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TEACHING METHODS.
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Focus on elementary school social studies.... More...
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Paper Abstract:
Focus on elementary school social studies. Changes in social studies discipline in 1990s. Change in curriculum standards. Integration of social studies and humanities. Goal of civic competence. Purpose of enabling students to actively participate and interact with learning resources. The role of the teacher. Constructivist theory and approach. Emphasis on oral history and local history.

Paper Introduction:
This research examines current teaching methods in elementary-school-level social studies. The research will set forth the context in which teaching methods have become an important issue front in social-studies education and then discuss the emergence of the constructivist pedagogical approach and as well as the relevance of new technologies and resources that are meant to enrich the students' access to and experience of study of social relationships and the variety of institutions around which such relationships are organized. Over the course of the 1990s, the social-studies discipline underwent significant shifts in curricular and pedagogical emphasis. In 1994, the National Council for the Social Studies, the major umbrella organization serving the field, promulgated curriculum standards that were designed to foster "integrated study

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Preservice to the "real world": Transforming social studies through technology. Teaching elementary social studies. However, the teachermay be obliged to instruct students in the use of the technology. Technology and Teacher Education Annual, 1997 (CD-ROM edition). Social studies teachers and technology: Activities for the constructivist classroom. (1993). (2 2). Novelli offersspecific recommendations for making such an approach fruitful: variety oftechnology; open-ended use of learning media; awareness of varying learning-speed aptitudes; involving instructors with special qualifications;constant evaluation; rebalancing of study groups as needed. More and more classrooms are wired to the Internet, which makesavailable many electronic resources--from full-text documents andmonographs with hard-copy counterparts, to issue-specific Internet sitesoffering advocacy and information, to resource databases maintained byacademic and government entities. Social Education, 65, 413-418.Vygotsky, L. J.D. Retrieved from the World Wide Web 2 September 2 2 at http://www.cssjournal.com/cwhite.html.Woodward, C. Charlottesville, Va.: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education. The idea behind using it is toenliven students' appreciation of history as lived and perceived. Local history, or teaching that exposes students to historical placesthat "provide physical evidence of how broad currents of history affecteven small communities" (Harper, 1997), can be powerful if supplemented byother materials. Retrieved from the World Wide Web 2 September 2 2, at http://www.ncss.org/.National Park Service. Instructor, 1 3, 43-5.Rice, M.L., Wilson, E.K., Rice, M.K. Social Education, 65, 426-427.Schur, J.B. (1967, Fall). (2 ). (2 2). In 1994, theNational Council for the Social Studies, the major umbrella organizationserving the field, promulgated curriculum standards that were designed tofoster "integrated study of the social sciences and humanities to promotecivic competence" (White, 1997). Bloomington, Ind.: ERIC Clearinghouse for Social Studies/Social Science Education. Charlottesville, Va.: Universty of Virginia. Implementation of the constructivist pedagogical approach in today'sclassroom is facilitated by the availability of high technology, which mayinvolve everything from Internet- and presentation-software (PowerPoint)-ready computers to television-VCR-DVD-camera apparatus to multimediapackages. ERIC Digest ED393781. Oral history in the teaching of U.S. Rosa, S. Retrieved from the World Wide Web 2 September 2 2 at http://www.webcom.com/journal/rice.html.Risinger, C.F. 426) quotes a statement by one teacher that "this is a great timeto be a social studies teacher," a reference to the abundance of technology-driven information resources that can help students understand the eventsof September 11, 2 1. (2 1). Technology and Teacher Education Annual, (Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education) 1999 (CD-ROM edition). ERIC Digest ED415178. ERIC Digest ED293784. The constructivist theory of social-studiesconstruction is not antithetical to school-board-driven curriculum contentbut rather a specific means of covering it that reflects students' real-world experience of technology in the current period. The integrated approach to teaching and learning was envisioned by itsadvocates as a mechanism for enabling students not merely to be passiverecipients of top-down transmission of instruction, in the mold oftraditional lecture/reading classroom time, but instead to interact withlearning resources so as to be able to actively participate in andstructure, or construct, their own growing social-studies knowledge base,as an attribute of their previous beliefs or existing knowledge,interaction with other students, their evolving experience, and theirintegration of new information with the rest of their knowledge. Charlottesville, Va.: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education. Retrieved from the World Wide Web 2 September 2 2 at http://search.ed.gov/csi/eric.html.National Council for the Social Studies. ReferencesBerson, I.R., & Berson, M.J. Bloomington, Ind.: ERIC Clearinghouse for Social Studies/Social Science Education. (2 1, November-December). The trauma of terrorism: Helping children cope. Cambridge, Mass.: Institute of Technology Press.White, C. & Brooks, M. Oral history is considered a mechanism for fostering increaseddiscussion and awareness of unfamiliar resources. Alexandria, Va.: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.Center for Technology and Teacher Education. Accordingly, in addition totraditional media such as textbooks and classroom lecture, designed totransmit social-studies content, instructors would be encouraged and wouldencourage their students to use the World Wide Web, commercial software,and multimedia packages as information resources in order to obtaininformation and insight. The operative word in that definition ofsocial studies is integrated, and it covers a whole range of pedagogicalresources and learning techniques associated with the use of technology ingeneral and telecommunications in particular. It follows from this that the focus is not somuch on what the teacher can teach but on what the student can learn--arather crucial distinction. (1993, October). (2 1,November-December). Integratingcomputer use with standard text use, the students in the classroom came upwith flags and geographical knowledge that were to be used to develop andpromote the other groups' awareness of their region. However, Risinger is skeptical of such a blanketstatement, and Hobbs explains that it is important for students usingInternet resources to learn how to "ask critical questions about what youwatch, see, listen to, and read and . Washington, DC: NCSS. Social Education, 65, 4 6-411.Hoge, John D. It is at this point that oral history andlocal history become especially relevant. For example, in one project Novelli groupedstudents within the classroom according to global geographical regionrather than individually diagnosed educational aptitude. (1974, April). We are living history: Reflections of a New York City social studies teacher. The September 11 events could encompassnarratives of Muslims as well as (say) firefighters. The objective is to "educe relianceon textbooks and teacher talk and instead giving students theresponsibility for negotiating the acquisition of social studies knowledge"(Rice, Wilson, & Rice, 1999). Media literacy skills: Interpreting tragedy. Teaching with historic places. Socialstudies.org. The background of the slave narrative collection. Bloomington, Ind.: ERIC Clearinghouse for Social Studies/Social Science Education. 413). Willis (Eds.). R. (1985). V. (1988, March). This refers tothe introduction of a wide range of perspectives on a variety of issuesthat transform the psychosocial experience of the world. National Register of Historic Places. In the social-studies field, the NationalCouncil for the Social Studies (NCSS) and the Center for Technology andTeacher Education (CTTE) have leading roles as clearing houses for a widerange of social-studies resources. (1997). Better tools for better teamwork. Retrieved from the World Wide Web 2 September 2 2 at http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/twhp/descrip.htm.Novelli, J. Inthe wake of the events of September 11, 2 1, social-studies pedagogytheorists have touted the benefits of using current events to "expandstudents' global understanding of the world while integrating theseimportant topics into the formal curriculum (Berson & Berson, 2 1, p.341). Indeed,Hoge (1988) cites research showing that elementary-age children cannotthink formally about history, another way of saying that they may not beable to absorb. The role of the teacher in a constructivist classroom setting is thatnot that of expert pedagogue transmitting wisdom but rather of facilitatorof emerging knowledge (Vygotsky, 1985). Typically, oral historyrefers to information obtained from "the eyes, experiences, and memories ofpeople who lived during that time," and it can be "captured" on videotapeor other kind of recording (Siler, 1996). Social Education, 65, 341-343,385-387.Brooks, J. S. Internet site. In addition to publishing social-studiesjournals online, the NCSS tracks the availability of new online resourcesfor following current events and integrating them into social studies.Articles in NCSS publications in the wake of September 11 include sidebarswith Internet-site information. Retrieved from the World Wide Web 2 September 2 2 at http://search.ed.gov/csi/eric.html.Singleton, L.R. CTTE's Impact Project "develop[s] andevaluate[s] materials that best promote the seamless integration oftechnology into social studies teacher education" (CTTE, 2 2). Teaching history in the elementary school. Teaching about terrorism, Islam, and tolerance with the Internet. Constructivist teaching methods are frequently cited in conjunctionwith what is called transformative social studies content. American Quarterly, 19, 534-553.Zarrillo, J.J. Indeed, more than 5 complete lesson plans areaavailable for free on line at the Internet site of the National ParkService (http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/twhp/descrip.htm). This research examines current teaching methods in elementary-school-level social studies. In search of understanding: The case for constructivist classroom. Thus an importantobjective of a constructivist social-studies curriculum is to fosterinformation and media literacy as a strategy of civic competence. (2 1, October). Novelli (1993) cites personalexperience in an elementary-school classroom in which cooperative orcollaborative learning groups were made possible by computer-assistedinstruction modalities. History from slave sources: A review essay. Thus, if it is a "great time" to be asocial studies teacher, it is also a time in which the benefits of up-to-date technology and endless information resources must be tempered by theskills of critical thinking and resource evaluation. Risinger(2 1, p. Including Historic Places in the Social Studies Curriculum. The research will set forth the context in whichteaching methods have become an important issue front in social-studieseducation and then discuss the emergence of the constructivist pedagogicalapproach and as well as the relevance of new technologies and resourcesthat are meant to enrich the students' access to and experience of study ofsocial relationships and the variety of institutions around which suchrelationships are organized. Harper cites the availability ofmaterials for teachers and museum directors from the National ParkService's National Register of Historic Places and The National Trust forHistoric Preservation. 4 6). history. Also apropos of September 11, Singleton says that a democratic societyof critical thinkers -- the very kind that constructivist social studies ismeant to support-- "requires the expression of differing opinions and theexamination of alternative perspectives in the belief that the truth ismost likely to emerge following candid discussions of all dimensions of anissue" (Singleton, 2 1, p. R. . (1996, March). Thought and language. McNeil, & J. Impact II. The use of oral history and local history, which may be developed frominformal or nontraditional sources, has been increasingly emphasized. Technology-drivendissemination of information involving intensive experience of localhistory, overlapping with oral history, has been abundantly clear sinceSeptember 11. Price, K. (2 2). identify[] message's author,purpose, and point of view" (2 1, p. Specifically,students are to be exposed to the perspectives of cultures outside the USor to historically marginalized cultures within the US (Zarrillo, 2 ).The presence of multicultural perspectives in the social-studies curriculumis meant to enlarge the scope of civic competence, social awareness, andcritical thinking among students, and it is consistent with the concept ofconstructing individual and community knowledge bases. (2 1, October). Retrieved from the World Wide Web 2 September 2 2 at http://www.teacherlink.org/content/social/impact/home.htm.Harper, M. . Local history may involve field trips and museum visits,as well as multimedia shows on computer. Risinger (2 1) reports the results of an intensive Internet surveythat yielded a range of sites fed by such tehnological resources as the NewYork Times, CNN, Islam City, and the Southern Poverty Law Center, whichprovide news and analysis of terrorism, Islam, and related subjects. These skills, as muchas technology power per se, would seem to be a necessary feature ofconstructivist and transformative social studies and the civic competencethe discipline is meant to foster. Retrieved from the World Wide Web 2 September 2 2 at http://search.ed.gov/csi/eric.html.Hobbs, R. (1999). As well, students would be urged to achievecompetence in the use of various kinds of software, such as PowerPoint, toenable creative research, reporting, sharing, and dissemination ofinformation in the classroom setting. American Historical Review, 79, 47 -481.Yetman, N. Following a tragic event: A necessary challenge for civic educators. (1997, October). Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall. The personal account of the events by a lower-Manhattansocial studies teacher and her report of New York-area schoolchildren'sloss of parents and loved ones is only one example of how local history andcurrent events overlap and converge. Over the course of the 199 s, the social-studies discipline underwentsignificant shifts in curricular and pedagogical emphasis. Hence the emergence of the term constructivism, orsometimes social constructivism, to describe a teaching method thatvalorizes active student engagement with the tools of knowledge "so as todevelop[] a community of learners" (White, 1997). Manyslave narratives were recorded by the Federal Writers' Project in the193 s, and the methods of collection were controversial (Woodward, 1974;Yetman, 1967); however, they show how oral history can lend immediacy andrelevance to the learning process. Social Education, 65, 336-34 , 383- 384.Siler, C.

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