Page 10 - Social Sciences Humanities - The Ontario Curriculum Grades 9 to 12 - 2013

THE ONTARIO CURRICULUM, GRADES 9–12 | Social Sciences and Humanities
Social sciences and humanities courses provide students with essential knowledge and transferable skills that are applicable in various areas of their lives – in their personal and family lives as well as in their postsecondary studies and in the workplace. Individual courses provide students with a foundation for a variety of possible postsecondary destinations: positions in the retail and service industries; college programs in community services (e.g., early childhood education, child and youth work, and developmental services work), creative endeavours (e.g., the fashion industry, fashion design, garment construction, and food preparation), or business (e.g., human resources); and university programs in fields such as anthropology, business studies, education, environmental studies, family and child studies, food and nutrition sciences, gender studies, health sciences, human resources, philosophy, psychology, religious studies, social work,
and sociology.
The discipline of social sciences and humanities, and its related knowledge and skills, has connections with many other disciplines taught in secondary school. Through their studies in social sciences and humanities courses, students are able to bring a broader perspective, integrate useful knowledge, and apply critical-thinking skills when studying other subjects such as history, geography, arts, and English.
IDEAS UNDERLYING THE SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES CURRICULUM
Effective learning in all subjects of the social sciences and humanities curriculum depends on the development of skills and understanding in four areas:
• Disciplined Inquiry and Critical Literacy: Social sciences and humanities courses focus on the use of disciplined, structured inquiry to understand human beings, human behaviour, and human nature. These courses promote the use
of reason as part of the structured inquiry process, while also recognizing the limitations of reason as a way of learning, knowing, and understanding. They encourage students to identify and question assumptions and values that underlie individual behaviour and family and social/cultural life. Developing their critical literacy skills enables students to challenge texts, reading “underneath, behind, and beyond” texts and questioning how they influence us and others and whose interests they serve.
• Problem Solving: Social sciences and humanities courses require students to engage actively in solving problems confronted by individuals, families, diverse groups, institutions, and societies. The problems that students confront in these courses vary from the abstract and theoretical to the everyday and concrete. These problems are often morally and politically complex, with solutions
that are sometimes controversial because they affect diverse individuals and groups differently.
• Understanding of Self and Others: Students in social sciences and humanities courses are provided with rich opportunities to enhance their self-understanding and understanding of others through an examination of their personal belief systems and also of the foundations and implications of different viewpoints and lived experiences of others. Through a juxtaposition of their own perceptions, attitudes, values, and beliefs with those of others, students develop an under­ standing and appreciation of the contexts through which their own and others’ world views are formed.
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