The "College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards" (NCSS, 2013) places inquiry at the center of good social studies teaching and learning. Instead of social studies courses that emphasize rote memorization through the use of textbooks and lecture-based instruction, the C3 Framework asks teachers to…

Lecturing can be done well or it can be done badly. It is wrong to assume that certain methods of teaching are inherently poor pedagogy, or, for that matter, to go through the motions of carrying out best practices without considering the ways in which practices (even those supposedly the best) can be executed poorly. One problem from which…

Cites observations about social studies education in the United States by two Australian doctoral students in social studies education. Observations include that concept teaching is limited, social studies is treated primarily as a collection of social science disciplines, teaching is generally expository in nature, student needs and interests are…