Comparison of social science education in elementary teaching in Slovenia and in Andalusia

Slovenia and Spain have been under the auspices of the European Union since 2004, when Slovenia joined the European Union. An integrated Europe in the search for a shared identity brings the challenges of cultural diversity. As teachers of science, we want to think that the content of science is generally the same regardless of where the world is being taught. It is cultural diversity, however, that knowledge is transferred in a variety of ways, which can lead to very different learning outcomes (Jorde and Dillon, 2012). In my master's thesis, I compared the teaching of the social sciences in primary school in Slovenia and the Spanish autochthonous community of Andalusia. In Slovenia, primary school involves grades from 1st to 5th whereas in Andalusia from the 1st to the 6th grade. The curriculum which guides the teaching of social sciences at the primary level in Slovenia is Curriculum for Environmental education (2011), Curriculum for Social sciences (2011), Geography (2011) and History (2011) in Andalusia by the Area of Social science (2015). Firstly, both countries, Slovenia and Spain, and the autochthonous province of Spain, Andalusia and their school system, are presented. Theoretical basics of curriculum and didactics of social sciences, methods and forms of teaching, pupils and teachers activities, differentiation and individualisation, cross - curricular integration and assessment of knowledge are described. A comparison of social curriculum syllabuses from the viewpoint of the structure, the number of hours, content , topics and standards of knowledge at the primary level is presented, as well as a comparison of the observed teaching unit of social sciences in both countries. The study of social sciences was compared to the following categories: methods and forms of work, pupil activity and role of the teacher, differentiation and individualisation, cross-curricular integration and assessment of knowledge. An interview with the teachers of the observed teaching unit of Social sciences is also presented