This is a giant question that has led to the "History Wars" and other debates regarding the content and focus of social studies. I believe that the deemphasis of social studies began when social studies themes and topics were excluded from statewide assessments. Because teachers tend to focus primarily on tested material, social studies is often placed on the back burner. From my own teaching experience as a third grade teacher, social studies was only put into the plans every other six weeks and was only taught then if enough time was left in the day.
I know that there are many challenges with teaching social studies. One is the vast amount of material to cover. Another challenge to social studies instruction is the availability of information on the Internet. This brings me to my opinion again on media literacy. I think we need media literacy now more than ever! With the abundance of information available on the Internet, students are able to find information on any topic that either supports or contradicts what is being taught during social studies lessons in the classroom. I agree with the Roblyer text that teachers can use contradictory information found on the Internet as tools to teach students how to become critical consumers of information--a hallmark of being media literate. Students need to be taught how to monitor and become more analytical of the information they receive.
This type of teaching will not likely find its way into more directed approaches of teaching social studies content however. I do believe that studying social studies in this way would help to make the content more meaningful to students because it makes use of the information they are surrounded by. It would perhaps be a more dynamic way of learning key concepts. In my opinion, it would also support the discussion of more civic and ethical issues. I feel like the struggle to give proper emphasis to all social studies topics in education could be one cause of the huge problem regarding the lack of morality and the rapid decline of personal judgment in our country today.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
It is always disturbing to me that students get so little social studies in elementary. While it can be a problem when students find conflicting information online, I don't have it! I wish my students would take the time to look stuff up and prove me wrong. Instead, I find most kids take my word as gospel (scary!). I try to be pretty careful about inserting my opinions to much, but its almost impossible. Some teachers use their classroom to teach their view of the world and I feel bad for their students.
ReplyDelete