Blog Post #10

Initially, when reflecting on the reading, the word echo chamber came to mind in regard to the United States. The analysis and variation presented in the two geographically different disciplines confirmed the filtration along with the politically charged nature of history in America. Although as a student I enjoyed learning history through narratives, as the article describes, I understand how that may act as a hindrance to student learning. Accompanied by the strong tie to nationalism, history in the United States doesn’t seem to have nearly as much value as the discipline executed in Northern Ireland.

The statistics and information presented do not seem complementary to history education in the United States. However, taking into consideration the environment in which each discipline is taught, it is essentially logical. Similarly to teaching content to students in the classroom, the experience must be relative and take into consideration the context or environment it is being presented in. With that being said, it is evident that history education in both countries is a result of political bias and influence. Without outside influence from the government/politics, I think history in both demographics would benefit in presenting history without such influence.

While many teachers are not going to be able to be in complete control of deciding curriculum, this article presents knowledge affirming the need for students in America to dive deeper into history. It’s discouraging to know as a student I was not given equal opportunity to learn about historical “mile markers” such as the Egyptians or Mesolithic peoples. Although I was able to obtain other knowledge to supplement my classroom learning, I wish I could have received historical teaching similarly to what is being done in Northern Ireland. However, the United States would find it difficult to diminish the connection between history and national identity.

https://www.centreofexcellence.com/shop/ancient-egyptian-magic-diploma-course/
Photo of Egyptian art, a society/history I was not exposed to until later in my educational career.

Blog #9

I believe, as do others, that civic education serves as a core value of the social sciences. Striving to equip students to be able to be competent, informed, active members of their democratic society. As the article points out there is a wide spectrum of ideas pertaining to the democratic education process and what exactly defines a “good” citizen. While our own personal beliefs can construct the idealistic citizen but it is up to educators to effectively translate without sharing educationally detrimental bias.

http://neatoday.org/2012/02/15/civic-education-getting-a-reboot-2/
Student analyzing the Constitution of the United States.

Drawing off of the in-depth content and research in the article, the authors conceptualize three characteristics of a “good” citizen: personally responsible, participatory, and justice orientated. Initially I thought these characteristics seemed synonymous to characteristics of someone with a strong moral code. Thus these characteristics not only apply to civic education, but cultivating these qualities will hopefully make the skills more applicable for students in their daily life. Therefore even if students choose not to be as politically involved as an adult, hopefully there will be some translation of pieces of their civic education in their day to day life.

One other key concept translated in the article and also in class is the importance of understanding your audience/students. Having a better understanding of the student demographic and the possibly emotionally-charged content ensures some continuity of teaching in this environment. It is important reminder that effective teaching happens when the conditions of a classroom are evaluated and understood. Awareness is crucial because ultimately the context and processes involved in teaching politically charged civic education are just as critical to student learning as the content itself.

Blog #8

The classrooms presented in the article give evidence to the strength and importance of culturally relevant teaching. As a “modern” teacher the demographics of my classroom are not only subject to change but also the platforms or environment needed to teach my future students.

One thing that really stuck out to my was towards the end of the article, “Culturally relevant teachers believe that knowledge is continuous recreate, recycled, and share by teachers and students.” This concept of give and take was also demonstrated in the examples provided by the author. I think looking at a classroom in this manner makes it easier for teachers to be relative and able to connect more with their students. The continous atmosphere of knowledge creates the idea knowledge is able to be bounced off one another, giving students concepts of self and others around them.

https://www.weareteachers.com/how-i-learned-to-stop-being-afraid-of-socratic-seminars-try-them-in-my-classes/
This image represents a cooperative class discussion among peers, most likely facilitated by a teacher. It demonstrates the reprocity of knowledge needed for cultural relative teaching.

I believe humans have a natural desire to connect and often personifying content makes it easier for students to grasp things, such as historical concepts. In order to be effective in this manner you need to understand your students beyond just pupils in a classroom and view them as unique individuals. Understanding or empathizing with students can give indications on what types of content may resonate with more students. Again surrounded around the idea of cycling knowledge, along with student teacher give and take.

As many educators understand there is a lot more that goes into teaching than simply transferring content from teacher to students. This article reminded me the importance of staying connected and completely engaged in students. It is important to remember the world my students are living and learning in is different than my own person experience. Therefore it is crucial to keep a classroom an adaptable environment to allow calibration to students’ needs.

Blog #7

Reading Wineburg and Monte-Sano affirmed an educational belief I formulated later in my own education progress; the history presented to Americans in public schools is a result from “white washing” and a modern push by the civil rights/activism. The study presented in the article, along with doing the activity myself in class, affirms that white males have dominated the core of our foundational history. Although it was no surprise to me, actually doing the the activity brought to the forefront how almost ALL my peers wrote down the same demographic of famous white males.

I wanted to include the table from Wineburg and Monte-Sano because it is interesting to conceptualize that both American youth and adults thought in a similar manner. Also a large portion of my peers also listed many of the names above in class discussion.

I do not necessarily think it is negative that American history classes, high school age-level, predominantly circulate content about the white males that have shaped our history. However, as the article’s content supports, the only real diversification in our educational content has been with the nation wide emphasis and incorporation of the civil rights/African American activism. I do believe this greatly helped the overall education of students, but honestly not much has changed in the core of history education since the 19th century, except for modern events of course.

It is probably inevitable much of a high school American history course is going to be primarily rooted in events and narratives of white men, along with some famous civil rights activists such as Martin Luther King Jr or Rosa Parks. However as an educator I think this provides me with the opportunity and challenge to supplement my students’ learning from other narratives, especially when not explicitly present in the curriculum. Although I hope by the time I step into the classroom as a teacher my students will have a more diverse history curriculum than my own; however I know it is going to fall to me as a teacher to try to provide the ideal, diverse education the best way I can.

Blog #6

While I may be teaching in a fairly technologically advanced society it’s important for teachers to understand the world our students will be civically participating in most likely will be further technologically advanced. Therefore it has increasing become important to incorporate technology into the classroom along with teaching technical proficiency as well. The challenge is to make the technology learning meaningful, developing healthy student habits associated with technology.

https://www.punchkick.com/blog/2014/09/22/learn-2-0-how-the-classroom-of-the-future-empowers-teachers-and-students
This photo demonstrates the integration of technology in the classroom with the supplementation of one-on-one teacher interaction.

Integrating technology, correctly, can maximize the learning potential in a social studies classroom, as Journell detailedly lays out. Something that really stuck with me was this quote at the beginning of the article: “In a study of secondary students, Chiodo and Byford found that the way social studies was presented in the classroom influenced students’ perceptions of social studies far more than the subject matter itself” (pg.57). It made me critically think about my own educational experience, as a student my perception of what was being done in the classroom did directly affect my effort towards the assignment. It felt like an “aha moment”, realizing the true importance of providing not only multiple opportunities for student learning but understanding their perceptions as well.

From an educator’s standpoint this article is extremely helpful and provides detailed, meaningful technology uses in social studies. However, at the end of the day it is up to the educator to use different methods in the classroom accompanied with the correct scaffolding. As teachers we can’t forget what is was like to be in our students desks and know the way a message is presented is most likely going to be a greater influence than the message itself. Finally, it is also important to understand that technology is not just a tool for students but a skill to grow throughout their educational career.

Blog #5

The conventional classroom and traditional schooling is most commonly associated with summative assessment, along with other forms of formal assessment. While exams can be a valuable indicator of the degree of student’s knowledge, assessment goes beyond just quizzes or exams. I believe a key aspect of assessment in the classroom is for students to self-assess and also understand what/why they are being assessed. I truly believe students that are able to intrinsically gauge their own development will grow more in their learning.

For me I think students occasionally feel they are simply just following instruction without really conceptualizing the end goal or purpose. As Larson would agree, students should be made aware and directly told the end goal, objective, or other desired end result. Objectives or targets are direct instructions showcase the content, which is the information they need to know, and the product, how students will demonstrate the content. “The point is that targets should be explained and accessible for your students; students should know what they will learn, why they will learn it, and how they will be assessed” (pg.79).

Keeping end goals in mind, a correlating concept I really like is the “backward design model”. The goal is to construct the curriculum taking into consideration the assessments to follow. As a student myself, I would have definitely benefited from the comfort of knowing what exactly is going to be expected me. This is one of the main goals of this model, I really enjoy this because I think that will give many students confidence in the classroom.

Ultimately I think there is a negative association tagged to assessment that students often bring into the classroom. Especially in the social sciences, there are so many varying opportunities to gage and assess student learning that stays away from traditional standardization. As an educator you not only need multiple pathways for assessment but also the ability to help your students effectively assess themselves, along with their learning.

https://sparrowsolutionsgroup.com/board-member/assessment-and-strategic-planning/
I like the reciprocity of assessment demonstrated in this image.

Blog #4

History could not be exist without primary sources and forms of documentation of the past, along with people interrogating those sources to construct the past. The goal for students is to replicate the processes historians use and introduce learning history like “they’re playing detective, piecing together raw material from what at first glance seems like a really cold case” as Schmidt depicts.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Become-a-History-Detective-Primary-Secondary-Sources-3655402

I think for students this changes the classroom from feeling like standardization to investigation. It creates a sense of mystery making it easier to engage despite their initial, minimal, or prior knowledge on the material. This also gives students the opportunity to speculate and think more deeply about the sources being presented to them.

Coinciding with detective work, an additional concept that I really liked in both articles, is the goal of making the primary sources “talk”and negotiating the meaning; accomplished in the classroom all together or in small groups. Not only does it bring the primary sources alive but students begin to talk historically themselves, thinking chronologically, finding stronger vs weaker evidence, comparing and contrasting, etc. I noticed a crucial aspect of this as well was the teacher working essentially along side the students, first demonstrating exactly what was needs to be accomplished.

Reflecting on my own education, the history classroom environments that most resembled engaging primary source like this definitely stand out and are most prominent in my memory. Now with information on ways to break down and lead students constructively, with primary sources, it makes me realize how few of my educators in this discipline succeeded at that level. Part of me believes some teachers get caught in this cycle of standardization associated with schooling and forget instruction can be supplemented with less standardized classroom activities. Although some standardization is inevitable, history is a course that allows students to learn through multiple avenues; which is a major reason I fell in love with the discipline in the first place.

Blog Post #3

History as a discipline presents a level of complexity not necessarily seen in other disciplines. For example, cognitive processes and critically-thinking are an important part of the discipline itself. Reflecting on the diverse principles and avenues presented in the articles a general theme stuck out to me; to effectively learn history students need to question the content being presented to them and the teacher should try to act more as a mediator in the classroom.

http://plotandscatter.com/services/data-question.html
Asking a variety of questions is needed for students to reach the level of in-depth critical thinking needed for “doing history”.

I like to think of this idea with the analogy of an adult teaching a youth to drive. The adult controls the parameters of where the youth will travel while also providing guiding instruction or information (which can correlate to scaffolding and mediation in the classroom). However, the youth is in control the the vehicle which is representative of their learning.

Along with students “questioning” more in the classroom, another concept reiterated by both excerpts is breaking the traditional mainstream thought associated with history. This association is the idea that the discipline is centered around simply remembering facts or events that occured. An idea Bain presented, and gave example of, in breaking this stigma is showing the differences of “history as a past event and history as an interpretive account”(338). This thought process is an organization of thought I have not consciously applied to learning and viewing historical content.

All together it is clear to me history needs to be taught in a manner that students not only need to ask questions, but they should take more control of their own learning. To achieve this as a teacher you can create a learning environment where the students freedom with their learning while also staying inside educational standards or parameters. When teachers essentially “sit back” and let their students discuss, argue, and construct concepts with one another more effective historic learning is going to occur.

Blog Post #2

History plays a centrality for the social sciences, and for good reason. The discipline not only teaches substantive concepts but provides students with meta-history or second-order knowledge meaning, “a layer of knowledge that lies behind the production of the actual content or substance of history” (Lee, pg.32). I think this is the part of history courses that students don’t necessarily recognize, but is a crucial reason why history remains a main pillar of the social sciences.

One challenge in teaching history, clearly recognized by Lee throughout the chapter, is pushing students’ thinking past their preconceptions and personal experiences. The goal in teaching history is to have students try to formulate a mindset in the past, essentially an alternative reality that differs from the current reality they experience everyday. I think to achieve this a teacher must set the stage for the students, also contextualize the time period or mindset of the lesson and ultimately give them the tools they need to critically think in an alternative perception.

As Lee states (on pg.54), “only through the use of evidence that history becomes possible” therefore it is no surprise the core of the discipline surrounds evidence. In the historical context I like how “evidence” encompasses a variety of things to which students can supplement their knowledge, such as diaries or temples, maps, fossils, and more. Having something students can touch or see I think makes creating a past reality more conceivable.

Teaching and understanding history is a matter of continuous growth. This progressive concept of the discipline is what made history so attractive as a student and furthermore as an educator. History is about asking questions and pushing past just substantive concepts into complex thought and in-depth, critical thinking. Teaching this discipline allows engagement of a student’s imagination and creates opportunities, other disciplines don’t have, to widen student understanding of humanity itself. In the end, if taught effectively, I think the discipline of history can not only create better students but people as well.

https://www.metallicladder.com/product/manhole-ladders/
I wanted to used a ladder as an expression of this article, along with how history is learned and taught. For example, at the bottom of the ladder may be student preconceptions or information they obtained outside the classroom. As students progress in age/schooling they acquire more substance and concepts, along with the tools/skills required to indepthly think about historical concepts, moving up the ladder.

Blog Post #1

The social sciences encompass a range of disciplines with complex ideas, each interconnecting with one another in some form. The woven information and concepts affirms not only the importance of the information but the applicability as well. The lack of simplicity and the critical, in-depth thought needed for social science disciplines also cultivates vital civic competence in students (NCSS, 2016).

The complexity of social sciences creates a challenge for educators, while also giving them an opportunity to approach their teaching through more than one method. I like to think of this intricacy of the disciplines as an opportunity, much due to other educational subjects of study present only one or two avenues of interpretation.

The effective development of social science education within students is not instilled just through structured forms of educational transmission. Instead, an educator needs to provide a learning environment where students should be given the opportunity to question, research, reflect, and critically think about concepts (Wolpert-Gawron, 2016). Along with skills obtained through the interactive learning methods of social sciences, information obtained through the disciplines sets basis for future civic success.

With reflection on the readings, to be able to effectively teach disciplines, such as the social sciences, it is important to strive to have students be intrinsically motivated. While this is a difficult thing to achieve as an outsider, it is the job of the teacher to make the information applicable and attempt to trigger curiosity in their students. One interactive method of teaching could be inquiry-based learning, this allows the students to formulate their own questions and ideas. I believe implementing this in teaching the social sciences allows students to take more control of their learning, apply critical thinking, and hopefully sparking some curiosity or personal interest (Wolpert-Gawron, 2016).

https://rosscoops31.com/2017/10/31/6drivers/

As a teacher of the social science disciplines, I enjoy the possibilities of more than one avenue of thought or interpretation. Not only must educators challenge their students but also create value in the what they are conveying in the classroom. I also like the idea of taking different roles in the classroom, instead of tradition teacher-student classroom lecture where many times students are taking mindless notes. Students taught social sciences can encourage more than learning information but also ability to solve complex problems or a sense of open mindedness (Scheurman, 1998).