"A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots."

Marcus Garvey

 

What is social studies?

Social studies is the combination of social science and humanities.  Social studies draws upon many disciplines such as geography, anthropology, economics, history, political science, philosophy, law, psychology, religion, and sociology.  Social studies covers an array of knowledge to promote civic competence in students.  Beginning at the elementary level, students learn that there are many different horizons that expand from themselves.  They are just a part of the small picture that expands all the way to the world, being the big picture as discussed in class.  Students learn that the world is not just about themselves. It encompasses every aspect of life and how it is all interrelated.  Social studies teaches students knowledge of the world, including the past, current, and future of people, places, and ideas.  Students learn who they are, where they come from, and where they’re going.  Social studies is a very important discipline that all students need to be knowledgeable so that they can fulfill their civic duty as a citizen in their community, city, state, country, and the world.

 

Why do we teach social studies?

We need to teach social studies so that students have civic competence.  They need to learn how to be active, loyal, and patriotic.  Social studies teaches them how they can do this and the best way of doing it.  Social studies teaches students how to make well-informed, reasoned decisions for themselves, as well as, the world around them.  In social studies, students learn about the cultural diversity throughout the world and in their community.  They study people, places, and ideas from the past, current, and future.  They also learn about events, important people, and places and how they are relevant to their past, current, and future life.  Students gain a connection with the world as a whole through social studies and grow as people and knowledgeable citizens.  They learn every aspect of the world, including the people, places, and ideas that have shaped where we have been in the past, are currently, and will be in the future.

 

How do we teach social studies?

We teach social studies through the guidance of the principles of powerful teaching and learning.  The teaching and learning must be meaningful, integrative, be value-based, challenging, and active in order to best teach students about social studies.  Teaching and learning must be meaningful which means teachers need to be careful and thoughtful with the curriculum in their planning, implementation, and assessment. Instead of providing the student with a great amount of information, teachers need to provide in depth knowledge and ideas on topics.  Students need to see why learning the content in social studies and how it matters in their lives.  In social studies, students need to be given and taught how to use skills, knowledge and ideas taught and be able to see how it relates to them and how they can use it.   They need to be shown how it can be applied in their life to succeed in their civic duty.

 

The teaching and learning needs to be integrative.  Teachers need to draw upon the other disciplines that are important for students and integrate them into the curriculum.  Together all of the disciplines will shape students’ civic being and give them a variety of skills to use in life.  Students will learn how life encompasses many disciplines that social studies is drawn from.  This will teach them how they relate to them and the world in whole.

 

When teaching and learning is value-base, teachers and students learn about their values and how they affect their lives.  Students need to see how the content they learned is valuable to them, how it can be used, why they should use it, and what it what it will mean for them in the future.  This will help students investigate and examine situations, make arguments, justify their arguments, and critically think to make good decisions.  They learn how value could be placed on content learned and how it can better their lives as a civic person. 

 

Teaching and learning should be challenging.  When learning is challenging, students learn how to use critical thinking skills in order to gather, analyze, and use information in the best way possible.  Students need to learn and examine difficult concepts, ideas, and think about them outside of the box.  They need to learn how to apply what they learn, learn different ways it can be used, and the best way to use it.  When they know this, they can evaluate and determine the best to use information learned in the most effective way.

 

When teaching and learning are active, both the teachers and the students are more involved in what is being taught.  Teachers provide modeling, questioning, and explanations.  Students follow this process and demonstrate, answer, and explain what they are learning.  Students and teachers actively engage in the lesson by thinking and acting on what is being taught.  These powerful teaching and learning strategies help teachers to teach and students to learn social studies. They guide them to the success of students having civic competence.