BARBARA JOHANNESSON reviews Understanding Human and Social Sciences Grade 7 by Mosima Welhemina Morare et al (Maskew Miller Longman, R44,95), Investigating Society and Environment Grade 7 by Annie Chimusoro et al (Juta, R39,95), and On Track with Human and Social Sciences Grade 7 by Peter Ranby and Emilia Potenza (Phumelela, R44,95)
Understanding Human and Social Sciences Grade 7 has a detailed introduction on Curriculum 2005 which will help you to understand the big outcomes-based education (OBE) picture. The pages on assessment include record sheets and are very helpful. The book is full of OBE explanations, and there are many links with other Learning Areas, lots of activities for individuals, pairs and groups, and interesting case studies.
Each chapter in this book covers one of the specific outcomes for HSS. My main concern is that there is so much here — many topics jump over many centuries in many different parts of the world. This means that nothing is really covered in any depth.
If you are using this book, you might want to start with Chapter Two. Chapter One, How South African Society has Changed and Developed, is an attempt to cover a selection of some events in South African history from 50 000BC to 1994AD in 20 pages. The reasons for what, how and why things changed are not clear.
The design and layout are attractive. There are lots of drawings and photographs — but full use is unfortunately not made of them. A reference list should have been provided.
Investigating Society and Environment Grade 7 is a well-designed and challenging OBE-integrated HSS learning programme. Chapters cover a range of topics including early Southern African settlements, human rights and responsibilities, natural disasters, and development.
The book achieves a balance between the three focus areas: citizenship, which investigates living in a democracy, human rights and responsibilities; history, which investigates evolution and the first human societies, farmers, kingdoms and conflict, and social systems changing over time; and geography, which investigates environmental hazards and how people can understand, plan for and survive them better, and the making, selling and using of resources.
Many of the new textbooks coming on to the market have been cobbled together from old history and geography books in a great hurry to meet submission deadlines. However, Investigating Society and Environment has been carefully crafted for Curriculum 2005.
The whole book has a tone and an authority that are not didactic or patronising, and it engages the reader and makes things relevant to learners’ lives. On the whole, the design and the artwork serve the text well.
The book affirms humanness, harmony with nature and respect for others, and promotes the critical outcomes of Curriculum 2005. Gender and race issues are very sensitively handled.
Many of the chapters in this book are demanding and might be very difficult for learners in grade 7. The reading level requires the learner to be very good at English.
There is sometimes too much detail crowded on to a page. This is not a problem for an efficient reader in English, but may be a problem for some grade 7 learners.
The questions raised in the activities are sometimes too general and need to be broken down and developed step by step.
If I was teaching grade 7 HSS for the first time using this book, I would still have to do a lot of home preparation. Investigating Society and Environment is supported by a comprehensive teacher’s guide.
Both the authors of On Track with Human and Social Sciences, Peter Ranby and Emilia Potenza, have classroom teaching backgrounds and have been writing high-quality, progressive educational materials for 15 years or more. It would be useful for all potential users of the book to know this, as it is a good reason to choose to use this book.
The text is very well written, interesting and interactive. It is strong on empathy and makes social sciences relevant to learners’ lives. The language, the topics chosen, and the types of activities are appropriate for the grade 7 level. Teachers will find the assessment section at the end of each chapter helpful as the exercises are carefully structured and assess the content, skills and values learned in the chapter very effectively.
The book is a good example of integrated social sciences and includes history, geography and civics components. The chapters are engaging to read. There are lots of snippets of thought-provoking information like, for example: ”Some famous painters of the Renaissance, like Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, often only painted the faces on their paintings. The rest of the painting was done by other painters whose names do not appear in the history books” (page 52).
On the negative side, I think the book covers too many topics and perhaps the range of time and space is too wide. A deeper investigation of fewer topics would allow more substantial learning.
The design is clean, and it is easy to follow the text and pictures around the page. However, the book is a little thin on photographs.
The very detailed references to the curriculum documents at the beginning of each chapter — Specific Outcomes, Assessment Criteria and Performance Indicators — will not assist the learners. These lists of jargon are to please technicist provincial review committees, and contradict the spirit of learner-centred education.
The book is accompanied by a teacher’s guide. Teachers are encouraged to get hold of it in order to make the best use of the learners’ book.
— The Teacher/Mail & Guardian, June 15, 2000.
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