This study examines students' perceptions and ability to think critically within the framework of social studies education. With increasing concern for the survival of democracy and the rapidly changing media landscape, it is increasingly important to understand and promote students' critical thinking skills. The study aims to contribute to an increased understanding of students' critical thinking in social studies teaching and points to the need to develop more differentiated and challenging teaching methods to promote students' ability to think critically in different contexts. It also emphasizes the importance of integrating critical thinking discussions into a broader context of media and information literacy to equip students to navigate the media landscape and contribute to healthy democratic societal development.   Through a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods in a survey, the student's knowledge of critical thinking in different contexts and their ability to apply it in practice were explored. The results showed that students generally had a basic understanding of critical thinking, but had difficulty reaching more advanced levels of critical thinking. When it comes to being able to explain critical thinking in theory, a majority have a basic understanding, mainly related to source criticism. The result of applying it in practice was that a majority could reach a more multifaceted understanding of critical thinking. Specifically, it emerged that the students found it more difficult to apply critical thinking in complex situations and that their ability was to some extent situational depending on the subject. In addition, the results showed challenges students articulated related to navigating through the large flow of information and sifting relevant information from irrelevant or misleading sources.

This study aims to provide insights into Swedish upper secondary school students experiences with Model UN, a roleplay simulation of the United Nations General Assembly, and it´scontributions to the development of knowledge and skills in civics education. Examining Model UN is crucial for evaluating its pedagogical effectiveness and understanding students' perspectives and experiences. It is also essential to investigate how Model UN can enhance students' understanding of societal issues and international relations, particularly in a time of increasing global complexities. By exploring questions that emphasize the function of roleplaying as a tool for increased understanding of societal issues, international relations, and democracy, as well as students' interpretations of participation, the study aims to enhance understanding of how Model UN can benefit students' learning and development.The study utilizes theoretical frameworks that draws from civics didactics such as Christina Odenstad´s (2010) subject profiles and Sara Blanck´s (2014) subject didactics to examine the impact of model UN simulations. Odenstad (2010) categorizes social studies or civics into orientation subject, analysis subject, and discussion subject, while Blanck (2014) adds a subject didactic aspect emphasizing the ability to act and citizenship education. These profiles help analyse how Model UN contributes to students' learning and skills development.Drawing from interviews with upper secondary school students, the study finds that Model UN simulations is an engaging teaching method where students perceive significant development. Students' interest and engagement in societal issues rises, and by assuming roles and discussing crucial topics, they gain a deeper understanding of subjects such as politics and democracy. Factual knowledge develops through participation in role-playing, aiding students in effective argumentation and understanding diverse perspectives. Following the simulations, students emphasize the importance of nuanced analysis, which has enhanced their critical thinking and ability to avoid falling victim to propaganda. Students who participated in Model UN describe developing skills in oral presentation, self-confidence, political self-efficacy, and understanding beyond facts. Through their experiences, they describe a collective journey of nervousness, uncertainty, and growth.The experience led them to realize that political issues are more nuanced than they previously believed, emphasizing the importance of being prepared for counterarguments and understanding different viewpoints. They believe that the practical approach of role-playing is a valuable complement to traditional theoretical education and advocate for more inclusion of such activities in school curricula. Model UN was an enriching and rewarding experience that not only strengthened their skills but also increased their understanding of political issues and international relations. They stress that such activities should become available to more students to promote a deeper understanding and a more engaged approach to societal issues.The study's findings indicate that Model UN provided a breadth in education where all four didactic profiles were demonstrated and developed, suggesting that UN role-playing can be a useful teaching tool in civics education.

The purpose of this study is to show the development of the motion picture program as a teaching aid in South Marshall School, Marshall, Texas, to determine the value of the motion pictures in the social-studies program, with special emphasis upon learning and retention of facts and general information at the third- and sixth-grade levels, and to induce all teachers of the faculty to use the motion picture as a tool for a happier and more meaningful learning experience for boys and girls.

The problem undertaken in this investigation is to determine the value of using audio-visual aids in the fifth-grade social studies program of the Austin Elementary School, Wichita Falls, Texas.

The purpose of this study is to determine the possibilities of visual aids as an aid to the learning process in the social studies of the intermediate grades of the Denton public schools, with particular emphasis on the moving picture films and film strips available for use as visual aids in the social studies subjects.

This study examines the subject civics (social studies) in interaction with other subjects in interdisciplinary projects. By studying three different integrated projects in the grades 7-9, the study examines how subjects interact with one another. The aim of the study is to describe and analyze the character and function of civics in interdisciplinary projects. The results are used to discuss the relationship between subject and integration. In the world of education, there are two endeavors that may seem to counteract each other: on the one hand, focus on more clearly subject-specific knowledge and, on the other, the pursuit of cooperation and interaction between subjects in different forms of interdisciplinary organization of teaching and learning. Integration between subjects can be seen as an opportunity to address the complex problems and challenges of today's citizens in a changing global world. The results of the study describe three dynamic interdisciplinary projects that all contain a movement between different types of interaction between subjects with various degrees of integration. These types are predisciplinary, helping, correlated, shared and reconstructed. In addition, the study shows that civics in the three projects is emerging as an obvious main subject that aims to develop the pupils’ abilities to orientate (facts and concepts), analyze and discuss. So far integrated teaching appears to result in both what subject-specific teaching reaches and, moreover, it seems to form a synthesis knowledge that can be difficult to measure, but that relates to the main goals of the curriculum beyond subjects. These abilities to act can be used to describe the synthesized knowledge citizens need in order to act in the world. / Baksidestext I denna studie av hur samhällskunskapsämnet tar sig uttryck i ämnesintegrerade projekt i grundskolans årskurs 7-9, undersöks de till synes motstående strävandena att dels fokusera ämnesspecifika kunskaper, dels ge utrymme för samspel och integration mellan ämnen.  Resultaten visar en ömsesidig relation där ämne och ämnesintegration förutsätter varandra. Projekten innehåller en rörelse mellan olika typer av ämnessamspel – förvetenskapligt, hjälpande, sammankopplande, förenande, omskapande – med olika grad av integration mellan ämnen. Delar av projekten domineras av ämnesspecifika kunskaper där samhällskunskapsämnet framträder som tydligt huvudämne utifrån de ämnesdidaktiska profilerna orienteringsämne, analysämne och diskussionsämne. Andra delar av projekten domineras istället av integrerade synteskunskaper som relaterar till övergripande läroplansmål. Begreppet handlingsämne används för att beskriva denna syntetiserade kunskap medborgare behöver för att kunna agera i världen. Licentiatuppsatsen har skrivits inom CSD-FL, Forskarskolan för lärare i geografi, historia, religionskunskap och samhällskunskap, en särskild fortbildningssatsning för yrkesverksamma lärare. Centrum för de samhällsvetenskapliga ämnenas didaktik (CSD) vid Karlstads universitet har ansvarat för forskarskolan.

During the Cold War, Norway was a member of NATO, Sweden was neutral but depended on Western support in the event of a crisis, while Finland's foreign policy priority was to win and retain the Soviet Union's confidence. The purpose of the thesis is to study whether the three small states' different foreign policy choices had consequences for the ways in which the Soviet Union and the USA were depicted in school textbooks for history, geography, and social sciences in the period 1930 to 2004. To this end, a theory derived from small states' strategies to maintain their independence was applied to textbook production. The study demonstrates that there was a link between small state foreign policy and textbooks' accounts of the USA and Soviet Union. Swedish and Norwegian textbooks portray international conflicts from a legalistic perspective, taking the part of small states exposed to superpower aggression such as Vietnam and Afghanistan. In Finnish textbooks, however, an interest in defending small state's rights yielded to the need to demonstrate their goodwill towards the Soviet Union, which was described in far less critical terms than in Swedish and Norwegian textbooks. In time, in the name of neutrality, depictions of the USA also became increasingly uncritical. All three Nordic states had government authorities charged with inspecting and approving school textbooks. Foreign policy's chief influence on textbooks was not effected by direct oversight, however; instead, it was established indirectly by means of the social climate, which determined what was considered politically correct in the three countries, and it was to this that the textbooks' authors adapted their work. Textbooks are often said to be conservative and slow to change, but the thesis shows that in parts they were politically sensitive, rapidly adapting to changes in what society held to be politically correct.

Introduction The health of young people in England is an area of concern, nationally and internationally. This has prompted a range of strategies and policies to try to address how health may be improved. However, there has not necessarily been agreement as to how this should best be done. There appeared a case for consideration of alternative or additional approaches to health promotion. Aim This research aimed to construct an assets based model to shape health promotion practice and policy for young people in England. Methods A narrative synthesis was undertaken and highlighted the lack of information regarding which assets might be important for young people’s health in England. This programme of research was developed from those initial findings. Quantitative and qualitative methods were employed to gain a more comprehensive understanding than could be gained by individual methods. This mixed methods research involved secondary data analysis of the Health Behaviours in School Aged Children (HBSC) dataset using regression analysis to identify the assets associated with life satisfaction for English youth. Focus groups and interviews were employed to capture the views of young people regarding assets, health and health promotion. Findings were discussed with practitioners to gather their ideas as to the potential of an assets approach. The different research methods were drawn together by the underpinning theoretical frameworks provided by Assets models and the New Social Studies of Childhood. Results Two themes emerged from the narrative synthesis providing suggestions for health promotion; the ecological approach acknowledged the range of settings that young people inhabit, whilst the holistic approach recognised the interrelationship between risks and assets. Critical discussion consolidated the research findings to propose a list of health promoting assets for young people in England; constructive relationships, safety, positive attributes, independence and opportunity. These findings were brought together into a descriptive model to guide health promotion policy and practice (Figure 1). Constructive relationships appeared as a core asset, providing a foundation from which young people could develop. Having positive attributes was also fundamental to this process, which emphasises the importance of promoting physical and mental health simultaneously. Safety was the third core asset identified through the research strands. There was variation between young people regarding the definition of, and priority assigned to, the additional assets of independence and opportunity. Figure 1: Assets model to shape health promotion with young people Conclusion This research contributes to previous work in the field of assets models by providing new insight into the relatively little researched area of assets approaches to health promotion with young people in England. The complex interrelationships between mental health and assets have been highlighted; providing challenge to frameworks that focus on the quantitative accumulation of assets. The inclusion of young people’s perspectives provided new depth to previous theoretical models and interpretation of quantitative findings. The variation highlighted within this research raises implications for tackling health inequalities. This assets based model provides a framework to shape professional practice and policy thus providing the potential to improve young people’s health and wellbeing in a sustainable and non-stigmatising way.

The aim of the study is to investigate teachers' perceptions of teaching source criticism in upper secondary school's social education course 1b in order to understand how the curriculum is translated into practice. The areas of interest in the teachers’ statements on source criticism concern the content they associate it with, what kind of difficulties they face in their teaching, and what strategies for critical thinking that can be made visible in their statements. The study exhibits diversity in the teaching practices, although a relatively cohesive picture stands. As a result, it can be said that the teachers’ flexibility and scope for interpretation in school stands out, but there also appears to be a mutual agreement of a silent discourse in the teaching of source criticism. Through this study it can be proved that the teachers’ free space in the interpretation of the steering documents may have different implications for the structure of the teaching. Furthermore, source criticism is emphasized as an important part of teaching in social sciences.

My diploma thesis focuses on the approach to family related curriculum at primary school. The theoretical part includes analysis of contemporary view of family in terms of psychology and sociology, summary of possible problems connected with the family related curriculum, some recommendations how to approach the family related curriculum and analysis of approach to this curriculum in FEP EE, three school education programmes and three sets of textbooks from primary education. The practical part examines the approach to family related curriculum from students' of teaching point of view.