Learning Area (Counts towards the Humanities Requirement)

Are you interested in space or sustainability; ancient history or the environment; film criticism or social media? Individual Investigation is a challenging subject which builds on students’ understanding from Year 9 of what constitutes a good research question and good research. Each student selects the field they want to investigate and develops a research question they want to answer. They gather, interpret and evaluate evidence in order to answer the research question that they choose. Students conduct a review of some relevant literature and begin to develop research project management knowledge and skills and ways of effectively presenting and communicating research findings. Students select their research focus from a broad range of research methods and explore their comparative suitability for the investigation of particular questions. They record each step of their work in the Individual Investigation Journal.

The skills that students develop in this study are transferable to any higher education course or vocational education and training program. Students undertaking this subject need to be strong students with an academic focus.

The skills that students develop in this study are directly transferable to the VCE Extended Investigations subject.

Areas of Study

• Critical thinking
• Developing a research question
• Undertaking research
• Presenting the final research report
• Defending the final research report

Strands

• Questions and possibilities
• Reasoning
• Metacognition

Assessment

• The Individual Investigation Journal
• Critical Thinking Exercises
• Oral Presentation of the research question and methodology
• A Literature review
• Final written report (2000 – 2500 words)