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Introduction

The aim of this Guide for Teachers and Managers: Social Subjects is to provide practical advice and exemplification to accompany Environmental Studies - Society, Science and Technology: 5 - 14 National Guidelines.

The guide therefore should be regarded as a working document offering advice on how to address various aspects of the guidelines. In other words the guidelines provide the 'what' of the curriculum; the guide offers advice on the 'how'. This guide for social subjects sets out examples of practice that have been found to be effective in different classroom or school contexts. These are intended to allow other schools to use the ideas or strategies that are illustrated, or to develop approaches to suit their own particular circumstances. They are not to be regarded as prescriptive or definitive answers to all the issues involved in implementing environmental studies 5-14.

Key considerations

The revised guidelines are designed to be sufficiently flexible to be used in all school contexts across Scotland. They emphasise the importance of certain key considerations that should underpin all planning, teaching and assessment across the components of environmental studies. These can be summarised as follows.

  • The approach to planning and assessment should be as streamlined as possible.
  • Strands should be the main organisational features for planning.
  • An approach that is focused and manageable should be adopted for assessing skills, and knowledge          and understanding.
  • There should be a clear focus on the development of pupils' understanding to complement their          growing acquisition of items of knowledge.
  • The bullet points within attainment targets indicate a `learning path' through the levels and illustrate          pupil attainment.
  • Pupil attainment should be reported in a way that aids progression in each of social subjects, science          and technology. This is particularly important at the P7 to S1 transition stage.

    • Reviewing current practice

    The guide is intended to support schools and teachers as they review existing provision for social subjects. Schools will need to give careful consideration to the extent to which they may have to amend programmes in line with the advice contained within the revised guidelines.

    Reviewing existing practice is the first step in the process so that staff can decide what changes, if any, may be needed. It will be important that this first step starts from existing courses or topics: there is no need in social subjects to start with a clean sheet. Many schools will already have robust programmes in place. The revised guidelines are based on the previous guidelines and on good practice, therefore any gaps or overlaps identified are likely to be quite small. This means that much of existing practice, resources and programmes of work are still relevant.

    However, some changes are likely to be required in certain aspects of planning, teaching, assessing or reporting.

    Issues to consider when reviewing social subjects programmes include:

    incorporating new strand titles/terminology in programme plans

  • realigning some aspects of content to match with particular levels
  • avoiding repetition of specific content from primary to secondary (although revisiting a topic to develop          understanding can be worthwhile)
  • identifying within existing programmes content that is no longer required
  • devising a manageable approach to assessing skills and knowledge and understanding
  • ensuring an appropriate focus on the Scottish context across the three social subjects
  • ensuring an appropriate range of opportunities for pupils to develop informed attitudes across the          three social subjects.

    When decisions have been reached on the amendments required, it will be important to plan for these carefully by ensuring that existing strengths are maintained, and by identifying timescales for amendments within the school development plan.

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