Page 6 - THE ONTARIO CURRICULUM, GRADES 9 AND 10 | Canadian and World Studies

A variety of factors, known as the “determinants of health”, have been shown to affect a person’s overall state of well-being. Some of these are income, education and literacy, gender and culture, physical and social environment, personal health practices and coping skills, and availability of health services. Together, such factors influence not only whether individuals are physically healthy but also the extent to which they will have the physical, social, and personal resources needed to cope and to identify and achieve personal aspirations. These factors also have an impact on student learning, and it is important to be aware of them as factors contributing to a student’s performance and well-being.
An educator’s awareness of and responsiveness to students’ cognitive, emotional, social, and physical development, and to their sense of self and spirit, is critical to their success
in school. A number of research-based frameworks, including those described in Early Learning for Every Child Today: A Framework for Ontario Early Childhood Settings (2007), On My Way: A Guide to Support Middle Years Child Development (2017), and Stepping Stones: A Resource on Youth Development (2012),2 identify developmental stages that are common to the majority of students from Kindergarten to Grade 12. At the same time, these frameworks recognize that individual differences, as well as differences in life experiences and exposure to opportunities, can affect development, and that develop- mental events are not specifically age-dependent.
The framework described in Stepping Stones is based on a model that illustrates the complexity of human development. Its components – the cognitive, emotional, physical, and social domains – are interrelated and interdependent, and all are subject to the influence of a person’s environment or context. At the centre is an “enduring (yet changing) core” – a sense of self, or spirit – that connects the different aspects of development and experience (p. 17).
THE ONTARIO CURRICULUM, GRADES 9 AND 10 | Canadian and World Studies
Source: Stepping Stones: A Resource on Youth Development, p. 17
2. Best Start Expert Panel on Early Learning, Early Learning for Every Child Today: A Framework for Ontario Early Childhood Settings (2007) is available at www.edu.gov.on.ca/childcare/oelf/continuum/continuum.pdf; Ministry of Children and Youth Services, On My Way: A Guide to Support Middle Years Child Development (2017) is available at www.children.gov.on.ca/htdocs/English/professionals/middleyears/onmyway/index.aspx; and Government of Ontario, Stepping Stones: A Resource on Youth Development (2012) is available at www.children.gov.on.ca/ htdocs/English/documents/youthopportunities/steppingstones/SteppingStones.pdf.
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