Assessment in social studies will focus on children and young people's knowledge, understanding and skills in their studies of people, past events, society, place, environment, economy and business.
Teachers can gather evidence as part of day-to-day learning, as children and young people describe and record, explore and analyse sources, interpret and display information, talk and debate with peers and adults, undertake investigations and present their thinking orally, in writing or in a multimedia format. Specific assessment tasks will be valuable in assessing progress. From the early years through to the senior stages, children and young people can demonstrate their progress through their skills in using differing sources of evidence, in assessing its validity and reliability, and in applying these in everyday life and work. This will include assessment of how well children and young people can use their knowledge and understanding to interpret evidence and present an informed view, progressing to being able to sustain a line of argument. Learners can also demonstrate evidence of progress through their abilities in applying their knowledge and skills in increasingly demanding and/or unfamiliar contexts, such as environmental issues, citizenship, and their awareness of the world and Scotland’s place in it.
Approaches to assessment should identify the extent to which children and young people can apply these skills in their learning and their daily lives and in preparing for the world of work. For example:
- Do they show awareness of the importance of participating in decision-making processes?
- How well are they prepared to contribute to discussions on local, national and global issues?
Children and young people can demonstrate progression in knowledge, understanding and skills by how well they deal with increasingly demanding and challenging concepts within a wide range of economic, geographical, historical, political and social contexts. Progress can be seen in their:
- growing abilities to understand the complexity of such issues with increasing maturity and empathy
- increasingly sophisticated views
- skills in supporting these by reference to carefully-considered evidence and sources
- abilities to draw together their learning to demonstrate the depth of their understanding, for example of Scotland’s history.
Assessment should also link with other areas of the curriculum, within and outside the classroom, offering children and young people opportunities to develop awareness of social issues such as sustainability and enterprise through field trips, visits to local and national heritage sites, and meetings with members of the community.
Find us on