I was glancing at a colleagues blog regarding relevance and thought, since I do not blog regularly enough anymore... why cant I steal his topic?
In the social studies I feel that we are often thought of as a content course. The concern is generally centered around whether or not students know the material as opposed to the skills they use in order to analyze, interpret, apply and connect it... even more infrequently do I hear discussion about students ability to CREATE or EVALUATE using it. What do I mean?
Students in my classes often inform me that when we study material they shouldn't form opinions on it-- they seem to feel that information needs to be studied entirely objectively. As our own history, I am of the belief that we MUST have a deep emotional as well as logical connection to material in order to truly consider it. Is it wrong to judge a people or an action and feel it is wrong? No, as long as you support it with material and show your opinions make sense. In the end, isnt that a big part of why we are here? Think of the real world implications of social studies in a democratic system-- Voting thats the big one. Your vote is a means of voicing your opinion... we need to be sure students know how to develop opinions that can combine their emotional feelings and apply logical thought. Combine the reptilian and the mammalian, use more of the full capacity of the brain, develop meaningful personal connections with a basis in deep understandings; if we can do this in class and in life i think we are doing something valid.
How? Well, make students develop connections, rather than a 1 day lesson in which they are presented the 7 similarities of river valley civilizations, spend weeks covering them and allow students to create... less knowledge? Quite the opposite (the knowledge is deeper) -- More creating? Absolutely.
The traditional answer?
History repeats itself-- I know a lot of history and yet I am hardly Nostradamus... For some reason that answer just isnt good enough any more...
Interesting stuff. To me this seems somewhat reflective of the struggle and conflict that comes from PDE's official-unofficial push for Project Based Learning (PBL) and insistence on measuring the results of such learning with a standardized test. Can we really have it both ways? And is on really an effective measure of the other? Clearly not. Where do you think this attitude of "just give me the facts" comes from? I will say that I have been in a lot of classrooms and I have seen in every discipline. Is it just "easier" to memorize and move on or is there something more to it?
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