Explores characteristics of group dynamics which teachers should be aware of in planning group activities for social studies classes. Provides guidelines by which teachers can plan group activities which help students attain cognitive, affective, and process-skill goals for the social studies. (Author/AV)

Presents basic information for teachers about how to use role-play, dramatic play, and simulations in the elementary social studies classroom. Explains how to proceed through the introduction or warm-up, the activity itself, and the follow-up evaluation. (AV)

Explains how social studies teachers can teach cooperative behavior to junior high students. Three critical factors are length of time student groups have worked together, interdependence of goals attached to the tasks, and interdependence of means to accomplish the tasks. (Author/AV)

To be successful, the law-related curriculum must help students develop decision making skills, develop empathy, and make ethical judgments. Teaching strategies that can be used in kindergarten and the elementary grades are suggested. (RM)

Ways in which teachers can help children in kindergarten and the primary grades develop some of the cognitive and affective capabilities necessary for a global perspective are discussed. Specifically examined are course content which fosters global knowledge and which shows how children can be taught to assume the perspective of others. (RM)

Suggests that role playing can offset problems in teaching values clarification and moral reasoning at the elementary school level. Because role playing relies heavily on activity, it circumvents the problem of having a dilemma dealt with by discussion only. Role playing also allows students to take the perspective of others. (Author/KC)

The concepts of friendship, rules, property, obedience to authority, truth, promises, and sharing are appropriate for inclusion in values education materials for elementary students. Interviewers questioned 180 children in grades K-5 about their level of understanding of each concept and their perceptions of each concept's importance to their…

Describes research which shows how some instructional practices used to teach reading at the elementary level can have a potentially negative influence on the classroom social structure by affecting an individual's social status. Ways in which counterproductive instructional practices can be changed are suggested. (RM)

Considers how elementary school classroom teachers can employ exploration methods (gathering, evaluation, and synthesis of data related to a specific topic) to help students develop readiness for intellectually complex problem solving. (Author/DB)