ERIC Number: ED273557
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 1985
Pages: 11
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Teaching about the Constitution: Relationships between Teachers' Subject Matter Knowledge, Pedagogic Beliefs and Instructional Decision Making regarding Selection of Content, Materials, and Activities. Summary of Research Findings.
Hyland, John T.
Importance of the Constitution as the supreme law of the land and the reported failure of the United States youth to have been genuinely educated about the Constitution raises questions regarding teaching. One concerns what teachers know about the Constitution and the other is what they believe about teaching. This study investigates these questions at a junior high school level, a setting where students are commonly taught about the Constitution. Teachers were studied as they taught the Constitution. Qualitative research and naturalistic observation methods were used. The study concludes that the difficulty in teaching about the Constitution is that the values and concepts essential to its fullest understanding require an individual act of contemplation and interpretation. The student must construct meaning in a manner which is different than learning simply that there is a Bill of Rights or that there is a separation of power. To comprehend the student must have the opportunity to learn in the presence of a capable teacher. The teachers in the study behaved in a rational manner and made decisions according to an explicit and implicit set of standards. On one hand the teachers honored the ideal and expressed high regard for the idea of teaching about the Constitution. On the other hand higher priority was given to keeping order and to "cover" United States history and to "go by the textbook." It is necessary for the teachers of social studies to have both scholarly knowledge of the subject matter and pedagogy, and training of such intensity that the teacher can routinely carry out a program of civic education. (APG)
Publication Type: Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Laws, Policies, & Programs: United States Constitution
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A