Project-based learning (PBL) is an instructional approach that provides civics, social studies, and American government students with the opportunity to actively and cooperatively engage with real-world issues and situations. Students typically identify a problem in their community or school, research the problem and policy-based solutions,…

Election simulations are considered a viable tool to instigate democratic learning in schools. This paper reports an explorative qualitative inquiry into one type of simulation project: mock-elections (ME). Main objective was to gain an insight into the organization of ME-practices in eight schools in the Netherlands in 2012. Thematic analysis of…

This unit uses a learning center approach to helping elementary students learn about Israel. Following a rationale for implementing an interdisciplinary approach to global education, the unit discusses methodology and management of the program, which consists of seven independent learning centers and one library research center through which…

Cooperative learning is a teaching strategy that promotes the positive interaction of children in small, heterogeneous groups. Each group contain three or four students of varying achievement levels, backgrounds, socio-economic status, and sex. Cooperative learning processes promote student motivation, build group skills, foster social and…

Every year, K-12 students throughout the U.S. learn about their local community's historical roots and development, economy, weather, climate, and geology. With the increasing prevalence of inquiry-based approaches to teaching and learning in history and science, new possibilities arise for authentic, situated learning activities. One such…

Two graduate teaching assistants (TAs)--one taught language arts methods and the other taught social studies methods--who were office mates at a large university in Florida formulated a plan to create one end-of-course project that would both satisfy requirements and combine the social studies and language arts. That way, students could see that…

This course description is designed to help teachers integrate a section dealing with bilingual education into secondary social studies classes. After instruction, students examine current bilingual educational policies and practices in the United States, judge the effectiveness of these policies and practices in meeting the educational needs of…

Oral history can contribute to social education in a number of ways. Traditionally, data collection has been considered as providing the most benefits to students of oral history. These benefits have derived from the facts that: (1) historical knowledge is immediate and tangible, (2) oral history stimulates students' interests, (3) students…

A yearlong social studies course which actively involved sixth graders in learning about economics is described. The plan of study was developed jointly by teacher and students. As they used the textbook "Regions of the World" by Lawrence Senesh, the students selected topics that lend themselves to applying economics. Each of these…

The study evaluates the effectiveness of a set of social studies activities in promoting cooperative interaction among junior high school students. A field experiment was designed to test three hypotheses: (1) groups which have previously worked together structure tasks more cooperatively than a newly formed group: (2) groups which have…

A project involving prospective social studies teachers as collaborators in an experimental investigation is described. The study was undertaken as part of the course requirements for an integrated educational psychology/secondary methods course. The course was intended to ameliorate the fragmentation of the coursework and lack of coherence…