Chapter 2: Why Theory Matters: Moving from Theory into Praxis Learning Topics Consistency of...

Chapter 2: Why Theory Matters: Moving from Theory into Praxis

Learning TopicsConsistency of Approach in Teaching

Transmission, Transaction, and Transformation: Three Approaches to Curriculum

Critical Thinking in Social StudiesThe Role of the Teacher

Creative and Imaginative Instruction in Social Studies

Copyright © 2011 by Pearson Education Canada 2 - 1

Establishing a Learning Environment

Success, not failureFun, not fear

Excitement, not boredomActivity, not passivity

Playfulness, not regimentationExtensions, not limits

Pattern seeking, not just recognition Cooperation, not just competition

Surprises, not just routinesQuestioning, not just answering

Understanding, not just memorizingTalking, not just listening

~ Author Unknown


Social Studies: Innovative Approaches for Teachers

Social Studies instruction must…

• Have intellectual qualities that are appropriate for young learners

• Be relevant• Take place in a supportive learning environment• Recognize differences in learners



Differences can be supported in the curriculum by…

• Adjusting the content• Adjusting the learning processes• Adjusting the products students are required to

produce to demonstrate their learning.



Social Studies strategies must…

• Use respectful tasks• Use flexible groupings to facilitate learning• Use ongoing assessments and adjustments• Be authentic.



Authentic tasks

Authentic tasks:* allow students to construct meaning and produce

knowledge* use disciplined inquiry to construct meaning* help students work towards producing discourse,

products, and performances that have value or meaning beyond success in school.



Critical Thinking in Social Studies

Teachers must consider ways to match what they teach to how they teach. This is called instructional intelligence.

There are many strategies that promote critical thinking in Social Studies.



Strategies that promote critical thinking in Social Studies



• Analytical shaping (making mental models) • Public information exhibits

• Binary opposites identification and exploration • Public issue research projects

• Case-based learning • Role playing

• Community based learning • Simulations

• Constructing models • Story models

• Cooperative learning strategies and structures • Web searches

• Critical challenges • Youth forums

• Ethical reasoning • Informed decision making

• Experiential learning and service learning • Internalizing through practice

• Metaphors • Internet based inquiries

• Mythical planning frameworks

Develop critical thinking skills among students by…

• promoting cooperative talk • teaching social skills so that learning time is respected in a culture of inclusiveness and regard for differences of

opinion• teaching students to ask questions• teaching the difference between open ended (deep) questions, and closed (factual) questions• modeling critical thinking in your own approach to events• structuring tasks that require cooperative problem solving and critical analysis with multi-variant dilemmas• infusing daily learning with ambiguous thinking challenges that require “messy” analysis• modeling your own approaches to “messy” challenges• using meta-language to create awareness of critical thinking strategies• teaching students to identify and apply criteria to their analysis of tasks that require critical thinking• teaching students how to acquire background knowledge so they pursue informed investigations• teaching investigation skills and thinking strategies• teaching students to self-assess and to analyze their strategies for efficacy and effectiveness• teaching students how to identify implicit and explicit criteria• teaching students that to think critically is to consider both the quality, and the processes, they apply to situations• teaching students to be critical listeners and to challenge non-critical thinking in respectful and productive ways



Teach students to ask questions.



Question stems students can learn include:

• What is…?

• Where/when can…? • Where/ when will…?

• Where/ when is…? • Which can…? • Which will…?

• Which is…? • Who can…? • Who will…?

• Who is…? • Why can…? • How will…?

• How is…? • How can..? • What might…?

• What did…? • What would…? • Where/ when might…?

• Where/ when did…? • Where/when would…? • Which might…?

• Which did…? • Which would…? • Who might…?

• Who did? • Who would…? • Why might…?

• Why did…? • Why would…? • How might…?

• How did…? • How would…?

• What can…? • What will…?

Consider this example

Two groups of students, one in Ontario, and one in north east London, England, undertook a project together. They were asked by their respective teachers to investigate local bridges in their city and look for materials and construction techniques that were used. Through computer video and internet links, and web casting, students were able to share ideas, discuss their study, and examine each other’s results.

How is critical thinking being promoted?



Consider this example A teacher wants to teach her students about earthquakes but recognizes that this

will be an abstract idea for most of her Grade 2 students. To start the study, she asks students to form two lines facing each other and holding hands. The teacher has asked that the group on the right jump up and down, make lots of noise, and jostle their neighbors to the right. The group on the left will simultaneously jump up and down, make lots of noise, and jostle their neighbors to the left. Since students are holding hands with people opposite them, partners will start to get pushed away from each other in the noise and confusion. After 30 to 40 seconds of this, students can return to a discussion area and list words that describe how they felt during this experience. Words such as “silly”, “confused”, “crowded”, “hot”, “overwhelmed”, might be listed. The teacher can then say, “These are some of the feeling that you might have if you were in an earthquake.” This approach gets students started into investigations of the topic with a mind set about the abstract idea of “earthquake” that they can draw from to help them make meaning from subsequent learning about earthquakes.

How is critical thinking being promoted?Copyright © 2011 by Pearson Education Canada 2 - 12


Consider this example During the year of Social Studies work, students studied “medieval times”, and later “early

settlements” in their own area of Canada. During each study, they examined paintings and photographs, looked at letters and copies of manuscripts, and watched virtual museum video clips. Each student created several artifacts from each period that represented their understanding of the culture of each time period. Their teacher wanted students to understand how we know certain things about these long ago times. To do this, she created a simulated archeological dig in her classroom. Students worked in two teams, one excavating a medieval site and the other excavating an early Canadian settlement site. Both sites were buried under sand and soil contained by a 4X8 sheet of plywood, sided with 2X4 wood so the sand soil mixture could be at least 10 cm deep in each site. As students made their own medieval and pioneer artifacts during units of study, so did the teacher. Then, pieces of her artifacts were removed, torn, broken, and scattered under the sand and soil in the boxes. Students then worked in archeological teams, with authentic tools and recording approaches to unearth these artifacts and piece together the story of what happened in each time period represented by their artifacts.

How is critical thinking being promoted? Copyright © 2011 by Pearson Education Canada 2 - 13


Consider this example Chemicals such as nitrogen build up in soil, often at rates faster than the soil can

harness and use them. Nitrogen levels in soil affect how productive the area is for farming, which in turn affects the settlement patterns of the area. To show this concept, the teacher sets an empty aquarium on a table near a sink. Two students stand on opposite sides of the aquarium and, using the plastic 500mL beakers they have been provided, try to tag each other with the filling and emptying of the tank. One student pours water in, one beaker at a time, while the other removes water one beaker at a time. Gradually, water will start to build up in the bottom of the tank. The student trying to empty the tank is unable to keep up with the filling and gradually more and more water builds up on the bottom. This starts students’ study of abstract concepts such as the nitrogen cycle in soils and how such phenomena affected the geography and use of an area.

How is critical thinking being promoted?



Creative thinking in Social Studies

Creative and imaginative approaches in the classroom should be encouraged

to help students:Create new perspectivesExamine the outrageous as possible by asking “What if…”? questionsExtend their abilities to perceive and understandMaintain their focus and perseveranceMaximize input from other learnersRespect divergence Value non-dominant perspectives



The Topic Elaboration Skill of Concept Clarification

1. Name the skill.2. Write the word in the center of a page.3. Brainstorm all of the words and ideas you can think of, related to the main

word.4. Start writing a definition for the word by naming the class of things it is in.5. Join any two or more ideas from the brainstorming chart and make a

sentence.6. Continue to join ideas and make sentences until all of the ideas on the

brainstorming chart have been used.7. Change the order of the sentences in your definition if necessary.



A sample mind map that students might produce

helpers parks friends family

activities COMMUNITY hospitals

schools community centers houses

festivals and special events churchesCopyright © 2011 by Pearson Education Canada 2 - 17


Developing a concept

1. Start by writing the word “community” in the middle of the blackboard, chart paper, or SMARTboard.

2. Ask students, “What ideas come to mind when you hear the word “community”?”

3. Print each word or idea that students respond with (brainstorm) around the word “COMMUNITY”.

Copyright © 2011 by Pearson Education Canada 2- 18


4. Connect all of the ideas that students generate to the word COMMUNITY as shown above.

5. Stop the brainstorming process when students slow down the generation of ideas. This is a good indicator that you are getting uncommon responses from those students who may have broader experience with the concept.

6. Now, ask students to put the word COMMUNITY into a class or group of things. Model how to determine the class of things by providing non-examples. Using your sense of humor, with the types of non-examples you supply, will help student to understand how to determine the class of things more readily.



Example Ask “Is community a type of animal?”…No “Is it a type of drink?”….No “What group of things could we say COMMUNITY belongs to?” If students are initially unable to provide a response such as “a COMMUNITY is an area”, provide this example. Students will eventually be able to put other concepts into a class or group more readily once they get some practice.

7. Write “A COMMUNITY is an area” and stop.8. Ask students to continue the definition by connecting any two ideas in a

sentence.Example A COMMUNITY is an area that houses family and friends.

9. Ask, “What other ideas could you connect to make another sentence?”Example A COMMUNITY is an area that houses family and friends. A community has parks, schools, churches, services, and

hospitals that are used by the people who live there. Community helpers serve the community. Communities provide activities, festivals, and special events for people who live in the community.



Developing students’ concept clarification skills allows them to create meaningful definitions that are based on their current levels of experience and understanding.



Chapter 2 Review• Teachers need curriculum knowledge and skill, or instructional intelligence, to make effective

decisions about planning and delivering a strong Social Studies program.• Maintaining a focus on the benefits to students as we make program planning choices will

strengthen their learning.• We should focus on four elements of our program as we plan to ensure productive instruction

or pedagogy; intellectual quality, supportive classroom environment, relevance, and recognition of individual student differences.

• Universal design is a curriculum design concept that promotes focusing on planning program variations in content, process, and products to differentiate for students.

• Authentic instruction has three characteristics 1. It allows for the construction of meaning 2. It uses disciplined inquiry 3. It works toward production of learning that has value outside of the school context.

• Curriculum orientations give us three perspectives on the relationship between the learner and the curriculum; these perspectives are called transmission, transaction, and transformation. Transformational approaches are synonymous with constructivist approaches.

• A strategic selection of the most valid approach to achieve each curriculum goal is the most effective way to apply different orientations to curriculum.



• Curriculum guidelines and support documents provide teachers with a range of effective instructional strategies for Social Studies instruction. Strategies should be used for their inherent value to achieve the best match between the strategy and what teachers are trying to have students learn by using the strategy.

• There are many factors that affect curriculum development.• Critical thinking is a standard for the way we try to teach students to be analytical,

reflective, and skeptical in their examination of resources and issues. • There are many instructional elements that teachers can implement to support

critical thinking instruction in their Social Studies programs. Research and experience inform these elements.

• The teacher’s role changes with each approach or orientation to a learning episode. Teachers must remain flexible and responsive to the need to make these role shifts, as learning needs change.

• Creative and imaginative instruction is an important approach for the development of strong Social Studies learning. Looking for ways to make mind-body connections in our teaching is one way to ensure creative and imaginative approaches are used.

• The story nature of Social Studies makes it a perfect vehicle of the integration of stories into Social Studies to support students’ efforts to make personal meaning.



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