TEACHING APPROACHES IN SOCIAL STUDIES
the social studies but also some of the most
SOCIAL- Relating to human society and
how it is organized.
SCIENCE- The study of the physical and
natural world and phenomena, especially by
using systematic observation and
experiment.
5 primary Social Sciences:
● Anthropology
The study of humankind in all is aspects:
culture and development.
● Sociology
The study of the origin, development, and
structure of human societies and the
behavior of individual people and groups in
society.
● Political Science
The study of political organizations and
institutions, especially governments.
● Geography
The study of all the physical features of the
Earth's surface, including its climate and the
distribution of plant, animal, and human life.
● Psychology
The scientific study of the human mind and
mental states, and of human and animal
behavior.
THE RATIONALE OF THE NEW SOCIAL
STUDIES
Sit Dolor Amet
The curriculum movement known as the
New Social Studies illustrated not only
society’s push for curriculum change within
innovative and controversial teaching
practices to be developed.
Pursued with vigor during the 1950s,
curriculum reformers, politicians, and
average citizens pushed for change within
the social studies.
Through a series of national events,
curriculum failures and communist fear, the
Office of Education, along with the National
Science Foundation and private donors,
began to fund a variety of content specific
projects from 1960 to the early 1970s to
reform the social studies.
In the end, more than fifty projects
attempting to revitalize a perceived dying
curriculum were created.
A Decade of Turbulence
1950s
Have been known for great
accomplishments.
The civil rights movement and advances in
technology are only a few examples of this
decade’s success.
However, with success also comes
controversy. Despite the social studies often
obscured presence after World War II,
This discipline would be considered the
focal point of both public frustration and
change. The fire for this collective
re-examination for the social studies came
in the form of four events. These four events
and possibly others served as a catalyst for
curriculum reform in social studies.
The first event is the Korean War
Conservative Americans were upset at the
absence of decisive victory in the war. Many
Americans blamed the lack of will of home,
church, and school to develop good
character among the nation’s youth
(Wubben, 1970).
An example of this can be noted in the
behavior of American prisoners in the
Korean War. According to Bonner (1958),
while in captivity, a large amount of
Americans had the most elementary
understanding of loyalty, democracy, or the
basic system of American government.
Several prisoners showed no courage and
compassion toward their fellow prisoners.
Second event is The Influence of Maurice
Hunt and Lawrence Metcalf
(Psychologists)
They thought of a new way to introduce
knowledge and skills of social science with
the emphasis of citizenship education.
They argued that social studies programs
should not be organized around individual
social science subjects but rather around
what they called “closed areas of society.” It
was these closed areas (e.g.,
homosexuality, interracial\ marriages,
teenage pregnancy, racism, patriotism, etc.)
that are often neglected and ignored in
social studies curriculum. Hunt and Metcalf
suggest that these areas are responsible for
the clouded prejudice, ignorance, and
controversy closed to rational reflection.
Teaching should include the reflective
process since the social sciences provide
the facts, principles, and theories, while
social studies curriculum should provide the
decision-making process (Barr, Barth, &
Shermis, 1977).
The third event came in the form of a
public opinion poll conducted by two
researchers from Purdue University.
Because the Bill of Rights is considered
essential to American culture and ideology,
it was understood that most citizens support
the ideal of justice established within the
framework of the amendments.
To measure the knowledge and support of
these ideals, in 1957, Purdue University,
administered a survey about the Bill of
Rights to a sample of 2,000 high school
students throughout the United States. The
purpose of the survey was to test students
perceptions about American democracy
during and after such events as the Korean
War, communist expansion, and the Cold
War tension existing between the US and
the USSR.
The results of the 1957 study were mixed.
Compared to a similar poll in 1951, students
were generally in favor of freedom for all
persons and groups as protected by the Bill
of Rights; however, many students still
supported or were undecided about Marxist
doctrine and government control of basic
industry and economic institutions.
The final major event was the launching
of Sputnik in 1957

When the Soviet Union launched Sputnik in
1957, it seemed to confirm the sorry state of
American schooling to its critics. Anthony
Penna (1995). The results of this
reorganization and development of new
materials would be known as “the new
social studies.” Scattered throughout the
nation at different curriculum centers, new
social studies programs were extremely
critical of the failed mishmash of errors and
programs prevalent in the 1950s.
The goal of the curriculum centers was to
standardize certain aspects found within
each particular area (e.g., anthropology,
sociology, government, etc.) within the
social studies. Regardless of the content
discipline, each project placed an increased
emphasis on methods, procedures, and
models.
The end results were independent
discipline projects that shared three
common traits emphasized at the Woods
Hole conference:
a) focus on inquiry;
b) focus on values; and
c) focus on the use of games and/or
simulations. Edwin Fenton (1967)
suggested the advances in the curriculum
reform movement reached the social
studies when the
following transpired:
The New Social Studies came to fruition
during the 1960s, but was, in most ways, an
artifact of the 1950s and the cold war
struggle over communism.
It was rooted in Cold War manpower
development anxieties and was an
expansion of trends in science and
mathematics education.
Chiefly discipline-centered, the social
studies projects of the period, supported by
record federal and private financial backing,
were a direct consequence of critiques of
education and progressive social studies
that had been brewing over many years.
In a very real sense, this was an extension
of the war on social studies and the climax
of decades of disdain.
THE NEW SOCIAL STUDIES
The new social studies curriculum has a
vibrant emphasis with in-depth teaching
rather than survey procedures.
In-depth teaching stresses the importance
of pupils understanding concepts and
generalizations more thoroughly than before
Rote learning and memorization are things
of the past unless they are truly vital in
ongoing lessons and units of study.
SALIENT FEATURES OF NEW SOCIAL
SCIENCE
1. CULTURE
“Social studies programs should include
experiences that provide for the study of
culture and cultural diversity.”
Human beings create, learn, share, and
adapt to culture.
Cultures are dynamic and change over time.
Through experience, observation, and
reflection, students will identify elements of
culture as well as similarities and
differences among cultural groups across
time and place.
2. TIME, CONTINUITY, AND CHANGE
“Social studies programs should include
experiences that provide for the study of
the past and its legacy.”
Studying the past makes it possible for us to
understand the human story across time
Knowledge and understanding of the past
enable us to analyze the causes and
consequences of events and developments,
and to place these in the context of the
institutions, values, and beliefs of the
periods in which they took place.
Knowing how to read, reconstruct and
interpret the past allows
us to answer questions
Children in early grades learn to locate
themselves in time and space.
Through a more formal study of history,
students in the middle grades continue to
expand their understanding of the past and
are increasingly able to apply the research
methods associated with historical inquiry.
3. PEOPLE, PLACES, AND
ENVIRONMENTS
“Social studies programs should include
experiences that provide for the study of
people, places, and environments.”
The study of people, places, and
environments enables us to understand the
relationship between human populations
and the physical world.
4. INDIVIDUAL DEVELOPMENT AND
IDENTITY
“Social studies programs should include
experiences that provide for the study of
individual development and identity.”
Personal identity is shaped by an
individual’s culture, by groups, by
institutional influences, and by lived
experiences shared with people inside and
outside the individual’s own culture
throughout her or his development.
5. INDIVIDUALS, GROUPS, AND
INSTITUTIONS
“Social studies programs should include
experiences that provide for the study of
interactions among individuals, groups,
and institutions.”
Institutions are the formal and informal Science, and its practical application,
political, economic, and social organizations technology, have had a major influence on
that help us carry out, organize, and social and cultural change, and on the ways
manage our daily affairs. people interact with the world.

6. POWER, AUTHORITY, AND 9. GLOBAL CONNECTIONS

GOVERNANCE
“Social studies programs should include
“Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of
experiences that provide for the study of global connections and
interdependence.”
how people create, interact with, and
change structures of power, authority,
Global connections have intensified and
and governance.”
accelerated the changes faced at the local,
national, and international levels.
The development of civic competence
requires an understanding of the
foundations of political thought, and the
10. CIVIC IDEALS AND PRACTICES
historical development of various structures
of power, authority, and governance.
“Social studies programs should include
experiences that provide for the study of
7. PRODUCTION, DISTRIBUTION, AND
the ideals, principles, and practices of
CONSUMPTION
citizenship in a democratic republic.”

“Social studies programs should include

An understanding of civic ideals and
experiences that provide for the study of
practices is critical to full participation in
how people organize for the production,
society and is an essential component of
distribution, and consumption of goods
education for citizenship, which is the
and services.”
central purpose of social studies.

People have wants that often exceed the

limited resources available to them and will
gather and analyze data, as well as use
critical thinking skills to determine how best
to deal with a scarcity of resources.

8. SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND

SOCIETY

“Social studies programs should include

experiences that provide for the study of
relationships among science,
technology, and society.