UNCC100 MODULE 4: UNCC100 MODULE 4: Hot Topics Hot Topics

Contents Introduction Contemporary challenges to the common good Links to hot topics The Final Assessment Task
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Module 4: Hot Topics
Activities and materials in this module will help you to meet: Learning Outcome 3: present a critical account of a topic or issue in social justice; Graduate Attribute
2: recognise your responsibility to the common good, the environment and society (which we will do through the content of the module); Graduate Attribute 4: think
critically and reflectively (which you will do through the skills processes involved in completing the activities); Graduate Attribute 5: demonstrate values,
knowledge, skills and attitudes appropriate to the discipline and/or profession (which we will do through the content of the module); and Graduate Attribute 9:
demonstrate effective communication in oral and written English language and visual media (which you will do through the skills processes involved in completing the
activities). Warning Topics considered in UNCC LEO materials and in class discussions may be disturbing for some students. If you are affected, please contact your
Campus Leader and/or the University Counselling Service. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders are advised that this site may include voices or images of people who
have passed away. It may also contain links to sites that may use images of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people now deceased.
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4.1 Contemporary challenges to the common good: hot topics
There are two ‘hot topics’ provided in this module to help you apply the knowledge you have learned in the unit. While you will focus on one for your assessment, you
will need to work through material in both at this stage for your class or exam preparation. As you read each hot topic, consider the following questions (This will
assist you in your preparation for your classes or exams). 1. Why do you think social justice or the common good is a critical factor in this case? 2. What are the
various perspectives in play, and who holds these perspectives? a. Who benefits from any course of action supported by this particular stakeholder? b. Who is impacted
by any course of action supported by this particular stakeholder? 3. What principles promoting human flourishing should be considered in relation to this hot topic? 4.
How can the needs of all involved best be met? Please note: Be sure to check your unit outline for all assessment requirements.
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Links to hot topics 4.1.1 Hot Topic Whale Wars: Politics, Science and the World’s Largest Mammal
Image: ”Japan Factory Ship Nissin Maru Whaling Mother and Calf”, by Customs and Border Protection Service, Commonwealth of Australia, Feb 6, 2008. CC BY-SA 2.0.
Source: Wikimedia commons View this hot topic online or download the PDF
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4.1.2 Hot Topic No Child’s Play: Children in Immigration Detention
Image of children in the Nauru detention centre. Provided by The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre. Used with permission. View this hot topic online or download a PDF
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4.2 The Final Assessment Task THE GRADUATE ATTRIBUTES AND THE FINAL ASSESSMENT TASK: HOW DO THEY WORK TOGETHER?
At a number of points in this unit, you have been referred to the Australian Catholic University Graduate Attributes, and have been encouraged to use the resources
provided to enhance your skills in particular areas. Several of these skills will be utilised—and some explicitly tested—along with selected learning outcomes.
Graduate Attribute 2: recognise your responsibility to the common good, the environment and society It would be hard to imagine that you have come this far in UNCC100
without being required to recognise your responsibility to the common good, the environment and society.
Simon Koopmann derivative work: AIProf [CC-BY-SA-3.0] via Wikimedia Commons Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ACompSustBookLogo_v1.jpg As to whether you
can demonstrate this responsibility—you can show, in the way that you write and express yourself more generally, whether or not you are taking it into account. No
amount of formal learning can guarantee that you will be a person who acts out of this responsibility, but rehearsing this attitude can help you to become someone who
does. As the famous writer (and author of the Narnia stories for children), C.S. Lewis, observes: “very often the only way to get a quality in reality is to start
behaving as if you had it already.” 2
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Graduate Attribute 4: Think critically and reflectively
In the Final Assessment Task, you will be using materials from a range of perspectives as the foundation of your response. How confident are you that you can read and
analyse these materials critically (that is, with insight, not with antagonism!)? In the resources for Graduate Attribute 4, you were offered the following ideas:
Practical Tips for developing a Critical Mind at University: Your critical response is not a summary or paraphrase of a text or the notes you may have taken from a
lecture— or even just presenting your opinion. When you take notes or summarise, it is a good habit to include questions you may have about what has been said. Prepare
questions before reading or viewing media so you are not only seeking to understand the author’s argument but reviewing as you go. You need particularly to review the
evidence supporting the arguments and be explicitly aware of the writer’s perspective. Are you also able to question and challenge ideas presented? This process can
only happen after you have analysed the argument, evidence, and sources for a text. How valid are the sources? Are you able to step back from a particularly persuasive
text or film and consider alternative perspectives or arguments? Part of reading other sources is to find out the similar or opposing views that exist on a subject.
Look closely at the rubric for the Final Assessment Task if you are required to submit a major project: highlight those criteria that require you to show evidence of
your capacity to think critically.
While Graduate Attribute 4 is also about thinking reflectively, we have rehearsed much of that type of thinking in the activities on personal and professional
challenges.
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Graduate Attribute 9: demonstrate effective communication in oral and written English language and visual media
Hopefully, you have looked at the resources for Graduate Attribute 9 and analysed the effectiveness of your communication both oral and written. Consider again what
aspects of your communication skills are barriers to your being able to convey what you know. When do you become frustrated in getting across the message? What
feedback have you received from your listeners and readers, and how have you acted to address problems? What do you still need to do after this unit to ensure a
successful completion of your studies, and to be a potent communicator in all spheres of your life? Go now to the resources for Graduate Attribute 9. In particular,
check that your understanding of what constitutes effective communication in an academic context matches with the expectations and standards of the University… or
any university. If you haven’t previously, look closely at the Critical Thinking resource and go through the model and how it is deconstructed at organisational and
functional levels. Then look at the Developing Academic Literacy resource. Your critical thinking must communicate within the conventions of academic writing and key
to this is finding out what others have written on the subject, reflecting on how your new knowledge and thinking fits into this body of knowledge, and most
importantly, acknowledging the ideas of others through correct referencing. 2 C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (Glasgow: Collins, 1942; Fount Paperbacks,1977), 158.
References are to the Fount edition.
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