The perfect after school social skill courses for your child

How social science courses benefit your child

In our competitive society, many children participate in extracurricular activities after school to gain an edge. These activities are well known to lay the foundation for the development of intelligence, personality, social behaviour and learning capacity, and as vital elements to ensure your child does not fall behind in their development.

Extracurricular social science classes are no exception as many curricula include a range of social science subjects either taught in an integrative manner in elementary school or in the senior years of secondary school. For example, popular GCSE/IGCSE courses include Psychology and Sociology, O-levels include compulsory Social studies and optional Geography, History courses, A-levels may be taken in Business, Economics, Geography, History, Politics, Sociology, Psychology, HKDSE has a core subject called Liberal studies and the IB program's group 3 subjects consist of Business management, Economics, Geography, Global politics, History, Philosophy, Psychology, Anthropology and Religion.

There is much research that points to the ability of extracurricular social science courses to increase a student's engagement, deepen their understanding of culture and society, develop their global perspectives and improve critical thinking skills1. Social sciences are considered interdisciplinary as they include the study of concepts and themes, ideas and beliefs, and people and places, all of which incorporate knowledge learned in a range of school subjects. Studying interdisciplinary subjects are known to promote higher order thinking skills and innovation, which are attractive capabilities to top colleges. Real life examples of interdisciplinary benefits include the chemist Willard Libby who discovered radiocarbon dating and then applied his findings in chemistry to the discipline of archeology, winning the Nobel Prize for the discovery in 19602. Another example is of a geographer who was involved in a team that set out to solve the cause of acid rain.

William Newell, who was the Executive Director of the Association for Interdisciplinary Studies for many years, believes the very nature of our world as a complex system provides a strong rationale for interdisciplinary study such as social sciences. “In order to be successful, she may find it just as necessary as will the practitioner of interdisciplinary studies to develop an understanding of issues ranging from chemistry to culture”3 . And every year, top universities are implementing more interdisciplinary social science courses into their curricula because they believe it attracts the best students and that a synthesis of a broad range of disciplines constitutes a high quality of education4. A grounding in social sciences therefore has important implications for a student's future in that the resulting cognitive development allows them to see relationships among content areas and understand principles that cross curricular lines and equips students with a wealth of skills to excel in future professions.

After school social science tutoring can assist with the necessary exam preparation for secondary social science subjects, increase a student's examination confidence, provide them with valuable study techniques and result in higher scores on standardized tests5. While some Western countries have moved away from focusing on examinations as a way to measure the achievements of children, children in Asia still face immense pressure to perform well on exams. Influenced by Confucianism, children across Asia are encouraged to study at the expense of other activities, due to a belief that diligence and education facilitate upward social mobility. And nothing causes more stress for both parents and children than preparation for exams and assessments. Exam preparation courses in the area of social studies are one way to help alleviate the pressure children face as it arms them with a sense of readiness, helps develop memory skills and devices, and review exam content in a way that can supplement formal school curricula.

Given the importance of differentiating high quality exam preparation courses, Bizibuz is proud to work with top tier education centres in order to meet the demand for exam preparation courses for the local school system, under international school curricula and for international college admissions.

While exam preparation and after school study are important for children, giving students the opportunity for a more balanced and broad learning experience through an after school social science program can help them develop into more well-rounded individuals with a life-long interdisciplinary outlook!

Bizibuz KnowYourChild™: Find out if your child’s development is on track

Our unique KnowYourChild™ tools are a series of benchmarking tools for children of different ages designed to track a child’s development, highlight necessary intervention and hidden talents, guide on activities to optimize performance and monitor the efficacy of activities over time.

These tools are developed using advanced algorithms and input from top universities including the Education University of Hong Kong and Polytechnic University and senior teachers from leading institutions including the Chinese International School and Canadian International School.

Our Primary KnowYourChild™ tool is the first of its kind to gauge the creative proclivities of a child aged 6-12 years of age in order to map proficiency across a broad spectrum of 8-9 subjects spanning academic and non-academic areas. After the child has completed the tool, parents receive a comprehensive report of their child including smart activity recommendations targeted to address either weaker areas (performance more than one standard deviation below the mean) and to foster talents (performance more than two standard deviations above the mean). If the child has previously used the KnowYourChild™ tool, the report also includes development trend analysis in order to reflect on the impact of activities previously undertaken.

Visit our KnowYourChild™ tools in order to further explore your child’s developmental progress and activity recommendations that optimize your child’s future social science success.