How fiction is used in a college-level political science seminar to teach about democratic decision making and U.S. politics is described. The fiction used is clustered around the following topics: community-level decisions, limits to consensus, group values and politics, acquiring elected offices and trying to keep them, and public bureaucracies.…

An approach for classifying the cognitive levels of social studies teachers' verbalized and written questions is presented. The system can be used by teachers to plan discussions intended to involve students in higher level thinking. (RM)

This document presents a program designed to provide students with a comprehensive and interesting way to study their community. Although developed for secondary students, the program activities, with slight modification, should be equally successful with intermediate-level students. Using the community as the area to be studied, a major focus of…

One way geographical educators can help local communities understand their environment is to offer a course focusing on local regional geography using the concept of regional synthesis. Describes specific mechanics and evaluates short-term outcomes of such a course in Hawaii. Discusses potential uses. Journal availability: see SO 507 262.…