Summary

Teaching social sciences covers the teaching of social sciences at Foundation, Intermediate and Senior phase. While the book empowers pre-service teachers to realise the outcomes of the CAPS curriculum, it is not simply a guide to teaching the curriculum. It engages student teachers as reflective professionals required to make decisions as to the priorities and emphases of their teaching approaches in the context in which they find themselves. With the perfect balance of theory and practice, this book equips pre-service teachers with extensive subject knowledge and contemporary teaching techniques to take into their future classrooms. Through the exploration of issues around race, gender, class, xenophobia, the book explores how curriculum can serve to instill in learners the values embedded in the South African constitution and a sense of citizenship while encouraging active engagement and thought. Teaching social sciences conceptualizes the social sciences within the South African context, including teaching methods and principles, how to teach controversial issues, skills-based teaching and source-based teachings, and how learners learn social sciences. There is a practical focus on how to arrange field trips and working with GIS. It also discusses what differentiates being a social sciences teacher and learner from other disciplines, including the qualities of being adaptable, context-sensitive and innovative, while facilitating independent thinking in students. The book covers the use of ICT in teaching social sciences, as well as lesson planning, assessment and classroom management in the social science classroom. The values of Ubuntu and an African-centric contextual and theoretical approach are foregrounded. There is an especial focus on inclusive education and indigenous knowledge systems.