Social Studies 30 Unit One Table of Contents

Activity One

The purpose of this activity is to help students appreciate that change which affects their personal lives is a difficult process to accept because of its risks and uncertainties.

The second purpose is to help students appreciate that change in the past seems easier because we know what the outcomes were reducing the risk and uncertainty.

Finally students should begin to understand that the fundamental values and beliefs of their worldview provide the principles and standards which guide their decision making about life.

Activity Two

The purposes of this activity are:

• to introduce students to the concept of syllogism.
• to understand that the syllogism is the fundamental logical structure underlying paragraphs and essays.
• to understand that it is usual to find that issues are dialectical because they have two or more true but contradictory points of view.
• to understand that evaluating arguments in paragraphs, essays, and dialectical arguments means evaluating whether:
  • the major premises are supported by the minor premises,
  • there are better minor premises that can be used to test the major premise, and
  • the major and minor premises and the conclusions of each syllogism form a coherent and logical whole.

Activity Three

The purposes of this activity are:

• to introduce/reinforce with students the idea that most issues have more than one legitimate point of view and that to understand only one part of an issue is to have a limited appreciation of the issue.
• to understand that people must continually make choices or decisions about issues.
• to understand that decision making involves making factual and moral judgments about the choices available in a situation.
• to give students opportunities to learn to use the dialectical process as a means to evaluate and make decisions about issues.
• to give students a series of structured exercises that will help them develop the necessary concepts and skills to evaluate dialectically.

Activity Four

The purpose of this activity is to give students a series of structured exercises that will help them develop the necessary concepts and skills to evaluate dialectically.

Activity Five

The purposes of this activity are:

• to reinforce with students the idea that most issues have more than one legitimate point of view.
• to understand that if only one part of an issue is understood then the issue is not clearly understood.
• to understand that humans must continually make choices or decisions about issues.
• to understand that decision making involves making factual and moral judgments about the choices available in a situation.
• to give students a series of structured exercises that will help them apply the concepts and skills in evaluating dialectically current controversial issues facing Canadian society.
• to give students opportunities to practise the process of dialectical evaluation with a variety of current events topics

Activity Six

The concept attainment purpose of this activity is to give students a concrete understanding of worldview and the way in which it affects the perceptions and choices of a society.

Activity Seven

The purpose of this activity is to: provide students with an opportunity to look at the critical choices made by past generations that have cumulatively created what we perceive to be "Canadian" at this point in history; and, to help students understand that every generation in some way has to deal with change and choice often in very difficult and demanding circumstances.