MODELS OF TEACHING

Citizen participation in public life is essential to the health of our democratic system. Effective social science education programs help prepare young people, who can identify, understand and work to solve the problems that face our increasingly diverse nation and independent world. Organized according to a professionally designed scope and sequence, such programs:

1. Begin in pre-school and continue throughout formal education and include a range of related electives at the secondary level.
2. Foster individual and cultural identity.
3. Include observation of, and participation in, the school and community as part of the curriculum.
4. Deal with critical issues and the world as it really is.
5. Prepare students to make decisions based on [democratic] principles.
6. Demand high standards of performance and measure student success by means that require more than the memorization of information.
7. Depend on innovative teachers broadly prepared in history, the humanities, the social sciences, educational theory and practice.
8. Involve community members as resources for program development and student involvement.
9. Lead to citizenship participation in public affairs.

In 1979, the National Council for the Social Studies joined with eleven other professional associations to reaffirm the value of a balanced education. **
We now enumerate the essentials of exemplary social science education programs. Such programs contribute not only to the development of students' capacity to read and compute, but also link knowledge and skills with an understanding of and commitment to democratic principles and their application.

Knowledge

Students need knowledge of the world at large and the world at hand, the world of individuals and the world of institutions, the world past, the world present and future. An exemplary social studies curriculum links information.

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* Originally published as Essentials of the Social Studies: A Position Statement of the National Council for the Social Studies (Washington, D.C., 1980).

** Essentials of Education Statement: A Position Statement of the National Council for the Social Studies [and Others] (Washington, D.C., 1980).

Classroom instruction, which relates content to information drawn from the media and from experience, focuses on the following areas of knowledge:

* History and culture of our nation and the world.
* Geography -- physical, political, cultural and economic.
* Government -- theories, systems, structures and processes.
* Economics -- theories, systems, structures and processes.
* Social Institutions--the individual, the group, the community and the society.
* Intergroup and interpersonal relationships.
* Worldwide relationships of all sorts between and among nations, races [sic], cultures and institutions.

From this knowledge base, exemplary programs teach skills, concept and generalization that can help students understand to sweep of human affairs and ways of managing conflict consistent with democratic procedures.

Democratic Beliefs

Fundamental beliefs drawn from the [American] Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution with its Bill of Rights form the basic principles of our [American] democratic constitutional order. Exemplary school programs do not indoctrinate students to accept these ideas blindly, but present knowledge about their historical derivation and contemporary application essential to understanding our society and its institutions. Not only should such ideas be discussed as they relate to the curriculum and to current affairs, they should also be mirrored by teachers in their classrooms and embodied in the school's daily operations.

These democratic beliefs depend upon such practices as due process, equal protection and civic participation, and are rooted in the concepts of:

* Justice
* Equally
* Responsibility
* Freedom
* Diversity
* Privacy

Thinking Skills

It is important that student connect knowledge with beliefs and action. To do that, thinking skills can be developed through constant systematic practice throughout the years of formal schooling. Fundamental to the goals of social science education are those skills, which help assure rational behavior in social settings.

In addition to strengthening reading and computation, there is a wide variety of thinking skills essential to the social studies, which can be grouped into four major categories:

# Data Gathering Skills. Learning to:

*Acquire information by observation.
*Locate information from a variety of sources.
*Compile, organize, and evaluate information.
*Extract and interpret information.
*Communicate orally and in writing.

# Intellectual Skills. Learning to:
*Compare things, ideas, events, and situations, on the basis of similarities and differences.
*Classify or group items in categories.
*Ask appropriate and searching questions.
*Draw conclusions or inferences from evidence.
*Arrive at general ideas
*Make sensible predictions from generalizations.

# Decisions Making Skills. Learning to:
*Consider alternative solutions.
*Consider the consequences of each solution.
*Make decisions and justify them in relationship to democratic principles.
*Act, based on those decisions.

# Interpersonal Skills.. Learning to:
*See things from the point of view of others.
*Understand one's own beliefs, feelings, abilities, and shortcomings and how they affect relations with others.
*Use group generalization without stereotyping and arbitrarily classifying individuals.
*Recognize value in individuals different from one's self and groups different from one's own.
*Work effectively with others as a group member.
*Give and receive constructive criticism.
*Accept responsibility and respect the rights and property of others.

Participation Skills

As a civic participant, the individual uses the knowledge, beliefs, and skills learned in the school, the social studies classroom, the community, and the family as the basis for action.

Connecting the classroom with the community provides many opportunities for students to learn the basic skills of participation, from observation to advocacy. To teach participation social studies programs need to emphasize the following kinds of skills:

* Work effectively in groups - organizing, planning, making decisions, taking action.
* Form coalitions of interest with other groups.
* Persuade, compromise, bargain.
* Practice patience and perseverance in working for one's goal.
* Develop experience in cross-cultural situations.

Civic Action

Social studies programs, which combine the acquisition of knowledge and skills with an understanding of the application of democratic beliefs to life through practice at social participation, represent an ideal professional standard. Working to achieve that ideal is vital to the future of our society. However, even if excellent programs of social studies education were in place, there would often remain a missing element -- the will to take part in public affairs. Formal education led by creative and humane teachers can provide the knowledge, the tools, and the commitment for a thoughtful consideration of issues and can even stimulate the desire to be active. But to achieve full participation, our diverse society must value and model involvement to emphasize for young people the merit of taking part in public life. ….

* Note: Adapted by Rodney F. Allen, Professor of Social Science Education, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306-4457. rallen@mailer.fsu.edu.

Learning Systems Institute