Page 48 - Social Sciences Humanities - The Ontario Curriculum Grades 9 to 12 - 2013

THE ONTARIO CURRICULUM, GRADES 9–12 | Social Sciences and Humanities
The Ministry of Education has facilitated the development of materials to support literacy instruction across the curriculum. Helpful advice for integrating literacy instruction in social sciences and humanities courses may be found in the following resource materials:
• Me Read? And How! Ontario Teachers Report on How to Improve Boys’ Literacy Skills, 2009
• Think Literacy: Cross-Curricular Approaches, Grades 7–12, 2003
The social sciences and humanities program also builds on, reinforces, and enhances mathematical literacy. For example, students are exposed to various concepts related to measurement. Accurate measurement of materials is addressed in food and fashion courses. Students in a range of courses draw on numeracy skills when conducting and interpreting surveys and questionnaires or working with statistical data. In addition, students use and produce diagrams, charts, tables, and graphs for various purposes.
Inquiry and research are at the heart of learning in all subject areas. In social sciences and humanities courses, students are encouraged to develop their ability to ask questions and to explore a variety of possible answers to those questions. As they advance through the grades, they acquire the skills to locate relevant information from a variety of print and electronic sources, such as books, periodicals, dictionaries, encyclopedias, interviews, videos, and relevant Internet sources. The questioning they practised in the early grades becomes more sophisticated as they learn that all sources of information have a particular point of view and that the recipient of the information has a responsibility to evaluate it, determine its validity and relevance, and use it in appropriate ways. The ability to locate, question, and validate information allows a student to become an independent, lifelong learner.
CRITICAL THINKING AND CRITICAL LITERACY IN SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES
Critical thinking is the process of thinking about ideas or situations in order to understand them fully, identify their implications, make a judgement, and/or guide decision making. Critical thinking includes skills such as questioning, predicting, analysing, synthesizing, examining opinions, identifying values and issues, detecting bias, and distinguishing between alternatives. Students who are taught these skills become critical thinkers who can move beyond superficial conclusions to a deeper understanding of the issues they are examining. They are able to engage in an inquiry process in which they explore com­ plex and multifaceted issues, and questions for which there may be no clear-cut answers.
Students use critical-thinking skills in social sciences and humanities when they assess, analyse, and/or evaluate the impact of something and when they form an opinion about something and support that opinion with a rationale. In order to think critically, students need to examine the opinions and values of others, detect bias in their sources, determine why a source might express a particular bias, look for implied meaning, and use the information gathered to form a personal opinion or stance, or a personal plan of action with regard to making a difference.
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