Project-based learning (PBL) is an instructional approach that provides civics, social studies, and American government students with the opportunity to actively and cooperatively engage with real-world issues and situations. Students typically identify a problem in their community or school, research the problem and policy-based solutions,…

Introducing patriotic holidays such as Veterans Day with historical photographs and other primary sources in classrooms can not only spark children's interest, but also promote critical thinking and historical comprehension. Meaningful, hands-on historical lessons can also motivate children to take informed action about issues they care about. We…

Highlighting the fact that little critical thinking actually occurs in secondary social studies education, McKee presents the findings from a three-year school district-university project to foster critical thinking in social studies classes. Addressing methodology and implications, McKee reports that, even with intensive training and teacher…

Describes a program that teaches about women and issues of gender in the context of a broader human rights education program. Identifies key principles of the program that focus on building teacher awareness, the classroom process, and the importance of being aware of the interplay of various forms of discrimination. (KO)

This handbook will help secondary teachers in all subject areas use the "Why in the World" television series to teach current events. The handbook presents the origin of and rationale for the series, describes the programs, suggests general class activities that teachers can use with all the programs in the series, discusses additional resources…

Describes the social studies fair held every 3 years in St. Louis County, Missouri, for kindergarten through grade 12. Explains the fair is to encourage students to research an important social studies idea or concept and plan a project that turns an abstract idea into a concrete representation. Outlines the planning and logistics of such a…

Thinking through Writing (TTW) was a project to develop, test, and disseminate a program for teaching thinking and writing skills in secondary school English and social studies courses. Each of the 12 schools participating in the project scheduled a group of students to take an English and a social studies course in the program, and two teachers…

Reports on findings from the first phase of an ongoing research project that is investigating English-language learners in middle school social studies classrooms. The article analyzes features of social studies academic language from text and classroom discourse and reviews cultural diversity as it is represented in popular textbooks. (Contains…

This document describes a project in which elementary school students explored the problems experienced by early pioneers and compared them to similar problems that will face future space pioneers. Comparing a past way of life to the present and future helps students examine and understand change in the physical, social, and cultural environment,…

Peace education requires that teacher and student be seen as co-learners. The student must be seen as an active learner, not a passive recipient of teacher lectures or narratives. Students' thinking on peace/war issues should be the starting point and the continual reference point in the curriculum. (RM)

A compilation of program ideas and related newspaper articles, cartoons, and visual aids, this booklet describes the objectives and procedure for the implementation of a pilot program at Frank W. Cox High School in Virginia Beach, Virginia, that emphasizes ethics education and the value of writing as a means to promote critical thinking. The first…

Teaching enquiry methods, that is, skills concerned with constructing knowledge from available information and searching for new information, is the subject of this study, which provides a background to the subject as well as a review of research. The study sought to answer the question of whether problem-solving performances of primary school…

This document describes curriculum and resources designed to foster and expand the philosophical thinking of elementary and middle school students. The booklet begins with excerpts from and a discussion of Matthew Lipman's novel "Harry Stottlemeier's Discovery," written to help elementary and middle school students discover both formal…

Teachers can be encouraged to share ideas which can result in the development of a cooperative curriculum. How one school helped teachers react positively to an interdisciplinary skills program is discussed. Charts outlining study, thinking, reading, and writing skills for a program involving social studies, English, and science are included. (RM)

Media literacy education is being explored by scholars in many different fields (including education, literature, media studies, psychology, and public health), but there is less evidence of implementations occurring in K-12 settings. With more than 1.3 million teachers in U.S. public schools, it is impossible to estimate the extent to which the…