The aim of this article is to present a pedagogical approach for history education. This approach is called Meaningful History and it outlines the process by which upper-level secondary history students can cultivate historical consciousness. Based on the notion of learning as meaning making and historical consciousness as a disposition to engage…

High quality teaching involves deep content knowledge, understanding students and their learning processes, and complex skills of teaching and assessment. Students who experience high quality teaching tend to achieve higher annual growth rates. This study used a descriptive, qualitative research model to explore excellence in social studies…

The purpose of this article is to empower those interested in teaching students powerful and engaging social studies. Through the lens of Supreme Court simulations, this article provides educators with a viable, classroom-tested lesson plan to bring Problem-Based Learning into their classrooms. The specific aim of the lesson is to provide students…

Many school districts across North America have turned to a framework for curriculum design and instruction called "Understanding by Design." Included in the framework is a call for teachers to create "essential questions" that provocatively ask students to consider and learn the "big ideas and core processes within the…

Numeracy is as essential to becoming an active and thoughtful citizen as literacy. Although the concept of numeracy is complex and robust, there are four areas in which teachers can fairly easily begin to incorporate it into social studies curriculum and instruction. The areas include the students' ability to understand raw numeric data in…

In this case study, the work of an exemplary high school social studies teacher is highlighted. In her class, late-arrival immigrant students participated in oral, writing, and demonstration activities as they learned the physical, cultural, and historical traditions of geography education. As newcomers to the English language, the students'…

Hollywood films based in history are inevitably a blend of historical record, fiction, and a film-maker's perspective. If films are not perfect representations of the past, then how can and should we interpret their images and messages? How might teachers talk about or show historically based films during lessons in a way that promotes students'…

Science fiction provides three major areas for providing an innovative technique for teaching social sciences: 1) concern with the future; 2) flexibility in dealing with ideas: and 3) interest and readability. A selected bibliography provides resources which correspond to topical concerns of social studies. (Author/JR)

A suggested teaching strategy to teach about civil liberties is the fictional case study approach. Several examples are included to show how students can readily identify with and come to grips with issues and characters created for classroom use. (JR)

When students are passive and disinterested, teachers find that role playing fosters active participation and increased interest in learning. The article outlines procedures for implementing both structured and semi-structured kinds of role play activity for use in social studies classrooms. (Author/JR)

The techniques, activities, and strategies focusing on the problems and concerns of urban Americans are suggested for use in elementary grades to prepare students to cope with inner city residence. They include a problem inventory, circle meetings, role playing, leadership training, physical and craft education, and career, legal, and economic…

Twenty techniques for teaching reading in social studies classes and eight suggestions for making social studies more interesting and relevant for the student are included. (DE)

In many social studies classes learning is made "relevant" by simply presenting contemporary issues and current affairs. However, when teaching about issues, certain decisions need to be made concerning content and techniques. The author makes a suggestion that the major content focus on not merely understanding the problems facing society, but…

Reviews various ways of teaching history: as narrative, as a process for teaching thinking skills, as perspective for making comparisons across time and culture, and as personal philosophy for interpreting the present. (Author/AV)

Strategies to strengthen elementary students' perceptions of the past are discussed. These include conducting a personal home furnishings inventory, creating a "then" and "now" class museum, planning an "old objects" with "new uses" survey, organizing a grandpa's garage and granny's attic day, and conducting a neighborhood architectural treasure…