In this study, we share the understandings and the reflections of preservice teachers as they engage in focus group interviews about inquiry in social studies, generally, and their reactions to ...publicly available Inquiry Design Model blueprints. These preservice teachers first discussed their understanding of inquiry, which was rooted in their university coursework. They then described their self-efficacy for implementing inquiry, generally, and the IDM blueprint, specifically, in their current field placements and future classrooms. This envisioned implementation often involved adaptations of the blueprints. Our goal in this research was to reconsider how preservice teachers experience and learn about social studies inquiry and, as a result of these experiences, whether and how they see themselves implementing social studies inquiry with students. This study can inform teacher educators to proactively address common barriers and better support preservice teachers.
This poetic inquiry was produced by a posthuman sound and listening of audio from a focus group of social studies education pre-service teachers. The (re)listening allowed me to hear the relation ...between social studies education, patriarchy, and sports. This inquiry attends to the potestas, or limiting forces, heard in the audio, and it reflects on the potentia, a generative force, of posthuman sound and listening as an opening to learn more about forces that affect pre-service social studies educators as they enter the field of teaching, while avoiding the field of football.
Both the Common Core Standards for Literacy and the College, Career, and Civic Life Framework for Social Studies State Standards underscore the importance of classroom discussion for the development ...of high-level literacy and subject-matter knowledge. Yet, discussion remains stubbornly absent in social studies classrooms, which tend toward rote memorization and textbook work. In this article, we discuss our efforts to design practice-based methods instruction that prepares preservice teachers to facilitate text-based, whole-class discussion. We propose a framework for facilitating historical discussions and illustrate it with examples from videos of teacher candidates enacting the practice in K-12 classrooms. The framework assists not only in conceptualizing and naming the discrete components that constitute disciplinary discussion facilitation but also in highlighting where novices appear to struggle. Our analysis has implications for improving teacher education that seeks to prepare novices for ambitious instruction called for by the new literacy and social studies standards.
Are today’s students able to discern quality information from sham online? In the largest investigation of its kind, we administered an assessment to 3,446 high school students. Equipped with a live ...internet connection, the students responded to six constructed-response tasks. The students struggled on all of them. Asked to investigate a site claiming to “disseminate factual reports” on climate science, 96% never learned about the organization’s ties to the fossil fuel industry. Two thirds were unable to distinguish news stories from ads on a popular website’s home page. More than half believed that an anonymously posted Facebook video, shot in Russia, provided “strong evidence” of U.S. voter fraud. Instead of investigating the organization or group behind a site, students were often duped by weak signs of credibility: a website’s “look,” its top-level domain, the content on its About page, and the sheer quantity of information it provided. The study’s sample reflected the demographic profile of high school students in the United States, and a multilevel regression model explored whether scores varied by student characteristics. Findings revealed differences in student abilities by grade level, self-reported grades, locality, socioeconomic status, race, maternal education, and free/reduced-price lunch status. Taken together, these findings reveal an urgent need to prepare students to thrive in a world in which information flows ceaselessly across their screens.
In this study, I used a critical analysis approach to identify and examine the perpetrator- and victim-centered perspectives within the Holocaust narrative of the 2019 South Carolina Social Studies ...College- and Career-Ready Standards. Given the recent revision of the standards, I compared the 2019 standards to the 2011 South Carolina Social Studies Academic Standards to identify shifts in the prescribed Holocaust narrative. Because the 2019 standards are inquiry-based, I explored the role of perpetrator-centered narratives in relation to inquiry goals. Past studies of the Holocaust in state standards and materials focused on accurate content inclusion. However, using Rubin's (
2020
) Jewish critical race framework, this study moves the research in a new direction by examining the text of the Holocaust content in standards for culturally inclusive narratives. The findings of this study indicate that the Holocaust narrative in the 2019 standards was predominantly perpetrator-centered, thereby the marginalization of Jewish voices was embedded in the standards. The findings also demonstrate that developing inquiry-based standards does not guarantee the expulsion of oppressive narratives from standards documents.
The value of social studies learning for junior high school students in several schools still needs to be higher. One of the factors of low student scores is the need for more variety in learning ...methods used by teachers, low student motivation, and the use of learning media that could be more optimal. One way to do this is to develop a learning model with engaging learning media. This research aims to develop mobile understanding by integrating artificial intelligence at the evaluation stage. The methodology used in this research is the waterfall approach method with requirements analysis, design, implementation, testing, operation, and maintenance. The mobile learning prototype was tested on media experts and junior high school student respondents. The dimensions of expert assessment are reviewed from media appearance, quality and use of media, navigation, product strength, media interface, product attractiveness, and material delivery in the media. The dimensions of questions for students consist of 4 points: content, interface, feedback and assessment, and personalization. The research results show a mobile application’s results, including a brain gym menu, problem identification, materials, discussion forums, assignment results, and quizzes. The menus presented make it easier for students to learn. The questionnaire results from experts show that the highest average is 5.00, with a standard deviation of 0.00. The questionnaire results from student respondents had the highest average of 49.714, with a standard deviation of 0.169. The results of the scores obtained in the expert and student respondent questionnaires show that mobile learning is acceptable.
Developing civic competence among learners is the business of any social studies teacher. The overall success of any social studies teaching depends, in great measure, on the ability of teachers to ...approach controversial public issues (CPI) in the spirit of critical inquiry. However, previous studies suggest that the teaching of CPI is affected by teachers' pedagogical deficits, students' reluctance during discussions, and lack of emphasis on CPI in the curriculum. Hence, this paper purports to locate the preferred positionality, reasons, and practices in teaching CPI of a select group of Filipino social studies teachers (n = 379) in basic education. Using a multi-aspect questionnaire, results showed that teachers are leaning towards a committed impartiality position, and are driven by the desire to develop learners to be critical, reflective, and action-oriented as they engage in meaningful conversations about important social issues. Moreover, teachers' perceived instructional practice is an intersection of empowering, democratising, and conflicting moves, Theoretical and practical implications are also discussed in this paper.
This study aims to explore the moral identity profiles of inspiring social studies teachers. In the research conducted with the systematic grounded theory method, data were collected from 14 teachers ...using in-depth interviews. These data were analyzed with the technique of continuous comparative analysis. The results show the theoretical items that explain the theory to be gathered around the core category of moral identity and to be constituted of self traits; referenced worldview and beliefs; personality characteristics; ideals, and goals; past experiences; social influences; and educational approach. This study contributes to the explanation of moral identity of inspiring teachers.
•This study aims to explore the moral identity profiles of inspiring social studies teachers.•The theoretical items to be gathered around the core category of moral identity.•Moral identity consists of various categories that emerge from the individual's experiences, and social environment.•Data were collected from 14 social studies teachers who were determined to be inspiring teachers.•This study conducted with the systematic grounded theory method.
