MY VISION OF POWERFUL TEACHING AND LEARNING IN THE SOCIAL STUDIES 1

MY VISION OF POWERFUL TEACHING AND LEARNING THE SOCIAL STUDIES: DEVELOPING REFLECTIVE, COMPETENT, AND CONCERNED CITIZENS. Kraig Peterson Clarion University of Pennsylvania

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If one is to first question how social studies impacts the classroom, one must first consider Why should social studies be taught at all? From the standpoint of legislators and administrators, social studies is not currently an actively tested subject area, and does not seem to benefit students in the global economy. So how then, do social studies better our students? To provide a short answer: social studies makes students better and more informed citizens, teaches students to think critically, and allows students to gain a better understanding of the world they live in. Social studies provide students with a means to study their nation's founding, and the principles that their nation was founded upon. As a social studies teacher, it should be a primary goal to educate the students on their rights as individuals and as citizens in this country. It should also be a goal to educate the students on the laws, governing bodies that make the laws, and the reasons as to why these laws were put into place, so these students can grow up with maybe not respect and admiration, but with at least understanding and comprehension. Brad M. Maguth (2012), in his article In Defense of the Social Studies: Social Studies Programs in STEM Education, claims that In a time where the United States is engaged in two wars, an economic crisis, and critical political debates of the future of the nation, many social studies practitioners see the social studies as being unjustifiably marginalized. Maguth explains that a primary reason for civic education is to create informed citizens and have those citizens vote for candidates that reflect their own political beliefs. This becomes a problem however when less than one-third of Americans (between the ages of 18-24) vote because of their lack of understanding of the political process.

MY VISION OF POWERFUL TEACHING AND LEARNING IN THE SOCIAL STUDIES 3 This is one of the many crises facing the social studies currently, and is perhaps one of the most important ones. If one does not vote, then the entire democratic system that has been in place for well over two hundred years effectively becomes useless and dead. As social studies instructors, it should be a primary objective to adequately inform future citizens of their rights as Americans how they affect the political system in this country. But creating better citizens should not be the only goal of social studies educators. Too often in the education system, students are taught WHAT to think. Instead, students should be taught HOW to think. Critical thinking, in one of the broadest senses of the term, is why I should believe something or not. Too often, students are handed information that they are to believe as fact, without any proof or confirmation, that the information is true. Students need to be taught to question the world around them, and provide proof to others of their arguments. Critical thinking a relevant skill for any student and most of it can be found in the social studies. Authors Christopher Fischer, Linda Bol, and Shana Pribesh (2011) produced the article An Investigation of Higher-Order Thinking Skills In Smaller Learning Community Social Studies Classrooms, that relays the importance of critical thinking in the classroom. Fischer et al. (2011) state that with the implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act in 2002, and the influx of standardized tests, there has been an overwhelming amount of low-level knowledge. Fischer et al. (2011) go on to state that by asking challenging questions that were structured according to student readiness, and asking students to offer explanations for their reasons and conclusions, there was a significant increase in student and teacher productivity in class, and there was also a measurable development in student thoughtfulness (which Fischer et al. (2011) describe as demonstrable thinking skills).

MY VISION OF POWERFUL TEACHING AND LEARNING IN THE SOCIAL STUDIES 4 Students need to learn how to criticize ideas, not the people presenting them. Students also need to justify their own ideas using solid measurable evidence. Social studies, provides students with critical thinking options in class almost every day. Classes such as civics, world religions, and history all require students to project their own ideas and opinions, and debate between others over why they think their opinions are correct. As social studies teachers, teaching students how to think is perhaps one of the most useful tasks they can learn and apply in their lives. As a means of creating competent, reflective and concerned citizens, students only need to look to the news. There is no denying what MSNBC or CNN shows us on a nightly basis, there is an abundance of problems that the United States and the world is facing. From economic collapse to nuclear war, it is for the planet to see or hear on television or radio. How can this possibly be a positive motivator for social studies? It allows the use of current events to promote learning and understanding in the classroom, while creating students who are aware with what is going on in the world. According to Devecis (2007) article Teachers Views on Teaching Current Events in Social Studies well over half of the teachers studied found the use of current events successful in their classroom. Utilizing current events to link the past and the present became an effective way to bring about discussions and activate prior knowledge to their support their discussion. Deveci (2007) also suggests that by consulting students own opinions on current events; this opens up the floor to debate, which promotes critical thinking. By gaining a proper understanding of the present, this prompts a stepping stone to go back into the past to determine how these current events developed the way they did. With knowledge of these current events, without even realizing it, the students are becoming more

MY VISION OF POWERFUL TEACHING AND LEARNING IN THE SOCIAL STUDIES 5 versed in the events taking place in the world. This will make our students more (hopefully) more active and productive in society in response to this new knowledge of things occurring in the world. To create more reflective, competent, and concerned citizens, social studies must take an active role in promoting education worthy of the potential for societys needs. If we would take a more active and concerned role in society and social studies, then perhaps the world would not face as many adversities as it does today. By promoting critical thinking, placing emphasis on molding young minds to create concerned citizens, and using current events to guide study and make students more aware of the world, educators in the social studies can possibly make the world a better place.

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References Deveci, H. (2007) Teachers Views on Teaching Current Events in Social Studies. Educational Sciences: Theory & Practice, 7(1), 446-451. Fischer, C., Bol, L., Pribesh, S., (2011) An Investigation of Higher-Order Thinking Skills in Smaller Learning Community Social Studies Classrooms. American Secondary Education, 39(2), 5-15. Maguth, B. (2012) In Defense of the Social Studies: Social Studies programs in STEM Education. Social Studies Research & Practice, 7(1), 65-68.