HHS4U, Grade 12 Families in Canada

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 understanding and appreciation of the contexts through which their own and others’ world views are formed.
Local and Global Mindedness: Social sciences and humanities courses develop students’ awareness that people do not live in isolation; each person affects and is affected by his or her social, cultural, economic, and environmental context. Students examine the norms underlying different familial, societal, institutional, and cultural practices. Students are encouraged to be mindful of their responsibilities with respect to the environment and of the importance of making morally and ethically responsible decisions. Students explore how theories and concepts can influence social action, and how such action can affect the well-being of individuals, families, and communities throughout the world.