Social Studies Tuition

Social Studies Tuition Classes

Social Studies is a compulsory subject as policymakers believe that it has the potential to transform our students into informed, concerned and participative citizens. These are progressive outcomes and even though the second and third goals (concerned and participative citizens) will probably not be achieved for most 16-year olds, every student must at least be an informed citizen when they step into the exam hall if they harbour any wish of doing well in this subject.

With the introduction of Syllabus 2267 (2017), the content has likewise been overhauled and this syllabus allows for tremendous responsiveness to current affairs. This is because the content has been separated into core and dynamic components. Core Content are basically broad concepts that form the backbone of the syllabus, grouped into the overarching themes of citizenship, diversity and globalization.

The specific concepts within those themes are:

• Citizenship, Trade-offs, Governance
• Diversity, Identity, Harmony, Assimilation, Integration
• Globalization, Interconnections, Interdependence, Homogenisation, Hybridisation, Trade-offs, Security

Due to this, Syllabus 2267 (2017) is more abstract in content compared to the old syllabus. But that is not all. There is also another type of content called DYNAMIC CONTENT and like the name suggest, this body of knowledge is constantly changing and these are knowledge that is not even found in the textbook! For example, the exam might ask about the unreliability of MRT in Singapore and why this is creating tension between the government and citizens. The student can also be tested on the controversies and explicit aims of the reserved Presidential Elections in 2017.

Do take note that current affairs can be tested in the new syllabus and that is how students will be moulded into informed (hopefully also concerned and participative) citizens. This can be scary or delightful for students, depending on what they have been doing all along. To the group of students who have been keeping their eyes and ears peeled to the developments in society, they will find Social Studies a walk in the park and rightfully so since they are being rewarded for what they are doing. For the students who are not naturally inclined to find out what is going on around them, this subject can be a source of fear as they will probably be ill-prepared when it comes to dynamic content. The bottom line is, Syllabus 2267 (2017) does not have an end-point in terms of content. Rather, the finishing line is a moving target.

The teacher teaching this syllabus cannot just be teaching skills and content; he or she must also be a curator of content. That means that no two social studies classrooms are alike. The kind of things that a student learn under one teacher is going to be different from the things taught by another teacher. As you can imagine, the student that has the advantage in this subject is the student who has the widest exposure.

How does Brain Matter help students to excel in Social Studies?

Here at Brain Matter, we like to do things differently.

1. We teach before

Through pre-teaching, students will learn the core content and answering skills before their classmates in school. This is to enable them to have an advantage over their schoolmates. For example, the student would have acquired sufficient knowledge to take part in classroom discussions confidently.

2. We teach beyond

For a subject with a constantly evolving body of knowledge, this is important if students were to be able to connect the dots and apply higher order thinking skills. We do not just teach about the enablers of globalization. We teach also the different phases of globalization and why this is not a twenty-first century phenomenon so that students will be able to see exactly what is so significant and different about the current enablers of globalization. Social Studies is a really good subject to prepare students for the General Paper in JC and we design the classes with this outcome in mind.

3. We teach in-time

This is not a contradiction to pre-teaching. We teach the concepts before your child’s classmates get to learn about them in school and we also bring the significance of current developments in the world into the classroom. How current exactly is our just-in-time teaching? It’s going to be down to the same day currency if there are relevant breaking news. Teachers teaching Social Studies must be curators of content; this is what we mean.

It is expected that the classes will finish the core content of the level syllabus by March for the secondary 4 classes and by May for the secondary 3 classes. Parents wishing to send their kids for Social Studies enrichment due to content motivation should hence do it early in the year and not towards the end of the year where the class focus would have sifted to exam practice. In other words, we build in the early part of the year and polish/enhance from mid-year onwards. If you have any questions on whether your child can keep up with the regular classes, please contact Brain Matter for a discussion. Your child might be required to go through some private bridging lessons depending on how much content and skills have already been taught at the time of joining.

If the student sticks with Brain Matter for the entire academic year, he or she would have experienced going through at least 25 sets of school papers. Our teachers also teach the students exam skills, especially that of time management and exploiting the effort-to-marks ratio.

You can find out more about our Social Studies Resources by clicking here.

Frequency and Duration

Once a Week, 2 hours

Frequently Asked Questions