This anecdote about a visitor from Altantis compares the new and old approaches in American social studies education. (MM)

This paper shows how the knowledge structures and traditions of the amalgamated multi-discipline of social studies at once help and hinder the use of constructivist instructional models. I interpret the planning process of two "Fostering a Community of Learners" units and examine how these two units are implemented by four teachers, given their…

The Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects ("the Standards") are the culmination of an extended, broad-based effort to fulfill the charge issued by the states to create the next generation of K-12 standards in order to help ensure that all students…

The purpose of this study was to explore outcomes of a GIS/GPS integration process: to (a) examine student responses to GIS and GPS inclusion in their curriculum, (b) determine whether a relationship exists between inclusion of GIS into existing K-12 curriculum and student achievement, (c) examine the effectiveness of GIS professional development…

This essay discusses Alain LeRoy Locke (1885-1954), Professor of Philosophy (Howard University) and examines his experiences, reasoning, and rhetoric as they challenge the accepted notions of race, education, and democracy. As an African American practicing philosophy in a racist nation, Locke also examined value communities and value differences…

The use of video iPods in middle schools was explored through research in two social studies classrooms. This study measured achievement differences in Spring 2007 between two groups of eighth-grade social studies classrooms. Groups were chosen for similarity between numbers of IEP's and/or 504 classifications, and relative class size. Both groups…

A reenactment is the recreation of a scene, time period, or event as authentically as possible by a group of people. An educational reenactment takes the in-depth cultural experience of participating in a reenactment and joins it with the educational structure of a social studies classroom. Reenactments can be as varied as historical…

This article describes a unit of study about Colonial America given in Lubbock, Texas, in which fifth grade students learn about the crafts system by becoming apprentices for a time. The students apply to apprentice with a master crafts person, a mentor, and learn some basic methods of a craft. Mentors are typically students' relatives, friends of…

This column highlights websites that the author thinks are interesting, well designed, and useful to classroom teachers, college-level methods instructors, and other social studies professionals. When reviewing these websites mostly the author tries to look at them through the eyes of a classroom teacher. Does it have relevant, accurate…

This paper examines the framings that the fields of the social studies of science and science education use for each other. It is shown that the social studies of science frames science education as passive and timeless. Science education frames science studies as a set of representations to better capture how science works. The paper then…

In the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center, and amid sweeping patriotic declarations that the suicide hijackers had waged a war on America as well as democracy, the energetic response by public intellectuals, academics, philosophers, and theorists has been to ask, what "America," what "democracy," what…

In order to beautify the school environment and further student learning, fourth-graders cultivated a Native Plant Learning Garden. They were responsible for designing a layout, researching garden elements, preparing the area, and planting a variety of native plants. By the completion of this inquiry-based project, students were able to clearly…

The authors interviewed more than one hundred high school students in three regions of China about their knowledge and perceptions of the United States and China. The authors' findings suggest the following: (1) students possess extensive knowledge about the United States in terms of its history, geography, socioeconomic system, and education, and…

Background/Context: In recent decades, professional historians have made considerable efforts to reestablish influence over the teaching of history in American schools. This movement has rested upon a generally accepted historical narrative based on four assertions; first, that during the 1900s and 1910s, professional historians dominated the…

For many students, high school coursework consists of discrete subjects, each disconnected from the other, but together adding up to a high school diploma. Nonetheless, at the classroom level one can find many examples of integrated, interdisciplinary, or cross-subject teaching. Some pursue this approach because they consider that high school…