Professional Documents
Culture Documents
David Kolb (1984) – “Learning is the process whereby knowledge Learning objective:
is created through the transformation of experience.
Skills, attitude
Collaborative learning Higher levels (Blooms Taxonomy)
Educational approach to teaching and learning that involves small Purpose and Importance of Social Studies
groups of learners working together to solve a problem, complete
Why teach social studies?
a task, or create a product (Laal & Laal, 2012).
Social studies impart essential knowledge for students hoping to
Key elements:
make informed decisions in the future. Some important benefits
Positive interdependence of a quality social studies education include:
Considerable interaction
Students become better judges of world affairs
Individual accountability and personal
responsibility By exploring world governments, conflicts, alliances, and political
Social skills affiliations, students gain a holistic view of how nations interact
Group self-evaluating with each other. Students will determine the causes of war,
economic concerns of individual counties, and how the world Purpose and Importance of Social Studies
functions as the result of communications between multiple
Social studies teachers mix expansive content knowledge with
nations.
innovative methods of teaching that knowledge. Typically, social
Students understand change and how the world and studies teachers focus on instructing students at the elementary
nations developed and middle school level, though some high schools offer courses
in the subject.
Studies study the history of world civilizations, how they rose,
how they fell, and where current nations stand in history. Because students at this age are eager to find their place in the
Students learn why nations are in certain areas, from geographic greater overall society, teachers focus on growing this interest
reasons like resources and landmass, to reasons such as war or in civic engagement. The goal of any social studies teacher is to
technological advancement. help students learn from the past so they can become better
informed and help themselves and their societies in the future.
Students learn skills essential for citizenship
Competencies of a Social Studies Teacher
Social studies inform students about the ways our democracy
functions, such as how citizens are represented by elected The best way to accomplish this, according to the
officials and how the voting process works. Students explore National Council for Social Studies, is by providing
America’s founding documents and civic institutions to teaching and learning opportunities that are “meaningful,
understand how they, as future citizens, will fit into the integrative, value-based, challenging, and active.” Social
democratic process. Typically, these courses also require studies teachers push their students to dive deeply into
students to participate in community events and service-learning history and the global discussion, fostering the growth of
projects to understand how citizens work together to create a interdisciplinary skills used in multiple subject areas
functioning society. along the way. In social studies classes, students typically
conduct research on specific topics and build
Students develop critical thinking skills by analyzing
information-gathering and communication skills as they
decisions made by famous leaders in history
craft papers and reports. They might then present these
Everyone learns from their mistakes. Students have the benefit reports to their classrooms, while the social studies
of learning from other peoples’ mistakes as they explore teacher asks in-depth questions to the rest of the class
successful and unsuccessful decisions made throughout history about the report.
by world leaders
Social studies encompass multiple subject areas, including
history, geography, and economics. Educators combine
these areas in lessons that provide opportunities for
greater student inquiry, giving students opportunities to
participate in group discussions about major events or
issues around the world. Students explore any potential
problems and propose solutions related to these events,
allowing for debate and communication-building exercises.