How can educators immerse high school students in a real murder case investigation that will require them to draw upon and practice the critical thinking, literacy, and reasoning skill sets so highly valued under the Common Core, the C3 Framework and the 21st Century skills rubric? As an attorney and former high school teacher, the author knew…

Today's schools and teachers are challenged with meeting the demands of specific content standards, high stakes assessment, and developing students from diverse backgrounds to be capable of competing in a global market. These twenty-first century students must not only possess critical thinking skills and the ability to process information, but…

In this article, the authors summarize important and promising research on what they call "authentic intellectual work." It is important because so often schoolwork, not only in social studies but across the curriculum, requires little in the way of deep conceptual learning that also connects to life beyond school, and it is promising because the…

Provided are activities which will help secondary students analyze statistics, recognize valid generalizations, find cause-and-effect relationships, distinguish relevant from irrelevant information, recognize unstated assumptions, analyze points of view, and recognize inferences. (RM)

Two strategies for teaching elementary students to distinguish relevant from irrelevant material are described. The word associates strategy provides students instruction in writing or stating a generalization that expresses the criteria for relevance. The defending a point of view strategy provides instruction in developing relevant arguments to…

U.S. history is an ideal subject in which to inculcate skepticism and to teach critical thinking skills. High school students who read and analyze rival interpretations of history come to expect that there is more than one viewpoint to most historical topics. Sample lessons are presented. (RM)

Argues that teachers can achieve the goal of reducing prejudice by focusing on the development of thinking skills. Describes how a group of tenth grade teachers taught a unit on the Holocaust which actively engaged students' thinking and reduced their level of prejudice while increasing their self-esteem. (JDH)

The subject matter social studies teachers choose to have students think critically about is very important. Appropriate types of material--such as excerpts from primary sources--are provided as an illustration. Also included are 10 key critical thinking questions that teachers can use to generate class discussion of the excerpts. (RM)

Defines public choice theory as the application of economic analysis to the study of government, focusing on individual behavior. Contends that the teaching of public choice theory helps students to think critically and analyze political problems. Suggests how to introduce the theory in the classroom and provides three case study handouts. (GG)

Describes a competitive learning activity for social studies based on the idea of basketball play-offs. Suggests that the exercise allows students to review and discuss U.S. history while engaging in higher cognitive thinking skills. Describes a format in which students analyze the historical background of each president. Includes seeding charts.…

America has been called "the argument culture," but you would not know it from many social studies classrooms. Despite a longstanding tradition in social studies of teaching controversial issues, all too few of today's classrooms accommodate this kind of intellectual activity. Perhaps it is the pressure of high stakes testing, or the emphasis on…

Argues that the elementary social studies curriculum is based on unimportant and disconnected topics that are of little relevance or interest to students. Proposes a curriculum based on major social education goals such as shelter, citizen participation, and the appreciation of a multicultural society. Suggests seven steps teachers can use to…

Illustrates how economic content and methodology contribute to citizenship education. States that economic courses should emphasize performance measures, the concept of scarcity, and risk management. Suggests that textbooks should become less important as instructional resources and that students should learn critical thinking skills through case…

Describes exercises in which students create a fictional character from history and write a journal entry in a cooperative group activity. Discusses further assignments in which individual students create additional characters descended from the original for study of later historical periods. Suggests that the project demonstrates how historical…

Notes that teachers can make writing assignments more acceptable by using innovative techniques. Suggests that using letter writing for research projects is a good motivational technique. Asks students to assume roles of persons of a specific historical period and write from the first-person perspective. Includes sample letter. (NL)