A COMPARISON OF THE SOCIAL STUDIES LEARNING EXPECTATIONS FOR HIGH SCHOOLS: AN ANALYSIS

OF TWO CURRICULA

 Rona Bušljeta, Centre for Croatian Studies, University of Zagreb

(CROATIA), rbusljeta@hrstud.hr 

Lovorka Mađarević, Centre for Croatian Studies, University of Zagreb (CROATIA), lmadjarevic@hrstud.hr

I. INTRODUCTIONII. THE AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF SOCIAL STUDIESIII. TOPICS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES IN SOCIAL STUDIESIV. THE ANALYSIS OF LEARNING OUTCOMES IN TWO

CURRICULAV. PROPOSALS OF THE WAYS OF ACHIEVING THE CROATIAN

CURRICULUM´S LEARNING OUTCOMESVI. CONCLUSIONVII. REFERENCES

• A more detailed analysis of the purpose and goals of social studies in both curricula leads to the conclusion that both the U.S. and Croatian educational system strive to educate young people while taking into account the common, universally accepted values of modern society.

• Both curricula provide certain topics that clearly delineate the issues of different disciplines included under the term of social studies.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

• Despite the fact that the American and Croatian education systems certainly differ in terms of the historical development of education, school management as well as the organisation and structure of schools, it is interesting to see what both curriculum frameworks propose within the domain of learning outcomes.

Table1: Comparison of the prescribed competences in the Croatian National Curriculum Framework referring to the Social Sciences and Humanities Area to the U.S. National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies

• Choosing a teaching method depends on several factors such as the objective, outcomes, prescribed curricula, legislation, as well as the competence of teachers in the use of certain methods and the diversity of students in social and developmental terms. Taking all these factors into account, it is clear that there exists the question about which ways of achieving learning outcomes would be the most effective.

Table 2: Proposals for the achievement of the selected learning outcomes prescribed by the Croatian National Curriculum Framework

The both Curricula / educational systems:

[1] Adler, S. A., Altoff, P., McGrew, C., Tyson, C. A. et al. (2012). National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies. A Framework for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment. Silver Spring: National Council for the Social Studies, p. 9.[2] Ministry of Science, Education and Sports (2010). National Curriculum Framework for Pre-school, Education and General Compulsory and Secondary Education. Zagreb: Ministry of Science, Education and Sports, p. 180.[3] Adler, S. A., Altoff, P., McGrew, C., Tyson, C. A. et al. (2012). National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies. A Framework for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment. Silver Spring: National Council for the Social Studies, p. 10.[4] Ministry of Science, Education and Sports (2010). National Curriculum Framework for Pre-school, Education and General Compulsory and Secondary Education. Zagreb: Ministry of Science, Education and Sports, pp. 201–206. [5] Anderson, L. W., Krathwohl, R. D. (2001). A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing: A Revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. New York: Longman.[6] Adler, S. A., Altoff, P., McGrew, C., Tyson, C. A. et al. (2012). National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies. A Framework for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment. Silver Spring: National Council for the Social Studies, pp. 126–160.[7] Ministry of Science, Education and Sports (2010). National Curriculum Framework for Pre-school, Education and General Compulsory and Secondary Education. Zagreb: Ministry of Science, Education and Sports, pp. 201–207.[8] Meyer, H. (1988). Unterrichts-Methoden I. Theorieband. Berlin: Cornelson, p. 45.[9] Terhart, E. (2001). Metode poučavanja i učenja. Zagreb: Educa, p. 29.