Social studies
Drawing on aspects of society that are of meaning and interest to the students, Social Studies seeks to ignite students’ curiosity to inquire into real-world issues that concern their lives. Social Studies seeks to inculcate in students a deeper understanding of the values that define the Singapore society, nurture dispositions that will inspire them to show concern for the society and the world they live in, and demonstrate empathy in their relationships with others.
Sec 3 Social Studies: Assimilation and Integration in Society
3E2 and 3E4 students had their extended curriculum spiced up by doing their own research on assimilation and integration in society before sharing with their friends what they have learnt. In groups, students had to draw pictures that represent assimilation and integration before sharing these pictures to their classmates and explaining what they think assimilation and integration mean.
Misconceptions found through this activity were addressed by Ms Aqilah before students continued to delve deeper into the content and concepts of the first part of Chapter 7.
Social Studies Assessment Course @ Academy of Singapore Teachers
On 22-23 Aug, Ms Lui Ying Jie and Mr Tan Wei Hong attended a Social Studies Assessment Workshop where they better learnt how to mark Source-Based and Structured Response Questions. They also learnt about setting papers, and a pedagogy called Concept Based Teaching.
"My favourite part of the course was when I learnt about the concept attainment approach. It is an inductive way of teaching and learning, where students have to 'guess' the mystery concept based on real-life examples and sources. Students are challenged to identify similarities between the given examples and sources, and come to a conclusion on what concept underlies them. I also had great fun debating with fellow teachers on what level of marks should be awarded for sample scripts. It was intriguing how different schools also had very individual methods of teaching students what a good answer was. There was certainly a great deal to learn from them, given that I had little exposure to Social Studies as a beginning teacher." - Ms. Lui Ying Jie
"We participated in activities such as a 'speed dating', where participants exchanged ideas in a limited amount of time before switching pairs. The agenda was to share on interesting Social Studies classroom activities that we conducted. This was definitely enriching as it allowed us to learn of diverse opinions in a short amount of time.
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I also learnt that although social issues are around us everyday, upper secondary Social Studies can allow students to see things with a different lens, or even multiple lenses. As a teacher, having to examine sample scripts of students' answers in groups was mind boggling, yet relishingly refreshing as we debated among ourselves and shared multiple perspectives. Throughout the course, I realised that we assess not only the content knowledge, but the students' thinking process behind their answers." - Mr Tan Wei Hong
Sec 3 Social Studies: Introduction to the Evaluative SBQ
For the lesson on the Introduction to Evaluative SBQ with the 3N, Ms June made use of a real-life example where students had to decide whether is it worth it to try the A&W fast food. The example has demonstrated to students what it is like to attempt an Evaluative question, and students realized that the new SBQ skill is not too daunting afterall.
Sec 3 Social Studies: Searching for Hidden Motives
3E4 students working hard to tease out the hidden motives as they analysed the sources together during the SS class with Ms Aqilah.
Sec 3 Social Studies: Master of Investment
To help students understand the concept of Investment, Mr Salifian has creatively led 3T1 in a game where students took on the role of an investor and worked in groups to compete with one another to determine who was the best investor in the class! Besides having fun, the friendly competition held in class has allowed students to grasp the foreign idea of Investment. Look at how engrossed our students were while discussing their investment strategy with their peers!
Sec 3 Social Studies: From paper to whiteboard
In Ms Chow's and Ms Lui's Social Studies lesson with 3E1 on Hidden Agenda, students transferred their responses on paper onto the whiteboard for their peers to learn from the good examples and answers that can be improved on. Check out the photos below for the process!
In black and blue are students' responses, in red are Ms Chow's and Ms Lui's comments. This was a great opportunity for error analysis and the learning from each other's mistakes.
Students writing their responses for individual components
Students' work after discussing with their groupmates
5N Social Studies: Learning Outside the Classroom @ 3rd July 2019
To tie in with the topic on the security impacts of globalization, our 5N students visited the Singapore Discovery Centre on the 3rd of July for a paintball activity. Besides having an afternoon of fun and bonding with their fellow classmates, the students had also gained important insights on the rising threat of terrorism and the need to be vigilant.
Just like our government, we work as a team!
In this week's teaching and learning, Mr Chong Wensheng was seen to be guiding 3E3 for Social Studies while teaching the class SRQ on weighing of factors for Principles of Governance. Groupwork was employed to get students to explain each factor and weigh which is the most important factor.
Globalization Experts in Action
In one of Mr Syed's Social Studies classes with 4E1, the students took on the roles of the teacher and taught their fellow classmates on the security impacts of globalization. The students were also seen to be listening attentively to their peers at each of the learning station.
Unpacking Context for Social Studies II
Check out the 4E1 and 4E2 students being hard at work while trying to tease out the context for Purpose Source Based Questions in groups during the Social Studies lesson conducted by Mr Syed:
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Understanding Trade-off for Social Studies
During Ms Aqilah's Social Studies class on Deciding What's Good for the Society, the 3E students can be seen working in groups and each group was in charge of different countries to understand the concept of trade-off. Students were given different scenarios to decide which option is best for their country before calculating their money and people's happiness left.
Counter Terrorism Paintball Activity @ 12 March 2019
The Counter Terrorism Paintball Workshop organised by the Singapore Discovery Centre allows students to reflect on the importance of ourselves keeping abreast with the latest global and regional events which affect Singapore, especially the rising threat of terrorism. In part 1 of the workshop (a lesson-based classroom), students will understand how events in the region and actions taken by our neighbouring countries will have impacts on individual, community and nation, especially for a small country like Singapore. Students will learn how they have a part to play and the importance of being vigilant during times of crisis and terrorist threats.
In part 2 of the workshop (an exclusive paintball gameplay), paintball facilitators will guide students through various paintball scenarios, such as noticing a planted bomb. Students will pit themselves against one another in teams and the scenarios will test the students’ ability to be vigilant and remind them to be observant such as noticing details. It will test their tactical acumen and will drive home the importance of being vigilant and ensuring the safety of all your team members.
Understanding Context for Social Studies
In an attempt to better help our 4E students to understand the context when teasing out the motive for Source Based Questions, Ms Chow has created useful guides and conducted group activities for the students to work together and try out the newly learnt skills!
Collaborative Learning during Social Studies lessons
As much as teachers-directed learning is important, we believe there are many benefits that can be reaped when students work together in groups as they have the opportunity to learn from their peers in the discussion process. For instance, under Mr Chong's guidance, 4N2 had the chance to do some collaborative learning during one of the social studies lessons on healthcare systems. Check out these pictures to see how engrossed the students were during the activity:
Social Studies Assessment Course
Mrs Rai and Mr Faizal attended a two-day assessment course where they learned the ropes to tackle the new Social Studies Syllabus to enhance the Teaching and Learning in our classrooms.
N8 Cluster SS Assessment Workshop 2018
The SS Unit had participated in Assessment Workshop organised by N8 Cluster. The session was held at Sembawang Sec and participants were trained by CPDD SS Unit.
Social Studies Issue Investigation
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For our Issue Investigation, we are focusing on this specific question: "Have the Integration efforts in Singapore been successful in integrating immigrants?"
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Through this investigation, students have learnt about the different measures taken by both government and non-government organisations (NGOs) to help integrate the immigrants and to feel more at home by
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Conducting literature review
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Conducting surveys on both Singaporeans and Immigrants
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Analysing the data collected
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Presenting the consolidated data into an infographics
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It has been a long process for our students but the experiences gained were more than insightful as numerous useful skills were learned.
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As seen in the pictures, students had enjoyed themselves tremendously as they learned about the different methods of data representation.
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