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A Student-Directed Model for Designing a Science/Social Studies Curriculum

Posted on: Friday, 2 April 2004, 06:00 CST

Key words: relationship between social studies and science, science and social studies curriculum, student-directed learning

In most school settings, textbooks, which can be static and frequently outdated, are the major source of instruction about societal and science issues. Educators, however, want students to be less reliant on the static, sometimes dated, information and didactic instructions found in those books and to be more active in gathering their own information as they make connections between issues of society and science. For teachers, using relevant issues and current interests is the recommended teaching strategy, especially for social science and science instructors. By making a lesson interesting, teachers can hold young peoples' attention and make their learning easier.

The National Commission on Social Studies in the Schools provides a rationale for integrating social studies with science in its Charting a Course: Social Studies in the 21st Century (National Commission 1989). The commission states the following:

Social studies provides the obvious connections between the humanities and the natural and physical sciences.

Content knowledge from social studies should not be treated merely as received knowledge to be accepted and memorized, but as the means through which vital information may be explored and confronted.

Furthermore, the author of the National Science Teacher Association's (NSTA 2000, 238) lead paper on Science/Technology/ Society, outlined the primary objective of producing a scientifically literate citizenry. The paper included the following statements that relate to the integration of social studies and science:

The scientifically and technologically literate person

1. uses concepts of science and technology as well as informed reflection of ethical values in solving everyday problems and making responsible decisions in everyday life;

2. engages in responsible personal and civic actions after weighing the possible consequences of alternative options;

3. analyzes interactions among science, technology, and society;

4. connects the political, economic, moral, and ethical aspects of science and technology as they relate to personal and global issues; and

5. connects science and technology to other human endeavors, e.g., history, mathematics, the arts and the humanities.

The process of becoming literate in science is seemingly analogous to the "civic competence" spoken of by William Wraga. According to Wraga (1993, 202), the ability to integrate knowledge from a variety of subjects to solve complex societal problems is an antecedent to civic competence. He strongly suggests that a disciplinary approach stands as a roadblock to the application and synthesis of knowledge that is fundamental to understanding and resolving societal issues and problems. He writes: "It is time for social studies educators to recognize that the ability and inclination to integrate and apply knowledge constitute an essential civic competence and that we must enact interdisciplinary curricular arrangements to foster that competence in future citizens" (226). Science and social studies seek to resolve problems through a dynamic process that requires the transfer and synthesis of knowledge. To accomplish that, teachers and students need to use dynamic resources.

Each of those recommendations can be accomplished with teacher insight and the realization that social studies and science are not stagnant but rather ever-changing curricula. The need to provide current happenings and real-world applications to social studies and science means that teachers must use such current sources as electronic media that go beyond rigid textual materials.

Current national content standards for social studies and science parallel one another with regard to the importance of using current media resources and making global connections in classrooms. Strand 9-Global Connections in the National Council for the Social Studies Standards (NCSS 1997, 1) states: "Through exposure to various media and first-hand experiences, young learners become aware of and are affected by events on a global scale." Similarly, the National Science Education Content Standard, Science in Personal and Social Perspectives (National Research Council [NRC] 1996, 193) contains the following statement about global connections: "The organizing principles apply to local as well as global phenomena and represent challenges that occur on scales that vary from quite short-for example, natural hazards-to very long-for example, the potential result of global changes." These groups as well as other social studies and science associations concur on the need for a population that is literate in terms of society and science.

Problems of Implementation

Most teachers believe that developing and using an interdisciplinary social studies and science curriculum is an excellent strategy. Implementing the strategy, however, includes the problems of keeping up with current events, redesigning lessons, and meeting specific learning objectives. Furthermore, particularly in the lower grades, the study of social studies and science issues represents an area that is often neglected. The connection between social studies and science is often limited to those teachers that have a keen interest in integrating the curriculum. Hence, many students as they progress through school and enter departmentalized subject areas have no opportunity to make connections between social studies and science. In this article, we address that area of neglect at the middle and high school levels by introducing an effective way of developing lessons based on current events to increase the achievement levels of students in social studies and science.

One solution to the difficulty in connecting social studies with science is for the teacher to involve the living resources that can help the teacher keep up with current events, develop concepts, and contribute to academic development in understanding the important connection between social studies and science. Those resources are the students themselves.

The strategy of using students to help with curricular decisions follows historic and current learning theories in social studies and science education. John Dewey (1902) recognized the importance of having students involved in the learning experience, which entails students being reflectively involved in the process of deciding what will be taught and learned. Having students assist in the determination of what to teach provides a foundation for understanding the importance of particular topics. In social studies and science, the purpose of learning the subject matter is implicitly understood by the students when they are a part of the instructional process. That concept is embedded in Vygolsky's social constructivist approach (Wertsch 1985) in which knowledge is mutually built and constructed. Thus, students have authority over their own learning. Jadallah (2000, 222) defined constructivist teaching and learning as "involving students in a process of exploring, analyzing, evaluating, and synthesizing knowledge into a frame of reference that they then use to interpret and understand the new knowledge." Teaching that is based on a constructivist perspective is an educational reform trend that is increasingly having an impact on student learning (Kuhn 1999; Perkins 1999).

Having students make curricular decisions involves exploring, analyzing, and evaluating skills, which are consistent with the constructivist philosophy of teaching and learning. The teacher is able to exercise his or her belief in the integration of subject matter as a viable teaching strategy to promote learning and higher- achievement levels because of the time-saving factor that is created when students are part of planning for instruction. When students help teachers stay current, develop the concepts that are to be taught, and conduct research for building a knowledge base relevant to social studies and science, they lessen the teacher's work load for planning lessons and managing the classroom.

The Plan

Teachers find paper and electronic media sources to be excellent resources for encouraging students to be more active and independent thinkers. Because students already spend large amounts of time immersed in the media, it is logical for teachers to use strategies that allow students to learn in an environment with which they are already familiar. Teachers can use the newspaper and other media sources to develop topics and concepts in social studies and science that help students investigate the world around them. The media provide daily information that is pertinent and relevant to its users.

The beginning of the school year or term is the time for teachers and students to plan a course of study. Teachers can distribute the Curriculum Planning Assignment to students within the first or second week of the school term (table 1). Before the students receive the assignment, teachers need to review the term concept to avoid confusion during planning assignments. Defining, labeling, categorizing, and recognizing specific attributes of the word are some of the ways in which teachers can assist students in understanding what concepts are and how \they relate to one another to form generalizations.

The assignment in table 1 requires students to provide four media sources that relate to a specific topic. The purpose of requesting multiple sources is to validate the timelines and importance of the particular topic.

TABLE 1. Curriculum Planning Assignment

TABLE 2. Guideline 1

Development of Sample Topic, Subtopic, and Concept

Under guideline 1 in table 2, students work in pairs, deciding on possible social studies and science subtopics that could be studied during the school year. Working in groups increases students' motivation (Sappon-Shevin 1999) and improves their ability to form relationships with other students while increasing their interdependence (Johnson and Johnson 1999). Heterogeneous grouping, especially according to abilities, benefits lower-ability students who can learn from higher-ability students (Kagen 1992). The higher- ability students tend to take on the role of instructor as the group works toward a shared goal.

Following guideline 2 in table 3, the whole class selects specific concepts that relate to the current events between Cuba and the United States. The teacher encourages the students to select broad subtopics so that they can develop numerous concepts. The teacher needs to provide multiple sources, careful guidance, and constructive suggestions throughout the generation and ranking of concepts.

Specific Question Development Requirements and Assignments for Social Studies

The teacher can go beyond having students develop concepts from media sources for use in designing curriculum. Students can use the specific concepts generated from the assignments to devise activities to develop skills in social studies and science.

Both teacher and students should emphasize a hands-on and active participation approach for the activities they design. To promote better communication skills and opportunities for cooperative learning, students need to present original activities and skills through oral presentations, using a variety of media in a debate format or panel discussion. Students might construct a concept map or semantic web (see sidebar) before and after participating in large-group debates or discussions. Throughout the process, the maps or webs can be an additional assessment tool to determine the breadth and depth of students' conceptual understanding of a topic.

Once the students agree on a topic and a variety of subtopics for study, the teacher can serve as a facilitator in the development of specific inquiry type questions for investigation. Onosko (1996) suggests that topics be chosen for their merit as debatable issues. The number of subtopics investigated depends on class size, national standards being met, and state curriculum requirements. The investigation requires an in-depth inquiry, according to Onosko, to ensure a proper depth of study. Therefore, we require students to develop a minimum of four questions around concepts within a specific subtopic. Working in groups, students need to answer two specific questions in detail, showing substantial effort at understanding the subject through debate, discussion, reflection, or research. To garner substantive debate, discussion, reflection, or research, we require each group to meet the following specific question requirements as outlined in table 4.

TEACHER RESOURCES

Curriculum Planning Issues and Team Teaching

The activities mentioned thus far focus on designing a curriculum in social studies that is current, relevant, and of interest to students. Science issues can be addressed the same way, using this or a similar instructional format. More important, science concepts learned this way could be tied to and given purpose through the learning of social studies. Under the science subtopic navigation in table 3, teachers can plan hands-on activities in which students can make compasses and use Global-Positioning System (GPS) devices for navigation; test clay and aluminium boats for buoyancy; and conduct various salt water, current, and density experiments that match with National Science Education standards. The magnitude of the topic and the time required to cover both social studies and science with this technique suggest that the task be accomplished through a team- teaching approach.

TABLE 3. Guideline 2

Teacher Concerns

The implementation of this plan can be difficult. Onosko (1996) refers to barriers that result in the paucity of issue-centered classroom lessons. Those include a teacher's reluctance to move away from traditional teaching practices, fear of student-centered learning, and lack of necessary training to execute such lessons effectively. He suggests several remedies, which we incorporated into the activities of this article, to help teachers overcome those hindrances. He advises teachers to connect the lessons to a central issue; identify key concepts, events, and persons to be explored; and identify subissues and subquestions that need to be understood in order to address the central issue properly.

TABLE 4. The Assignment

TABLE 5. The Assessment

Most teachers worry that they cannot be certain that all students possess a level of readiness for concept learning and that this approach will not meet specific curricular objectives mandated by school, district, or state educational administrations. We maintain, however, that studying current-event concepts using a constructivist- based model, such as the one recommended in this article, leads to an environment in which students surpass the standards-mandated knowledge level by using a process of application and synthesis. Hence, they will have a more in-depth, experiential understanding of objectives that may be identified as important by curriculum experts and educational administrators.

One way to steer students toward meeting intended outcomes of concept learning is to provide cooperative-learning approaches in which higher- and lower-level achieving students plan and work together to complete the assignments. Another way is for the teacher to facilitate concept development during large group interactions (see table 5).

Over time, teachers and students using this approach generate many concepts and meet specific learning objectives. Each topic generated from media sources provides ample concepts and opportunities for building knowledge bases described by most required learning objectives. A benefit of meeting objectives through this strategy is that the strategy strengthens the relevance and purpose of the subject matter. The sequencing of the subject matter in terms of how the real world works is different. A visualization of the real-world approach, called transdisciplinary by Spector (1991), and a comparison with interdisciplinary approaches, along with definitions of the terms, are shown in figure 1.

Conclusion

This approach interests students and follows current theoretical learning trends in social studies and science with the media as part of the instructional process. Teachers know that today's children spend large blocks of time surfing the Internet, watching television, and listening to the radio. In all likelihood, that behavior will continue, which means that efforts to integrate the media into the learning process can result in making issues relevant and connecting students to them. Team teaching with a science teacher is essential for hands-on, activity-based science instruction so that students develop knowledge and understanding of the relationship between social studies and science.

FIGURE 1. Possible disciplinary approaches.

REFERENCES

Dewey, J. 1902. The child and the curriculum. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Kagen, J. 1992. Yesterday's promises, tomorrow's promises. Developmental Psychology 36:609-28.

Jadallah, E. 2000. Constructivist learning experiences for social studies education. The Social Studies 91 (5): 221-25.

Johnson, D. W., and R. T. Johnson. 1999. The three Cs of school and classroom management. In Beyond behaviorism: Changing the classroom management paradigm, ed. H. J. Frieberg. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Kuhn, D. 1999. A developmental model of critical thinking. Educational Researcher 28:16-25.

National Commission on Social Studies in the Schools. 1989. Charting a course: Social studies for the 21st century. Washington, DC: National Commission on Social Studies in the Schools.

National Council for the Social Studies. 1997. Curriculum standards: Global connections. Retrieved November 7, 2002, from http://www.socialstudies.org/standards/2.9.html

National Research Council. 1996. National science education standards. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

National Science Teachers Association Handbook 2000-2001 (2000). Science/technology/society: A new effort for providing appropriate science for all. Washington, DC: National Science Teachers Association.

Onosko, J. 1996. Exploring issues with students despite the barriers. Social Education 60 (1): 22-27.

Perkins, D. 1999. The many faces of constructivism. Educational Leadership 57 (3): 6-11.

Sappon-Shavin, M. 1999. Because we can change the world: A practical guide to building cooperative, inclusive classroom communities. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Spector, B. S. 1991. STS can be the focus for an entire middle school. Paper presented at the October regional meeting of the National Science Teachers Association, New Orleans, LA.

Wertsch, J. 1985. Vygotsky and the social formation of mind. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Wraga, W. G. 1993. The interdisciplinary imperative for citizenship education. Theory and Research in Social Education 21 (3): 201-31.

WILLIAM J. SUMRALL teaches in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Mississippi. DONALD N. SCHILLINGER is an instructor in education at the same school in University, Mississippi.

Copyright HELDREF PUBLICATIONS Jan/Feb 2004

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