Social Studies Curriculum

1
Social Studies Curriculum

• TCH 347
• Social Studies in the Elementary School
• Department of Education
• Shippensburg University
• Han Liu, Ph. D.

2
Curriculum

• Definition 1
• What a student should know and be able to do,
  which is defined by the state standards linked to
  high-stake tests.

3
Curriculum

• Definition 2
• What a student should know and be able to do
• Grade-level content expectations
• Instructional methods
• Any classroom learning materials

4
Curriculum for Social Studies

• Curriculum Content
• Curriculum Organization
• Curriculum Delivery
• Conceptual Structure
• Curriculum Scope Sequence
• Social Studies Skills

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Social Studies Content(Basic Disciplines)

• Sociology
• Anthropology
• Psychology
• Philosophy

• Culture
• History
• Geography
• Economics
• Civics
• Current Affaires

6
Social Studies Curriculum Organization

• Interdisciplinary Approach is applied in
  Elementary and middle schools, such as family
  life, cultural diversity, improve the
  environment
• Separate Subject Approach is applied in high
  schools, such as U.S History, American
  Government, Economics
• Multidisciplinary Approach is applied in teaching
  units, such as U.S. state, Latin America, middle
  east
• Special topics, such as globalization, the Middle
  East, etc.

7
Approaches to Deliver Social Studies Curriculum

• Conceptual Approach
• Emphasizing the mastery of social studies
  concepts
• Topical Approach
• Focus on topics, such as WW II, civil rights
  movement, etc.
• Inquiry Approach
• Generating questions
• Making Hypothesis to address the questions
• Testing the hypothesis

8
Conceptual Structure for Social Studies

• Facts
• Vocabulary
• Concepts
• Concept Clusters
• Themes
• Generalizations
• Descriptive Generalizations
• Prescriptive Generalizations

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Scope and Sequence

• Scope Sample. Textbook p.10, Figure 1.1
• Basic Contents defined by state standards
• Comparative Studies Global Perspective
• Special Topics Peace Studies, Environmental
  Issues
• Sequence Sample. Textbook p.20, Units of
  Instruction in the K-8 Curriculum
• Basic sequence defined by state standards based
  on knowledge acquisition theory and grade levels
• Schools decisions
• Teachers decisions

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Skills for Social Studies

• Thinking Skills
• Language Communication Skills
• Vocabulary Building Skills
• Research Skills
• Data Processing Skills
• Technology Skills

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Thinking Skills

• Inductive Thinking
• Deductive Thinking
• Critical Thinking
• Creative Thinking
• Analogical Thinking

• Problem Solving
• Decision-Making
• Generalizing
• Particularizing
• Metacognition

12
Language and Communication Skills

• Receptive Skills
• Reading
• Listening
• Expressive Skills
• Speaking
• Writing
• Presenting
• Comprehensive Communication Skills
• Debating

13
Vocabulary Building Skills

• Semantic map (relationship between/among concept
  clusters)
• Clusters
• Pairs
• Mnemonics

14
Research Skills

• Problem Identifying
• Predicting/Hypothesizing
• Inquiry Method Selecting
• Data processing
• Analyzing
• Synthesizing
• Interpreting
• Inferring
• Evaluating/Appraising

15
Data Processing Skills

• Data Source Identifying
• Data collection
• Data Tabulation
• Data Organizing
• Data Aggregation
• Data Analysis
• Data Presentation

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Technology Skills

• Searching
• Classifying
• Organizing
• Tabulating
• Communicating
• Transmitting
• Presenting
• Graphing
• Multimedia integrating
• Teaching aids developing