Canadian Studies is part of a series of curriculum reforms in the social studies undertaken by Saskatchewan Education.
This comprehensive curriculum development process began with the establishment of the Social Studies Task Force in 1981. The Task Force was made up of people representing various sectors of Saskatchewan society. It surveyed a wide range of public opinion and on the basis of its findings compiled a report outlining a philosophy for social studies education.
In October 1982, the Minister of Education established a Social Sciences Reference Committee. The Reference Committee developed a plan of action based on the recommendations of the Task Force to give specific direction to the planned course revisions.
The Reference Committee defined the aim of social studies education as:
a study of people and their relationships with their social and physical environments. The knowledge, skills, and values developed in social studies help students to know and appreciate the past, to understand the present and to influence the future. Therefore, social studies in the school setting has a unique responsibility for providing students with the opportunity to acquire knowledge, skills and values to function effectively within their local and national society which is enmeshed in an interdependent world.
| Saskatchewan Education. (1984). Report of the Social Sciences Reference Committee. Regina, SK. p. 1 |
In 1994, in Policy Directions for Secondary Education in Saskatchewan, the Minister's response to the High School Review Advisory Committee's Final Report, the Minister of Education stated that because "we live in a complex society and students require a thorough knowledge of social issues and history" it is necessary to "develop new courses in History 30 and under the common title Canadian Studies. The Canadian Studies 30 requirement will be fulfilled by taking:
The following model represents the social studies curricula:
This model of social studies education prescribes four major goals for social studies teaching:
The Reference Committee has outlined a set of twelve themes, one for each grade level. The themes present a content sequence designed to guide students from the familiar to the unfamiliar and from a local to a global view of the world. The themes for grades 1-12 are:
The major components of Core Curriculum are the Required Areas of Study and the Common Essential Learnings. Core Curriculum also provides for Locally-Determined Options to meet needs at the local level and the Adaptive Dimension which provides opportunities for teachers to individualize instruction.
Core Curriculum is intended:
...to provide all Saskatchewan students with an education that will reinforce the teaching of basic skills and introduce an expanded range of new skills to the curriculum. It will also encompass the processes and knowledge needed to achieve broader goals as identified by the Curriculum and Instruction Review Committee.
| Adapted from: Saskatchewan Education. (1987). Core Curriculum: Plans for Implementation. Regina, SK: Author, p. 3. |
The seven required areas of study within the Core Curriculum are language arts, mathematics, science, social studies, health education, arts education, and physical education.
Six common essential learnings (C.E.L.s) have been defined and are incorporated into social studies teaching as perspectives which influence how social studies is taught. The C.E.L.s are to be taught and evaluated as part of the social studies courses. The Common Essential Learnings (C.E.L.s) are summarized below.
Independent Learning involves the creation of opportunities and experiences necessary for students to become capable, self-reliant, self-motivated, and life-long learners who see learning as an empowering activity of great personal and social worth.
Personal and Social Values and Skills deals with the personal, moral, social, and cultural aspects of each school subject and has as a major objective the development of responsible and compassionate citizens who understand the rational basis for moral claims.
Critical and Creative Thinking is intended to help students develop the ability to create and critically evaluate ideas, processes, experiences, and objects related to the social studies.
Communication focuses on improving students' understanding of language used in the social studies.
Numeracy involves helping students to develop a level of competence which would allow them to use mathematical concepts in the social sciences.
Technological Literacy helps students appreciate that technological systems are integral to social systems and cannot be separated from the culture within which they are shaped.
The integration of Indian and Métis content and perspectives within the K-12 curriculum fulfils a central recommendation of Directions (1983), the Five Year Action Plan for Native Curriculum Development (1984) and the Indian and Métis Education Policy from Kindergarten to Grade 12 (1995).
Saskatchewan Education recognizes that the Indian and Métis peoples of the province are historically unique peoples occupying a unique and rightful place in society. Saskatchewan Education recognizes that education programs must meet the needs of Indian and Métis students, and that changes to existing programs are also necessary for the benefit of all students.
| Saskatchewan Education. (1995). Indian and Métis Education Policy from Kindergarten to Grade 12. Regina, SK: Author, p. 2. |
The inclusion of Indian and Métis perspectives benefits all students in a pluralistic society. Cultural representation in all aspects of the school environment empowers children with a positive group identity. Indian and Métis resources foster a meaningful and culturally identifiable experience for Indian and Métis students, and promote the development of positive attitudes in all students towards Indian and Métis peoples. This awareness of one's own culture and of the cultures of others develops self-concept, enhances learning, promotes an appreciation of Canada's pluralistic society and supports universal human rights.
Saskatchewan Indian and Métis students come from varied cultural backgrounds and social environments including northern, rural, and urban areas. Teachers must understand the diversity of the social, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds of Saskatchewan Indian and Métis students. All educators need cross-cultural education, and increased awareness of applied sociolinguistics, first and second language acquisition theory, and standard and non-standard usage of language. Teachers must use a variety of teaching strategies that match and build upon the knowledge, cultures, learning styles, and strengths which Indian and Métis students possess. Responsive adaptations are necessary to all curriculum for effective implementation.
The following points summarize Saskatchewan Education's expectations for the appropriate inclusion of Indian and Métis content in curriculum and instruction.
| Saskatchewan Education. (1995). Indian and Métis Education Policy from Kindergarten to Grade 12. Regina, SK: Author, p. 10. |
Saskatchewan teachers are responsible for integrating into the appropriate units resources that reflect accurate and sufficient Indian and Métis content and perspectives. Teachers have a responsibility to evaluate all resources for bias and to teach students to recognize such bias.
Saskatchewan Education is committed to providing quality education for all students in the K-12 system. Expectations based primarily on gender limit students' ability to develop to their fullest potential. While some stereotypical views and practices have disappeared, others remain. Although many schools have tried to provide equal opportunity for male and female students, continued efforts are required so that equality of benefit or outcome may be achieved. It is the responsibility of schools to create an educational environment free of gender bias. This can be facilitated by increased understanding and use of gender balanced material and non-sexist teaching strategies. Both girls and boys need encouragement to explore non-traditional as well as traditional options.
To meet the goal of gender equity in the K to 12 system, Saskatchewan Education is committed to the reduction of gender bias which restricts the participation and choices of all students. It is important that the Saskatchewan curriculum reflects the variety of roles and the wide range of behaviours and attitudes available to all members of our society. The new curriculum strives to provide gender balanced content, activities, and teaching strategies described in inclusionary language. These actions will assist teachers to create an environment free of stereotyping and enable both girls and boys to share in all experiences and opportunities which develop their abilities and talents to the fullest.
Resource-based teaching and learning is a means by which teachers can greatly assist the development of attitudes and abilities for independent, life-long learning. Resource-based instruction means that the teacher, and teacher-librarian, if available, will plan units which integrate resources with classroom assignments, and teach students the processes needed to find, analyze, and present information.
It is intended that secondary social studies students will use a variety of learning resources in order to develop both knowledge and skills. Resource-based instruction is an approach to curriculum which uses all types of resources. Some possible resources are books, magazines, films, audiotapes and videotapes, computer software and databases including Internet, manipulable objects, commercial games, maps, community resources, museums, field trips, pictures and study prints, real objects and artifacts, and media production equipment.
Social studies teachers should introduce current events whenever possible. A vertical file, containing current pamphlets, articles and newspaper clippings is needed. Ideally, this file is housed, circulated and maintained through the school library. On-line newspapers, available through Internet, can supplement the vertical file. With some time and patience a classroom teacher may develop a file for social studies using headings from a standardized list such as Sears List of Subject Headings (1991), and Sears List of Subject Headings: Canadian Companion (1987).
The following points will help teachers use resource-based teaching and learning:
Multicultural education is an interdisciplinary educational process which fosters understanding, acceptance, empathy, and constructive and harmonious relations among peoples of diverse cultures. It encourages learners of all ages to view different cultures as a source of learning and enrichment.
Multicultural education:
The public education system has a responsibility to prepare students for living in this multicultural environment. It must address a variety of issues ranging from ethnocentrism to unity through acceptance and understanding, from discrimination to equality of experience and opportunity. Sound teaching practices, such as being aware of a child's social and psychological background, encouraging the development of self-esteem and security in identity, and responding to individual needs, are consistent with the philosophy underlying multicultural education.
|
Children will not truly understand a concept
until they have had an opportunity to re-invent it for themselves. Piaget |
The objectives of social studies education as outlined by the Social Studies Task Force, the Reference Committee, and Core Curriculum emphasize skills and attitudes that will enable students to understand information; research and write about issues in creative, meaningful ways; and debate and evaluate issues. Recall of factual information is required to the extent that it supports these objectives.
Evaluation must also reflect these objectives by testing students for more than the recall of information. Evaluation must determine whether students are achieving the skills/abilities and attitudinal objectives as well as the informational objectives of the course. It is important that in the evaluation process students demonstrate they have learned to generate and apply knowledge in meaningful ways.
A concept is a category that groups together objects or ideas with certain similarities. Each category is defined by criteria which determine what can and cannot be accepted into the category.
Central to the K-12 social studies framework is a set of twenty major concepts drawn from the social science disciplines. These concepts act as organizers for the required knowledge, skills, and values learnings.
The twenty concepts are:
| Beliefs
Causality Change Conflict Culture |
Decision making
Distribution Diversity Environment Identity |
Institution
Interaction Interdependence Needs Location |
Power
Resources Technology Time Values |
The goals of both the Reference Committee and Core Curriculum (with its emphasis on the Common Essential Learnings) include the teaching of higher order thinking as well as teaching social studies and history information. Instructional methods that promote both types of learning at the same time must be used. Concept attainment is one such method. People organize information into meaningful patterns using concepts. Objects or ideas which have in common certain characteristics or critical attributes can be placed in the same category and given a label. These labelled categories are concepts.
A concept can range from a category of things as concrete as chairs to a category of relationships as abstract as power. By learning to understand and use concepts, students can use the critical attributes of a concept as criteria to categorize data so that inferences may be drawn from them. This process enables the student to simplify complex information by organizing (classifying) the categories or concepts into meaningful patterns. This is an important step towards independent learning and critical and creative thinking.
The twenty concepts are developed as major concepts at various grade levels as shown below.
| Concept | Elementary | Middle | Secondary | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | |
| Beliefs | X | X | X | X | X | |||||||
| Causality | X | X | X | X | ||||||||
| Change | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | |||
| Conflict | X | X | X | |||||||||
| Culture | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | |||||
| Decision making | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | ||||
| Distribution | X | X | X | |||||||||
| Diversity | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | |||
| Environment | X | X | X | X | X | |||||||
| Identity | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | ||||
| Institution | X | X | X | X | X | X | ||||||
| Interaction | X | X | X | X | X | |||||||
| Interdependence | X | X | X | X | X | X | ||||||
| Location | X | X | X | X | X | |||||||
| Needs | X | X | X | X | X | |||||||
| Power | X | X | X | X | X | |||||||
| Resources | X | X | X | X | ||||||||
| Technology | X | X | X | X | ||||||||
| Time | X | X | X | X | X | |||||||
| Values | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X |