National Coroner’s Information System (NCIS).
Impact of motor vehicle theft on victims
- While young people commit a large proportion of car theft, it is very often other young people who fall victim; as many will own older cars with minimal levels of security. When a young person steals a car they are often depriving another young person of something that has significant personal and financial importance to them.
- Having a car stolen can cause all sorts of difficulties – both financial and emotional. Without a car many people are not able to get to work, university, meet family responsibilities, or participate in social events and are forced to expend extra time and energy organising alternative transport.
- When their car is stolen many people find that they still owe money on a car that they no longer have, or is recovered badly damaged and in need of expensive repairs.
- It’s not always the case that the victim will recover all of their costs through insurance. Some people may not be insured. And even when a car is insured victims find that they still have many other expenses that are not covered by insurance including alternative transport costs, replacing personal items stolen from their car and costs associated with not being able to use their car such as loss of work or income. On average, victims report these costs being between $1000 and $3000.
- You never know what is going on in someone’s life – they may be a single parent struggling to raise their child, a young person who has just got their first job and who rely on their car for commuting, a chronically ill person who needs their car to get to regular medical treatment, an elderly person who has driven the same car for many years and who stand to lose their independence without the car.
- A less often considered scenario is if you unknowingly purchase a car from someone privately that has been stolen. If the Police suspect the car is stolen they will seize the stolen vehicle and you can be left without a car and possibly a large debt.
Examples of questions
- If your family’s car was stolen how would it affect your family? How would it affect you personally?
- How would you feel if you had saved up and purchased a car and it was stolen from you?
- Who else could be affected by a stolen car being driven around in the area the neighbourhood where you live, go to school, or play?
- Draw a concept map showing a stolen car in the middle of your piece of paper. Mark all the consequences that you are aware of that would come from having a car stolen.
Links
For more information:CAR-SAFE
Youthlaw
Kids Help Line
http://www.kidshelp.com.au/
1800 55 1800
Reach Out
National Children’s and Youth Law Centre Website
Youth Advocacy Centre
Headspace
Listing of Australian Community Legal Centres
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/clc/
Legal Aid Youth Hotline
1800 10 18 10