Purpose: This article describes an effort to ease the tension between boundary spanning roles for interns participating in a yearlong Professional Development School (PDS) program. In order to do this, the structure of a Social Studies Methods course was revised to mimic a professional learning community (PLC) and assignments were not evaluated…

Contextualized in the critical pedagogies of universal design for learning (UDL) and social justice education, our study aimed to equip teacher candidates (TCs) to provide students with equitable access to learning social studies content knowledge, skills, and processes as a way to equally empower all students to be civically engaged, and thus to…

In this paper, we--one mathematics teacher educator and one social studies teacher educator--describe a project where we collaborated to model teaching integrated mathematics and social studies for social justice in our methods courses. Using a self-study approach, we examined our teaching and our students' learning with regards to teaching…

With the realities of standards-based accountability, it is imperative to model and demonstrate for students how subject areas and teaching methods transcend across traditional boundaries. In an effort to prepare future social studies educators to teach for global awareness and to meaningfully integrate critical literacy skills into their…

This paper describes an innovative teaching collaboration between two university professors to prepare undergraduate preservice teachers for planning, designing, and assessing interdisciplinary curriculum. Specifically, we were interested in whether deliberate efforts to integrate social studies and assessment methods courses would facilitate our…

Established in 1880, the University Musical Society (U.M.S.) in Ann Arbor, Michigan is one of the most innovative venues for music and the performing arts in the United States. Each season, it offers performances by renowned American and international artists. Through the society's youth education program, performers entertain and educate…

Suggestions are given for changes in methods courses, emphasizing the social sciences rather than history. (SP)

This study, using selected activities from the "Students Toward Environmental Participation" (STEP) program, compared the attitudes of forty-one preservice science and social studies teachers toward activities in environmental/ecological field trips. No significant differences existed between the attitudes of perspective science and social studies…

Addresses a collaborative celebrations project that was assigned to a group of students enrolled in a course on educational methods focused on integrating the arts and social studies. Explains that this project contributed to an understanding of the family and community aspects of celebration. Considers the project outcomes. (CMK)

This 12-hour module of instruction is designed to help undergraduates in social studies methods courses integrate economics education into the elementary school social studies curriculum. The major purposes of the module are to (1) demonstrate how economics concepts can be integrated into social studies instruction, (2) reinforce or extend teacher…

This 12-hour module of instruction is designed to help undergraduates in social studies methods courses integrate economics education into the secondary school social studies curriculum. The major purposes of the module are to (1) reinforce or extend teacher education students' understanding of selected basic economic concepts, (2) develop an…

A study determined that an interdisciplinary social studies and science methods course favorably influences the curriculum constructs of elementary teacher education students when it is designed for deep personal meaning rather than surface skill acquisition. (JN)

Discusses interdisciplinary instruction at the high school level, examines the imperatives of statewide reform in Kentucky, and outlines how and when interdisciplinary instruction improves learning. Describes an interdisciplinary learning project taught in secondary methods classes at Eastern Kentucky University in which students experience…

This conversation between two teacher educators describes a project that integrated social studies and language arts methods classes in a cross-cultural setting. The integrated content evolved around themes of community building and cross-cultural communication. The paper reflects on teaching together in a traditional education program--its…

Most preservice teachers complete their social science requirements in isolation from their social studies methods course. This paper reports the unique co-mingling of one interdisciplinary social science course (emphasizing geographic and environmental education) with the social studies methods for a cohort of undergraduate preservice teachers.…