This was the first assignment that we needed to complete for this course. It involved reading Ontario curriculum documents and creating a mind map to illustrate my understanding of the importance of the study of History and Civics for adolescent students. I decided to divide my mind map into three main areas: knowledge, attitudes, and skills. The course instructor, Yvan Brochu, thought my mind map was " succinct, and focused on the key course concepts (i.e. skills, knowledge)". I have never taught Canadian History or Civics, although I taught social studies (in Egypt) for the first time this year. In addition to the curriculum documents, I was able to draw on my own experiences, both as a teacher and as a student, to create this mind map.
Now as the course is drawing to a close, I am able to look back at this mind map and see gaps and/or modififications that need to be addressed:
1) Under the main heading Attitudes, I would now incorporate ideas from Case, Sensoy, and Ling's article about global and multicultural perspectives. I would add a link from attitudes to multicultural perspectives. This would then branch off into open-mindedness, full-mindedness, and fair-mindedness. I think these three types of "mindedness" are more descriptive and encompassing than my originial idea of "acepting of culturally diverse world. They would include: the idea of recognizing and entertaining different points of view; the ability to anticipate complexity, recognize sterotyping, and suspend judgement until all evidence has been considered; as well as the ability to empathize with others and overcome bias.
2) Under the main heading Knowledge, I would expand on my idea of becoming an "informed, active, and responsible citizen". I would split it into indirect actions and direct actions as sugggested by Clark (221).
3) Under the main heading Skills, I would branch off from "able to think critically" by adding Case and Daniel's (79) five critical thinking tools: background knowledge, criteria for judgement, critical thinking vocabulary, thinking strategies, and habits of mind.
4) I would also consider adding another main category related to values. This could be divided into personal values, such as integrity and personal identity, and social values, such as equality, justice, national pride, and respect (Case and Abbott 19).
Resources:
Case, Roland and Mary Abbott. "Purposeful Teaching in Secondary Social Studies". The Anthology of Social Studies: Issues and Strategies for Secondary Teachers. Ed. Roland Case and Penney Clark. Vancouver, BC: Pacific Educational Press, 2008. 15-24.
Case, Roland and LeRoi Daniels. "Teaching the Tools to Think Critically". The Anthology of Social Studies: Issues and Strategies for Secondary Teachers. Ed. Roland Case and Penney Clark. Vancouver, BC: Pacific Educational Press, 2008. 74-85.
Case, Roland, Ozlem Sensoy, and Michael Ling. "Embedding Global and Multicultural Perspectives". The Anthology of Social Studies: Issues and Strategies for Secondary Teachers. Ed. Roland Case and Penney Clark. Vancouver, BC: Pacific Educational Press, 2008. 183-192.
Clark, Penney. "All Talk and No Action?: The Place of Social Action in Secondary Social Studies". The Anthology of Social Studies: Issues and Strategies for Secondary Teachers. Ed. Roland Case and Penney Clark. Vancouver, BC: Pacific Educational Press, 2008. 221-231.