Social Studies: Shaping How Students See Themselves, How They See The World.

The Ontario Social Studies curriculum has recently undergone multiple changes. Within the 2013 curriculum update, there are three fundamental principles that set the stage for the entire social studies curriculum. These three principles are vision, goals, and citizen framework. By looking at each aspect individually, we can gain a greater understanding of why they were built into the new curriculum. In addition, the Ministry has also reduced the number of expectations in the curriculum, in order to allow more in depth analysis of the content.

Vision: The vision for the Ontario Social studies curriculum is to "enable students to become responsible, active citizens within the diverse communities to which they belong. As well as becoming critically thoughtful and informed citizens who value an inclusive society, students will have the skills they need to solve problems and communicate ideas and decisions about significant developments, events, and issues".

The main purpose of this vision is to promote critical thinking through inquiry-based learning. 

Goals: The three main goals of the new social studies curriculum are to prompt students to

• Develop a sense of time
• Develop a sense of place 
• Understand who they are, and who others are

Citizenship education: The purpose of the citizen education framework is to help students build an inclusive and integrated approach to citizenship.

What does it mean to be a responsible, active citizen in the classroom community? Beyond the school community?

The focus on inquiry within the new social studies curriculum allows for the inclusion of various exciting resources. For example, this website called Breathing Earth, can be used as a starting point to spark student curiosity in relation to population issues, as well as environmental concerns related to CO2 emissions and climate change.

The main goal is to prompt students to think about how this relates to them. Why should they care?

What is the impact of these factors?

What can we do about it?

What happens if we don't do anything?

With open ended questions, the inquiry process can be altered depending on what students are most interested in, and passionate about. The possibilities are endless.

For more details, read on: http://bit.ly/17W0tM6