Philosophy of Social Studies Teaching

Teaching Social Studies!

 When it comes to Social Studies, I have always been a big fan of the subject. All of my Social Studies teachers have been amazing and would want to be anything else but a history major in college. I realize that many students will not share this sentiment when it comes to Social Studies. They may find the subject hard, boring, or even unbearable. To me, these sentiments come from not having the right teacher. If your teacher is not passionate about what they teach, the students will never truly become passionate about the subject themselves. For a teacher to be a successful Social Studies teacher, her main goal should be to make history come to life and the way to do this is by implementing the five principals of Social Studies teaching. 

The five principles of Social Studies teaching are having meaningful, integrative, value-based, challenging, and active lessons. For a lesson to be mindful it must have a purpose. This means that you shouldn't just teach the War of 1812 because it is in the curriculum, you should teach it because it tells a tale of American Patriotism and standing up for what you believe is right. If you teach children with a purpose, they will be more engaged and excited to learn about what is being taught. For a lesson to be integrative, the lesson must incorporate technology, English, math, and even science. If you keep with the theme of the War of 1812, you could definitely integrate the technology such as ThingLink or Google Earth to take students to the sights of battles to show them where they occurred and how these locations have changed. Next, a Social Studies lesson should be value-based and teach the student about democracy and how to make a positive contribution to society. Teaching students about George Washington and how he created a cabinet to help advise him on decisions shows the students how in a democracy the power is in the hands of the people, not just one man. Of course, the lesson should also be challenging and stimulate the students' minds because if they are too simple, the students will not engage and not retain what they have learned. Finally, a lesson should be active to allow the students to find the information for themselves. The students will feel much more engaged when they have to discover their answers for themselves than when they are given the information.

When teaching a Social Studies lesson, the best way to incorporate all five principles is through the use of cooperative and inquiry-based lesson. Cooperative lessons are a great way to not only allow students to develop their understanding of a topic, but it is also a great way to help your students develop social skills. The students must work together to achieve their goal of completing the assignment which is something that they will have to do for the rest of their lives no matter what career they choose to do. I also really think that a cooperative lesson is one of the most effective lessons because it keeps the students accountable for their work through reflections. All of the students must evaluate themselves and as well as their group mates at the end of the lesson to ensure that one student does not end up doing all of the work which often happens in traditional group work. An inquiry lesson is also exciting. Through inquiry, the students get to be detectives and scientists to discover information that can be built upon through the use of a jigsaw where they can teach their fellow students about what they had found. Overall, I believe that in order to be a successful social studies teacher you must make your lesson as engaging and exciting for the students as possible. Much like reading, if the teacher is enthusiastic about social studies, then the students will be enthusiastic about what they are learning.