Here the author shares his attempt to add, without financial cost, substantive and dynamic international experiences to the secondary social studies teacher education program he facilitates. He provides thick descriptions of (1) the overarching goals of a collaborative, online, international learning project, (2) the curriculum materials he helped…

This paper describes a unit designed to promote the development of narrative writing skills among 5th grade students through the use of LEGO robotics. Over the course of four, two and one-half hour sessions (one day per week for four consecutive weeks), the students learned how to construct and program robots, write and present a proposal to…

Teachers strive to design instruction that actively engages all students, but a few "back-benchers" often seem to be left out, due to academic struggles, English language skills, personal disinterest, or other factors. Teachers seek to help these students develop into "active and engaged participants" in their classrooms in…

The authors examined the effects of team-based learning (TBL) implemented in Grade 8 social studies classes on student content acquisition. Twenty-four classes were randomly assigned to treatment or comparison blocking on teacher. In the treatment classes teachers integrated TBL practices in the content instruction. The authors examined teacher…

Evidence shows that the skills and dispositions that lead to thoughtful and effective participation in civic life can be developed and promoted through participation in assigned advocacy, argumentation, and debate. We argue that debate and argumentation are uniquely well suited to be implemented across the curriculum, which means that students…

This narrative inquiry collective case study investigated the experiences of six sixth grade American Indian males of the Lumbee tribe who struggle with reading. Bounded within an asynchronous closed wiki site, students from three sixth grade classes participated in online threaded discussions and created, posted, and viewed multimedia projects…

Social studies has often had a reputation amongst students for being uninteresting due to the teaching strategies and content that educators have utilized. However, in a field as diverse and relevant as social studies, there are opportunities to garner the attention of students and empower them with information to improve and enhance our democracy…

This article describes a writing partnership that involved university preservice teachers and ninth grade students enrolled in an integrated social studies/language arts class. While the high school students found the experience exciting and satisfying, the preservice teachers expressed anxieties and concerns as they endeavored to foster academic…

The representation of a variety of stakeholders' voices during the deliberation of public issues is vital for the proper functioning of a liberal democracy. This qualitative study examined an activity involving deliberation among children and preservice teachers in the United States. In the activity that we call partner journals, children were…

This document presents the proceedings of the 20th Annual Research Forum held June 25, 2015, at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Included are the following 21 action research papers: (1) History Lives! The Use of Simulations in a High School Social Studies Classroom (Lydia Adkins); (2) Using Francophone Music in the High…

A classroom field experiment was conducted on the effects of preparation homework and practice homework on student achievement in a fifth-grade social studies class, when used in conjunction with cooperative learning. The study investigated whether cooperative learning with or without preparation or practice homework produces greater student…

The "ISSS Annual Conference Proceedings" is a peer-reviewed professional publication published once a year following the annual conference. The following papers are included in the 2013 proceedings: (1) Teaching About Asia in a Social Science Education Program (Cyndi Mottola Poole and Joshua L. Kenna); (2) Teaching Students about…

Describes a special language arts/social studies unit inspired by students' response to a Channel One newscast about starving Somalians. Letter-writing and fund-raising activities helped these middle-level students make closer connections with the world, construct powerful meanings around their own concerns and those of society, integrate self and…

Recommends giving students responsibility for maintaining a daily record of the class activities using a class log to record the year's events. States that students gain writing experience and learn responsibility. Explains the methodology and includes a sample entry. Suggested entries include homework assignments, summaries of class lessons, and…

Recommends establishing literature study groups as early as the primary grades. Outlines the steps for implementing a group and describes several classroom experiences with them. Includes a discussion of follow-up activities, and a bibliography of related works. (MJP)