Overview of the Social Sciences & Humanities - Family Studies Program
All five of the subject
areas in the secondary social sciences and humanities program – equity studies,
family studies, general social sciences, philosophy, and world religions – are
concerned with how students view themselves, their families, their communities,
and the broader society, and how they come to understand and respond to the
world around them. Through practical experience, discussion, debate, research,
reflection, and the development of critical and creative thinking skills,
social sciences and humanities courses help students become self-motivated
problem solvers equipped with the skills and knowledge that will enable them to
face their changing world with confidence.
We aim to build on the
important teachings of home economics and merge this learning with evolving
world views and innovative technology.
Commitment to Student Achievement and Well Being
Promoting the healthy
development of all students, as well as enabling all students to reach their
full potential, is a priority for educators across Ontario. Students’ health
and well-being contribute to their ability to learn in all disciplines,
including social sciences and humanities, and that learning in turn contributes
to their overall well-being.
Educators play an
important role in promoting children and youth’s well-being by creating,
fostering, and sustaining a learning environment that is healthy, caring, safe,
inclusive, and accepting. A learning environment of this kind will support not
only students’ cognitive, emotional, social, and physical development but also
their mental health, their resilience, and their overall state of well-being.
All this will help them achieve their full potential in school and in life.
A variety of factors,
known as the “determinants of health”, have been shown to affect a person’s
overall state of well-being. Some of these are income, education and literacy,
gender and culture, physical and social environment, personal health practices
and coping skills, and availability of health services. Together, such factors
influence not only whether a person is
physically healthy but also the extent to which he or she will have the
physical, social, and personal resources needed to cope and to identify and
achieve personal aspirations. These factors also have an impact on student
learning, and it is important to be aware of them as factors contributing to a
student’s performance.
An educator’s awareness of
and responsiveness to students’ cognitive, emotional, social, and physical
development is critical to their success in school. A number of research based
frameworks, including those described in Early Learning for Every Child Today:
A Framework for Ontario Early Childhood Settings (2007) and Stepping Stones: A
Resource on Youth Development (2012),1 identify developmental stages that are
common to the majority of students from Kindergarten to Grade 12. At the same
time, these frameworks recognize that individual differences, as well as
differences in life experiences and exposure to opportunities, can affect
development, and that developmental events are not specifically age-dependent.
The framework described in
Stepping Stones is based on a model that illustrates the complexity of human
development. Its components – the cognitive, emotional, physical, and social
domains – are interrelated and interdependent, and all are subject to the
influence of a person’s environment or context. At the centre is an “enduring
(yet changing) core” – a sense of self, or spirit – that connects the different
aspects of development and experience (p. 17).
Educators who have an
awareness of a student’s development take each component into account, with an
understanding of and focus on the following elements:
- cognitive development −
brain development, processing and reasoning skills, use of strategies for
learning
- emotional development −
emotional regulation, empathy, motivation
- social development −
self-development (self-concept, self-efficacy, self-esteem); identity formation
(gender identity, social group identity, spiritual identity); relationships
(peer, family, romantic)
- physical development –
physical activity, sleep patterns, changes that come with puberty, body image,
nutritional requirements
Special Program Opportunities
York
Region Skills Challenge
Each year students enrolled in our Fashion Courses
have a chance to participate in the York Region Skill Challenge. This
competition allows students to join with hundreds of students across the region
showcasing their garment design and construction talent. If they qualify
students move on to compete with students across the province. This is an
amazing experiential learning opportunity for our young learners.
Chopped
Food Skills Challenge
Students in the Grade 10 Food and Nutrition class
puts on it’s own CHOPPED cooking competition. Groups participate in friendly
competition as part of their food preparation labs. At the end of the semester,
the class competes for the CHOPPED championship with students and staff acting
as judges.
Subject Support
Ontario Family Studies Home Economics Educators Association
With the ultimate goal of strengthening the family, the role of OFSHEEA
is to facilitate the professional development and personal growth of educators
to promote quality Family Studies programs in Ontario.
Ontario Home Economics Association
Assisting families and individuals to achieve and maintain a desirable
quality of life through food literacy, home economics education and programming.
Ontario
Family Studies, Social Science and Humanities Leadership Council
The council works closely with other organizations to refine
curriculum and resources, while also creating a forum for professional
development in the subject area.
Research and Inquiry
Research
is an integral part of the Social Sciences and Humanities- Family Studies
subject area. Research and Inquiry is built into the curriculum expectations of
each course. This will help students to develop a growing awareness of the
world around them. Students can use the Middlefield Collegiate Institute
Library Moodle where they have free access to online databases such as Gale and
Ebsco, which are widely used in most post secondary learning institutions. Through
modern learning opportunities, students are encouraged to conduct purposeful
investigations and critically evaluate information in order to make informed
conclusions.
Tools that may be used for social science research:
MCI Library Learning Commons
About Education - Sociology
Elsevier - Social Science Research
McMaster University - Faculty of Social Science
Connected Researchers