At the dawn of the 21st century--when your author, who is now an educator, was in college--the United States was the sole global superpower. But the world changed with the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, as well as other events that remade the world in which current students now study. As an educator, I can explain that the structure of…

Democracy is highlighted in the Norwegian school system. This article investigates how pre-service teachers in social studies understand the more theoretical concept of democracy, and in what ways they intend to operationalize it with future pupils. Three ideal types are used to locate perspectives in the data: pure liberalist, majority rule and…

This study has its objectives: 1) to compare students' English reading competency before and after learning through the collocational instruction (CI) for improving undergraduate student skills in English reading and writing: 2) to investigate students' English writing competency after learning through CI. The target group was 20 undergraduates,…

Social studies promotes civic competence by equipping students with the knowledge, values, beliefs, attitudes, and skills needed in a democratic society (Allen & Stevens, 1998; National Council for the Social Studies [NCSS], 1994). However, the multidisciplinary characteristics of civic issues entail an integrated curriculum covering different…

The Republic of South Korea is a nation that has seen dramatic changes in its economic and educational systems over the course of the last 50 years. These circumstances present unique views of citizenship and the roles that teachers and teacher educators play in this process. This study presents two case studies, one a classroom teacher and the…

Using an example, this article demonstrates how instructors can make use of popular off-the-shelf board games to model politics. I show how the rules of the popular board game "Battleship" can be manipulated to simulate centralization of power and, more specifically, the differences between the Articles of Confederation and the…

Because a pluralistic democracy is inherently conflictual, public deliberation of issues holds the potential to expand the thinking of participants by revealing new insights, perspectives, information, or logics into the participants' consideration. These are ethical questions that ask citizens to decide whether policies, actions, and decisions…

Over the last 20 years, independent filmmakers have produced insightful documentaries of high profile political campaigns with behind-the-scenes footage. These documentaries offer inside looks and unique perspectives on electoral politics. This campaign season, consider "The War Room"; "A Perfect Candidate"; "Journeys With George;" "Chisholm '72";…

Since education reform efforts have long focused on reading and mathematics, the social studies classroom has been a target of remedial services--with children being removed from social studies to gain additional support in reading and math. As a result, many children spend years in school with little to no exposure to the social studies, despite…

This article provides an example of a social studies lesson from Turkish educational context in order to facilitate comparison with examples of social studies lessons from other parts of the world. This lesson was recorded in a 7th grade class at a middle school in one of the metropolitan neighborhoods in Istanbul. According to the current…

This study explores secondary social studies teachers' beliefs about the concept of citizenship. The development of citizenship in young people is an often-stated goal for schooling in the USA. The most prominent social studies professional organization, the National Council for the Social Studies, describes education for citizenship as the…

Enriching the existing course offerings through laboratory lessons may be a more efficacious means of coping with ever-increasing data. To help students move through the maze of subject matter, teachers can simulate the kinds of laboratories used by behavioral scientists. (Author)

Describes an innovative teaching approach used in an undergraduate political science course on the American presidency. Procedures and objectives for centering the course on a press conference theme are presented. Information is also presented on course evaluation and student motivation. (DB)

In this article, the author examines how the idea (and ideal) of nation continues to serve as a directive for social studies education. He proposes discussing what a critical approach to understanding nation (and the historical narratives that define nation) might look like in the classrooms and what the stakes are for social studies educators,…

The Woodbury materials center around a mock election in a hypothetical community. Students are given background data of the sort astute and active political campaign personnel would ferret out. A statistical outcome rpovides the students a means of evaluating the effectiveness of their strategy as the game progresses. (JB)