The scientific method and questionning techniques are the basis for a beginning program of descriptive research for elementary students. (JR)

An in-depth analysis is presented of four secondary social studies departments that have made structural changes in school organization while promoting higher order thinking. In these departments, certain organizational structures, combined with clear curricular emphases, appear to be associated with higher levels of classroom thoughtfulness. (SLD)

Interviewed 45 students, grades 9-12, to which what social studies classes or activities engage secondary school students. Summarizes student reactions to a social studies class emphasizing higher-order thinking (HOT). Reports that a subject's intrinsic interest and relevance, student active participation, and cognitively challenging tasks most…

This paper explores the potential of incorporating elements of popular culture such as music, film, and court trials as a bridge to help students traditionally alienated by the canonical texts they confront in the "standard" curriculum to conquer and gain a critical understanding of those texts. Sometimes complex, canonical texts can be…

This article describes findings from a classroom-based action research project conducted by two in-school teachers, a literacy coach and a 4th grade teacher, implementing a new integrated literacy and social studies curriculum and the changes they made in curricular practices and beliefs over a three-year period of time. A university professor…

This master's thesis investigates the effects of exposing children to curriculum materials that show men and women can do the same work. Four classes of second graders served as subjects. All subjects were pretested on an occupational classification measure. Two of the participating classes were randomly selected to receive the experimental…

Leading educational reformers have recently contended that students in U.S. secondary schools rarely are challenged to use their minds in any meaningful way. Faced with the remarkable absence of classroom thoughtfulness in U.S. schools, educational reformers have suggested that major organizational changes are necessary to improve the emphasis on…

This study investigated whether or not students apply educational theory to practical situations when they are involved in a learning process that starts from their own educational experiences and "Gestalts," the holistic unity of knowledge, feelings, values, and meanings linked to concrete situations encountered before, and colored by…

A study examined an experimental curriculum developed to enhance students' literacy and social studies skills. Videodisc and text materials (the films "Young Sherlock Holmes" and "Oliver" and stories by Charles Dickens and Conan Doyle) were used to create a "macrocontext" for learning. The curriculum evaluation…

The Anthropology Curriculum Study Project (ACSP) has developed a research model which is to be used to provide data for effective implementation of the ACSP course, "Patterns in Human History". The common "means-ends" model for research, which relies on one-way effects, is described and rejected in favor of an interactive,…

This pamphlet contains selected articles submitted as entries in the 1969 Kazanjian Awards Program for the Teaching of Economics. In these short articles teachers disclose educational strategies in precise step-by-step detail, indicating exactly how they conveyed an economic fact, problem, or concept to their students. The articles are grouped by…

Research on restructuring domain-specific knowledge suggests that inferences made by a learner are based more on what and how concepts are structured and organized in particular domains than on the age of the learner. In this view, it is possible for children to operate more expertly in a particular area than could be explained by global stage or…

This publication is the third volume in the "Advanced in Research on Teaching" series, which has been established to provide state-of-the-art conceptualization and analysis of the processes involved in functioning as a classroom teacher. This volume focuses on the planning and managing of learning tasks and activities, in particular,…

This volume contains twenty-one innovative economic education experiences which were selected from the 1971-72 entries in the Kazanjian Foundation Awards Program for the teaching of economics. In these short articles teachers describe in an orderly fashion their programs of originality, the class situation, scope and sequence, goals, motivational…

Using classroom observation and interviews in a naturalistic study, investigates how a secondary social studies teacher's personal practical theories influence curricular and teaching practices. Finds the teacher's practice congruent with her beliefs. States the study increased the teacher's awareness of her own theories. Proposes a curriculum…