TECHNIQUES IN SOCIAL SCIENCES

"The study of the social phenomena in the History and Citizenship Education program requires the use of techniques both as sources of information (interpretation) and means for the transmission of research results (production)."  Q.E.P.  page 87

The following collection of resources responds directly to the techniques associated with Social Sciences in the QEP program.  Many of these specific resource suggestions may also have been used in learning approaches (LES's, etc.) on this site and may also be repeated in various content-specific resource collections of links and materials.   Gathered here in one continually expanding collection, they provide teachers and students with powerful ways to develop competencies and to gather and process historical knowledge.  Your suggestions and feedback are welcome.  

Here are some GENERAL SITES supporting various techniques!

Our collection focused on specific techniques in history and geography are detailed below:

TIMELINE  |  DOCUMENT   |  MAP  |  PICTURE  |  TABLE 

Special sections:
Documents on Current and Historical Newspapers!

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Interpreting and Creating a time line

Learning to interpret and create a time line is essential in history and citizenship education. The time line makes it possible to set reference points, establish a chronology, obtain an overview of social phenomena over time and grasp elements of continuity and change, similarities and differences, and so on.  Example on page 88 of QEP.

Interpreting a time line
– decoding the chronological scale
– finding information
– comparing durations
– establishing sequences and trends
– identifying continuity and change

Browse our collection of suggested sites !!!!

Creating a time line
– choosing the information
– drawing and orienting an axis
– establishing a chronological scale
– calculating the amount of time to represent
– establishing a unit of measure
– indicating the intervals
– indicating the information on the axis
– giving the time line a title

Browse our collection of suggested sites !!!!

Featured Timeline site:

Timeline It!... Using the Lignedutemps!
The RECITUS's extraordinary timeline creation and sharing tool was adapted by LEARN last year for Anglophone-sector teachers and students.  We kept the title " The lignedutemps", so you can always remember this is a Quebecois production!, and you will never forget the website address at http://www.lignedutemps.qc.ca.

This online application is designed to help students and teachers create complex and layered timelines.  Teachers can design scenarios, timelines can be shared publically or between students in order to collaborate on larger projects, events can be created using the RECITUS growing database of images tied directly to the programs.  And finally, it offers the opportunity to print out their scenarios and timelines, and even provides embed code you can use to put them on your own website.
 
Direct access to the English version is here.

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Interpreting a written document

It is essential for students in history and citizenship education to learn to interpret written documents (newspaper articles, letters, treaties, founding texts, etc.). Written documents used in the subject reflect the society that produced them. Students must view them as a historian would in order to obtain information from them. It is sometimes necessary to go beyond simple decoding, seeking the meaning of a document in its symbolic significance.   Examples page 92 of QEP.

Interpreting a written document

– identify the nature and type of document
– identify the author’s name and purpose
– identify the date or other chronological reference points
– identify the source
– establish whether the document dates from the period it describes or not
– decode the title
– establish the main idea
– note all the important ideas
– organize and synthesize the important ideas
– relate and compare information from several documents
Browse our collection of suggested sites !!!!

See also special section:
Documents on Current and Historical Newspapers!

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Interpreting and creating a map

Learning to interpret and create a map is essential in history and citizenship education. A map is a spatial representation of a reality. It can depict the situation of various aspects of society or convey information concerning trends in one or more phenomena over time. The students’ learning with regard to the production of maps must under no condition be limited to the reproduction or tracing of existing maps— or worse still—to colouring in on the basis of preestablished data. The students were introduced to the interpretation and construction of maps in Secondary Cycle One, in the geography program.  Example page 90 and 91 of QEP

Interpreting a map

– decoding the title
– decoding the legend
– identifying the scale
– reading the orientation
– identifying dynamic or static data, if any
– determining the nature of the information presented

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Creating a map
– selecting information
– using an outline map
– indicating the orientation
– indicating the scale
– entering the legend
– representing the information in cartographic form
– entering the title

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Interpreting a picture

It is essential for students in history and citizenship education to learn to interpret pictures (photographs, paintings, drawings, caricatures, etc.).  Written documents used in the subject reflect the society that produced them. Students must view them as a historian would in order to obtain information from them. It is sometimes necessary to go beyond simple decoding, seeking the meaning of a document in its symbolic significance.  Example page 93 of QEP.
Interpreting a picture
– identify the nature of the document
– establish whether it is a direct representation of the reality depicted
or a reconstitution
– identify the author’s name and title
– identify the date or other chronological reference points
– identify the source
– decode the title
– determine the main subject
– identify the elements of the document
– relate and compare information from several documents
Browse our collection of suggested sites !!!!

 
 

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Interpreting and constructing a contingency table  

Learning to interpret and construct a contingency table is useful in history and citizenship education. A contingency table may contain either descriptive or comparative information. Example page 94 of QEP.

Interpreting a contingency table
– decoding the title
– decoding the legend
– identifying the scale
– determining the nature of the information presented in the rows and columns
– determining the relationship of the data values

Constructing a contingency table
– selecting information
– drawing and naming the rows and columns
– establishing the scale of representation
– entering the data in the table
– entering the title and the legend

Browse our collection of suggested sites !!!!

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