DEFINITION OF SOCIAL STUDIES
Social studies is the study of people in relation
to each other and to their world. It is an issues
focused and inquiry-based interdisciplinary
subject that draws upon history, geography,
ecology, economics, law, philosophy, political
science and other social science disciplines.
Social studies foster students’ understanding of
and involvement in practical and ethical issues
that face their communities and humankind.
Social studies is integral to the process of
enabling students to develop an understanding
of who they are, what they want to become and
the society in which they want to live.
THE 5 COMPONENTS OF SOCIAL STUDIES
 Geography
 History
 Culture and Society
 Civics and Government
 Economics
GEOGRAPHY
1. Geography as a discipline enables us to
understand the Earth we are living in from a
spatial perspective. It offers a systematic
framework for enquiry into questions about
the world that surrounds us. Geography
provides a bridge between the social
sciences and the physical sciences, through
the provision of an understanding of the
dynamics of cultures, societies and
economies on the one hand, and those of
physical landscapes and environmental
processes on the other.
 Location and places in the World.
 Physical features such as landforms,
bodies of water and etc.
 Climate
Examples : mountains, valleys ,
rivers and desert
THEME 1: LOCATION
Relative location – tells where a place is in
relation to other places
Absolute location – the exact location of a
place
THEME 2: HUMAN-ENVIRONMENT
INTERACTIONS
Modify – to change your surroundings
Adapt – to change to fit your surroundings
THEME 3: PLACE
Physical features – landforms, bodies of
water, climate, animal life
Human features – buildings, roads
THEME 4: REGIONS
Regions – areas on Earth that differ from
each other because of their features
THEME 5: MOVEMENT
Cause – an action that makes something
happen
Effect – what happens as a result of that
action
HISTORY
The study of the past. The study of history
helps make sense of humankind. It also
helps people understand the thingsthat
happen today and that may happen in the
future.
 Chronology – time order in which
events take place in history
 Oral history – a story told aloud by a
person who did not write down
what happened
  Perspectives – different points of
view
 Historical empathy – the ability to
understand people of the past in
their own frame of reference
CULTURE AND SOCIETY
‘Culture ... is that complex whole which
includes knowledge, belief, art, morals,
law, custom, and any other capabilities
and habits acquired by man as a
member of society.’
In analyzing the culture of a particular
group or organization it is desirable to
distinguish three fundamental levels at
which culture manifests itself:
(a) observable artifacts,
(b) values, and
(c) Basic underlying assumptions
Culture is a set of values, norms,
andbehaviors shared by a social group.
• Values are those ideals that a society
holds above all others (e.g., honesty,
honor).
• These values are the building blocks
of norms, which are basic rules of social
conduct.
• Another part of culture is the material
objects we create
CIVICS AND GOVERNMENT
 Who leads a country
 How the country is run
 Civics are the things people do
affecting fellow citizens, the
rights and duties of citizens
 Examples: President, King or
Queen, democracy, the
Constitution
Government Vocabulary
Government – a system of leaders and laws
that helps people live safely together
Civic participation – being concerned and
involved in issues related to your
community
ECONOMICS
Economics is the study of the economy, or
the part of a society that creates wealth.
Wealth is not just money. Wealth comes
from the production of goods.
Examples: finances, taxes, salaries,
industries, unemployment
FEATURES COMMON TO All ECONOMIC
SYSTEMS
Economics is a study of the ways in which
people use resources to satisfy their wants. The
word wants requires little explanation. All of us
want the food, clothing, and shelter that we
need to stay alive. But most of us want much
more. We want cars, television sets, vacation
trips—in fact, our capacity to want is almost
unlimited.
Wants -To be human is to want food, clothing,
shelter, and other economic goods. Certainly,
then, the existence of wants cannot be
accepted as a distinguishing feature of private
enterprise. Human wants are the mainspring of
all economic action, whether that action is to
take place under the rules of private enterprise
or of a centrally directed economic system. To
be human is also to want more of these
economic goods than can be supplied. Thus
even the existence of unsatisfied wants is not
unique to private enterprise. Neither history
nor our knowledge of human nature gives us
any reason to believe that any economic
system, however efficient, will ever be able to
produce enough goods and services to satisfy all
the wants of all the people.
Resources- To obtain economic goods, the
people of all societies must produce, and to
produce is to use resources. The basic
resources are everywhere the same: (a)
man and (b) nature. These are man's only
weapons against scarcity, and how well he
succeeds in satisfying his wants depends on
how well he uses these resources.
correct facts and helps in to make correct
interpretation, judgments and generalization.
4. Social Standards-Every society has a certain
code of social standards for its members. These
generally include that the individual member of
the society. Should speak the truth, obey the
low, perform his duties and maintain a
desirable behavior.

Specialization- Any group of people who want

to attain even reasonable efficiency in
producing goods and services must divide the
various tasks involved in production among
various individuals and regions so that each
person and each region is used to the best
advantage
Money - Specialization involves the exchange of
goods and services, and exchange on any but
the simplest scale necessarily involves the use
of money. Money is defined as anything that is
generally accepted in exchange for goods and
services. Some of the most important problems
that confront a private enterprise economy
arise from the use of money, but neither the
problems nor the use of money itself is unique
to the private enterprise form of economic
organization.
RESOURCES:
https://www.dvrhs.org/cms/lib2/NJ01001243/C
entricity/Domain/530/Branches%20of%20Social
%20Studies.pdf
https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/al/globalpad/ope
nhouse/interculturalskills/global_pad_-
_what_is_culture.pdf
http://dl4a.org/uploads/pdf/Culture%20and%2
0Society.pdf
https://mises.org/sites/default/files/Introductio
n%20to%20Economics_5.pdf
https://education.alberta.ca/media/159594/pr
ogram-of-studies-k-3.pdf

The Function of Social Studies are; https://334.edb.hkedcity.net/doc/eng/framewo

1. Social Experience- Social studies provides
social experience to our pupils. Though child
has varied social experience with his parents,
relation, neighbors, relatives, friends etc..
Before he joins the school but in the school he
gains new and varied experience as he interact
with his classmates, teachers and others.
rk1/geog.pdf
https://www.slideshare.net/anjulavendernandh
u/functions-aims-and-values-of-teaching-social-
studies?fbclid=IwAR2TaOIW3gjMb1QFgVRz5jaV
oQHqXdnhgQBEeYZp0SwhKjZ2TPWihuPJl.pdf

2. Social Skills-To make his social experience

meaningful he is also provided with the skills
and technique to apply his experience into
practical life. Social skills are as important as the
skills of reading, writing etc.

3. Social Knowledge- social studies also provides

a lot of information regarding man relationships
this knowledge helps the child to know the