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DOCUMENT RESUME

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By-Jarolimek, John, Ed.Social Studies Education: The Elementary School.National Council for the Social Studies, Washington, D.C..:Spons Agency-National Education Association, Washington, D.C.

Pub Date 67Note- 71p.Available from-National Education Association, 1201 Sixteenth Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036 ($1.50).

EDRS Price MF -$0.50 HC Not Available from EDRS.

Descriptors-*Anthologies, Concept Teaching, Democratic Values, *Elementary Education, Fundamental

Concepts, Geographic Concepts, Individual Instruction, Individualized Programs, Locational Skills (Social

Studes), Moral Values, Personal Values, *Social Studies, Social Values, Study Skills, Teaching Skills

A collection of reprinted articles, this document examines concepts, values, skills,

and individualizing instruction in elementary social studies education. The subjects ofthe articles and their authors are as follows: (1) conceptual approaches, JohnJarolimek, (2) introducing sOcial studies concepts, Melvin Arnoff, (3) problems indeveloping social studies concepts, Agnes M. S. Inn, (4) using learning resources in

concept development, Lloyd Kendall, (5) concept-based curricula, F-rancis PeterHunkins, (6) values, William R. Fielder, (7) values and the primary school teacher,Bernice J. Wolfson, (8) value teaching in the middle and upper grades, Melvin Ezer, (9)

using learning resources in teaching values, Gerald M. Torkelson, (10) values

component, Nancy W. Bauer, (11) the role of skills, Helen McCracken Carpenter, (12)

skills teaching, 0. L. Davis, Jr. (14) using learning resources, Clarence 0. Bergeson,(15) skills in the elementary school social studies curriculum, Clifford D. foster, (16) theindividual and the social studies, Vincent R. Rogers, (17) individualizing instruction,Lorraine D. Peterson, (18) providing for individual differences, W. Linwood Chase, (19)learning resources for individualizing instruction, Huber M. Walsh, (20) curriculumprovisions for individual differences, Robert Groeschell. (JS)

951

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JOHN JAROLIMEK, Editor

Reprinted from SOCIAL EDUCATIONOfficial Journal of the NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR THE SOCIAL STUDIES

61/2.ehnveat.o.e' 4.0.<6t.v.t.tu

Ruth EllsworthWayne State

NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR THE SOCIAL ST

Officers for 1967

PresidentRichard E. GrossSchool of EducationStanford UniversityStanford, California

President-ElectRalph W. CordierState University of PennsylvaniaIndiana, Pennsylvania

Vice-PresidentRonald 0. SmithPortland Public SchoolPortland, Oregon

Editor, Social EducationLewis Paul ToddWashington, D.C.

Directors

Ruth

Ja

UDIES

0. M. Andersen

mes M. Becker

Adeline Brengle

Rose L. Chow Hoy

Helen M. Garrett

jean D. Grambs

William H. Hartley

Francis W. Mann

Lawrence E. Metcalf

Isidore Starr

Executive SecretaryMerrill F. Hartshorn

1201 Sixteenth Street, N.W.Washington, D.C. 20036

Publications Committee, 1967Jack Allen, Chairman

George Peabody College for TeachersLeslie Wood

University Indiana University

The Nation

Association

series of

ship i

the

le

1 Council for the Social Studies is the Department of Social Studies of the National Education

of the United States. It is the professional organization of teachers of social studies. It holds a

meetings each year and publishes materials of significance to those interegted in this field. Member-

n the National Council carries with it a subscription to the Council's official journal, Social Education,

monthly magazine for social studies teachers, and the Yearbook. In addition, the Council publishes bul-

tins, pamphlets, and other materials of practical use for teachers of the social studies. Membership dues

are $9 a year. Applications for membership and orders for the purchase of publications should be made to

the Executive Secretary, 1201 Sixteenth Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036.

IL Si DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION & WELFAREOFFICE OF EDUCATION

THIS DOCUMENT HAS '!EEN REPRODUCED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROM THEPERSON OR ORGANIZ. ,ION ORIGINATING IT. EJINTS OF VIEW OR OPINIONSSTATED DO NOT NEOESSAPJLY REPRESENT OFFICIAL OFFICE OF EDUCATIONPOSITION OR POLICY,.

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SOCIAL STUDIES EDUCATION:THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL


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(ERIC) and to the organization operating under contract

with the Office to Education to reproduce documents in-

cluded in the ERIC system by means of microfiche only,

but this right is not conferred to any users of the micro-

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mission of the copyright owner.

Copyright 1967Reprinted from Social Education Magazine, Official Journal of the

NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR THE SOCIAL STUDIES

A Department of the National Education Association

1201 Sixteenth Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20036

Price .$1.50

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Introduction

THROUGH the years the National Council forthe Social Studies has tended to be more at-tractive as a professional organization to the

secondary school teacher and the college professorthan it has to the elementary school teacher. Perhapsbecause elementary school teachers have traditionallybeen concerned with the psychology of the youngchild and with the development of literacy, they havebeen inclined to identify with professional organiza-tions that reflect those interests. This has been amatter of some concern to the leadership of the Na-tional Council for the Social Studies for a number ofyears and several significant steps have been taken1-,y the Council to offer more to the teachers of ele-

mentary-age pupils. For example, special attention isgiven to the program of annual meetings to includesections, clinics, and sessions of particular relevauceto those who work in elementary schools. A numberof the National Council publications, including oneyearbook, address themselves to social studies educa-tion in the elementary school. The special featuredealing with elementary education in Social Educa-tion was, therefore, a natural extension of the inter-est that the Council has had in elementary educaionfor quite some time.

The articles in the supplements discuss topics andproblems in ways that will stimulate the thinking ofteachers and curriculum workers as they plan socialstudies programs for pupils of the next decade. Ele-mentary social studies curriculums are currently un-dergoing substantial review and reform throughoutthe country. Although there are many unresolvedissues and considerable diversity in thought concern-ing the most desirable directions of new curriculums,there is also a surprising amount of agreement as tothe necessary components of sound programs. Theneed to teach for basic ideas that have high transfervalue, the need to teach in ways that encourage re-flective and rational thought processes, the need tohelp pupils learn important skills, and the need toapproach social studies topics in realistic ways are afew examples of areas of general agreement amongcurriculum planners. The supplements are intendedto enlarge the body of professional literature reflect-ing and commenting on new developments in ele-mentary social studies education.

There is a growing volume of evidence from avariety of souices that underscores the important roleot the elementary school in acquainting pupils withthose learnings embodied in the social studies.Whether one reviews the research on concept forma-tion and attainment, skill development, or the inter-nalization of values, he is struck again and again

0.1

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with the importance attached to the early ages inthe development of those learnings. Indeed, the evi-

dence suggests that the quality of the educationalexperience at the early ages may either retard orenhance subsequent intellectual growth and develop-ment. Social studies education can and should be im-proved at all levels, but improvement at the uppergrade levels will be difficult unless there are goodbeginnings in the elementary school.

The articles in the supplements are designed tocommunicate to elementary classroom teacbers, su-pervisors, elementary school principals, and curric-ulum workers responsible for elementary school so-cial studies. The authors represent a variety of back-grounds and experience. Most have had many yearsof successful experience as elementary classroomteachers and are now supervisots or teachers ofteachers. Authors were instructed to write for aspecific reading audience but to maintain a sophisti-cated, scholarly style. Although the articles are writ-ten for elementary school practitioners, several aresuch as to be of interest to social studies teachers atany level.

Each of the four supplements follows somewhatthe same organizational format. The fir, article laysbefore the reader some of the dimensions of the topicand within that context suggests relevont problemsand their implications for elementary education. Thesecond and third articles discuss the topic as ap-plied to the middle and upper grades and thefourth addresses itself to learning resources, activities,and instructional media. The final article concernsitself with overall curriculum implications relating tothe focus of the supplement. Within the limitationsof the space allowed, this treatment permits a broadand comprehensive discussion of topics.

The addition of the elementary education surment to Social Education would not have been pos-sible without substantial financial support. The ideaof a special journal publication had been under con-sideration by the Council prior to the bequest ofMary G. Kelty, but was deferred because of cost. TheMary G. Kelty Fund, earmarked for the promotionof the interests of elementary teachers, provided theneeded funding for the project. We believe that thisspecial feature on elementary social studies is a

fitting tribute to the memory of Mary G. Keltyin her lifetime contributed so much to both elemen-tary education and to the National Council for theSocial Studies.

John JarolimekUniversity of Washington

,

Contents

The page numbering of each 16-page unit follows the original pagenumbering of Social Education magazine.

IntroductionJohn Jarolimek

Focus on Concepts

Conceptual Approaches: Their Meaning for Elementary Social Studies

John Jarolimek534

Introducing Social Studies Concepts in the Primary GradesMelvin Arnoff

537

Beginning Teachers' Problems in Developing Social Studies Concepts

Agnes M. S. Inn540

Using Learning Resources in Concept DevelopmentLloyd Kendall

542

Organizing Concept-Based CurriculaFrancis Peter Hunkins 545

Focus on Values

Introduc donJohn Jarolimek

Two Styles of School Talk About ValuesWilliam R. Fielder

Values and the Primary School TeacherBernice J. Wolfson

Value Teaching in the Middle and Upper Grades: A Rationale for Teaching But Not Transmitting

ValuesMelvin Ezer

Using Learning Resources in Teaching ValuesGerald M. Torkelson

Guaranteeing the Values Component in Elementary School Social Studies

Nancy W. Bauer

33

34

37

39

41

43

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Focus on Skills

The Role of Skills in Elementary Social StudiesHelen McCracken Carpenter

Skills Teaching in the Primary GradesJohn Jarolimek

Building Skills for Social Study in the Middle Grades0. L. Davis, Jr.

Using Learning Resources in Social Studies Skill DevelopmentClarence 0. Bergeson

Skills in the Elementary School Social Studies CurriculumClifford D. Foster

Focus on Individualizing Instruction.

The Individual and the Social StudiesVincent R. Rogers

Individualizing Instruction in the Primary GradesLorraine D. Peterson

Providing for Individual Differences: Middle and Upper GradesW. Linwood Chase

Learning Resources for Individualizing InstructionHuber M. Walsh

Curriculum Provisions for Individual DifferencesRobert Groeschell

iv

219

222

224

227

230

405

408

411

413

416

, Ar.AIL


focus on conceptsBOARD OF ADVISORS

CHARLOTTE CRABTREEAssistant Professor of EducationUniversity of CaliforniaLos Angeles, California

ELEANOR GRAHAMConsultant in Social ScienceMetropolitan Public SchoolsNashville, Tennessee

ADELENE HOWLANDDirector of Elementary EducationMount Vernon Public SchoolsMount Vernon, New York

MARY LEWISElementary Social Studies SupervisorCincinnati Public SchoolsCincinnati, Ohio

JEAN MATHESONDirector of Elementary EducationSarasota Public SchoolsSarasota, Florida

JOHN D. MCAULAYProfessor of Elementary EducationPennsylvania State UniversityUniversity Park, Pennsylvania

JOHN U. MICHAELISProfessor of EducationUniversity of CaliforniaBerkeley, California

VINCENT R. ROGERSProfessor of Elementary EducationUniversity of MinnesotaMinneapolis, Minnesota

FRANK TEMPESTElementary Social Studies TeacherDivision of Instructional ServicesDenver Public SchoolsDenver, Colorado

GILBERT M. WILSONChairman, Department ofElementary EducationBoston UniversityBoston, Massachusetts


With this issue Social Education introduces a new section de-voted entirely to elementary education. The inauguration of thisfeature demonstrates the importance that the Council attaches tosocial studies education at the elementary level. It is altogetherappropriate that special attention be given to the elementaryschool social studies program because it is here that the childbegins his lifetime of study of human societies and human insti-tutions. It is anticipated that these articles will bring increasednumbers of teachers and others most closely associated with theconduct of instruction in the elementary school into closer con-tact with the mainstream of social studies thinking nationally.

A topic or theme has *been selected for each supplement, anda series of articles focus on various dimensions of that topic.The supplements are planned to (i) improve the quality ofelementary social studies instruction and curriculum in content,skills, and values; (2) develop backgrounds of teachers andstimulate them to further professional study; (3) inform readersof studies, projects, and other significant developments relatingto changing emphases in curriculum, methods, and materials;and (4) discuss persistent instructional problems that, by theirfundamental nature, necessitate continued attention.

No particular point of view or philosophy is being promotedin the articles; indeed, it is hoped that various viewpoints mightbe presented in order to stimulate discussion and dialogue.Likewise, it is hoped that authors will represent various profes-sional roles, although this may not be possible in any singlesupplement. This feature should provide an excellent outlet forpublishable material and should, in time, represent a substantialaddition to the literature of elementary social studies.

In planning the supplements, ideas were solicited from anumber of prominent educators who have had an identificationwith elementary social studies. The Editor, with the help of asmall committee consisting of Dr. Charlotte Crabtree, Miss MaryLewis, Mr. Frank Tempest, and Dr. John U. Michaelis, incorpo-rated those ideas into a proposed plan for the supplements. Theproposal was presented to and approved by the Executive Boardof Social Education. A Board of Advisors has now been namedto assist with planning of the feature on a continuing basis.Members of the Board represent various sections of the countryand a variety of professional roles. Their names, positions, andaddresses appear on this page. Readers are urged to relay theirreactions to the articles, along with ideas for future articles andpossible authors, to any member of the Board of Advisors or tothe Edithr, University of Washington, Seattle.

1

ANN.,

Conceptual Approaches: Their Meaning

for Elementary Social Studiesb y JOHN JAROLIMEK

Professor of Elementary EducationUniversity of Washington

ATsome point in the remoteness of antiquity,

man made a gigantic leap in his developmentthat would forever separate him from all

other living creatures. The similarities and differ-ences between man and the universe of living thingshas been the source of some fascination through thecenturies, and many explanations have been sug-gested for his uniqueness. Unquestionably, the un-bridgeable gap between man and the rest of the ani-mal kingdom lies precisely in his capacity to engagein high-order, abstract mental operations facilitatedthrough the use of a complex symbol system. This isnot to .-;ay that man thinks and animals do not. It is,rather, to suggest that the mental processes of animalsand those of man are separated by several orders ofmagnitude.

Man has the amazing capacity to attach symbols toreality and thereby manipulate reality intellectually.Moreover, he can and does attach symbols to abstrac-tions that do not exist physically at all (terms such astradition, colonialism, democracy), and he can ma-nipulate those mentally. Man's neurolog:cll system issuch that it is able to classify, store, retrieve, and pro-cess a phenomenal amount of information. Becauseman has this capacity, he can accumulate and trans-mit a social heritage. He can also use his intelligenceto create and invent new variations of that heritage.He can be taught to solve intensely complex socialproblems. He can, finally, develop and adapt a cul-ture, something no other creature is able to do.

It is well known that lower animals can be taughtor conditioned to respond to words. When trained, adog, a horse, or a bird will react in a predictable wayto a given command. Animals frequently behave indeceptively human-like ways. Because the response is

often so well executed, it is sometimes mistakenly as-sumed that the animal engages in reflective thought,akin to that of human beings. When man respondsto symbols, however, he is doing so in an altogetherdifferent way from that of a dog, baboon, or talkingbird. He does something besides and beyond simplyreacting to a sign symbol. Man associates meaningwith a symbol, a meaning that goes considerably be-yond a sensory impression. When man hears or seesthe symbol concentration camp, his memory system

534

immediately scans and sorts a vast amount of infor-mation and selects the appropriate data to associatewith this symbol, thus giving it meaning. This as-sumes, of course, that the individual has had someprior opportunity to become acquainted with themeaning of this term. But it is not necessary for himto have personally and directly experienced concen-tration camps in order for this symbol to have mean-ing for him. He may have read about them, seen pic-tures of them, heard accounts of persons who hadbeen in them, seen a movie about concentrationcamps, and so on. When we refer to the meanings as-sociated with words and symbols in this way, we aredefining concepts. Concepts may be regarded as cat-egories of meaning. Attaching meaning beyond sen-sory impression to abstract symbols is what is meantby conceptual thought. It is intellectual behaviorthat is distinctly and uniquely characteristic ofhuman beings.

It is doubtful if anything but the most elementaryconceptual thought would be possible without ahighly developed symbol system. This is so becauseconcepts are abstract ideas and are detached fromspecific experiences. In order to handle ideas in thisway, it is necessary to have labels or symbols to at-tach to them. If ideas are to be communicated, theremust be common agreement on the meanings of thelabels or symbols. Words provide convenient labelsfor concepts, and, consequently, word-symbols aresometimes confused with the concepts they represent.

Using concepts as categories of meaning makes itpossible for man to establish order in all of the many .

thousands of specific perceptions and unique experi-ences he has. Concepts provide an intellectual filingsystem for meanings. Concept development, then,calls for the placing of information in correct cogni-tive categories. In developing the concept city, as anexample, pupils must learn to differentiate a cityfrom other political and social entities. A city is not acounty; neither is it a village, nor a town, nor a ham-let. Pupils could test the validity of a vast number ofstatements concerning the characteristics of a city,and in so doing their understanding of the conceptwould be enlarged, i.e. A city has more people livingin it than a village; A city provides opportunities for

many types of jobs; A city must have a good trans-portation system; and so forth. Suppose, however,pupils conclude that "Large cities are not locatedclose to other large cities." A test of this statementwould show that there are many exceptions to it.This is not a statement that would correctly apply toall or nearly all cities. It is incorrect information.

When one includes incorrect information in a cat-egory, he then forms a misconception. Pupils wholearn about he English race and the French race areassociating incorrect information with the race con-cept and are therefore forming misconceptions. It isapparent that in developing concepts it is importantfor the learner to have a broad exposure to the idea,encountering it in a variety of settings, and experi-encing both positive and negative instances and ex-emplars. Concept development is largely an informa-tion sorting, discriminating process, including in thecategory all associations and relationships that be-long and excluding those that do not.

In social studies, concepts are often expressed inthe following ways:

1. as wordsriver, mountain, city, urbanism, tradition,culture, democracy, colonialism, migration, import, ex-port, cargo, trade.

2. as phrasescultural diffusion, balance of power,trade agreement, balance of payments, income tax, polarregions, represen t a t ive govern men t.

In conceptual approaches to social studies curricu-lum development and teaching, a great deal is madeof generalizationsas organizing ideas from the disci-plines, main ideas, key ideas, and so on. Sometimesthey are also labeled concepts, although such nomen-clature is not altogether consistent with the conven-tional arid widely accepted use of the term. A gener-alization is defined as a declarative statement ex-pressing a relationship between concepts or othervariables and has more or less universal applicability.The statements describing cities cited earlier are ex-amples of generalizations. Other examples that havebeen widely used in the social studies are: Every soci-ety creates laws; Land is used for many and variedpurposes; Change is a condition of human society;Culture is socially learned.

The following generalization from geography mayChbe used to illustrate the relationship between gener-alizations, concepts, and facts:

GIVZ Climate is determined by sunlight, temperature, hu-midity, precipitation, atmospheric pressure, winds, un-

r,4 equal rates of heating and cooling of land and watersurfaces, irregular shape and distribution of land and sea,ocean currents, and mountain systems.

This generalization has imbedded within it a num-ber of concepts that must be understood if the state-ment is to make sense: sunlight, temperature, humid-

cf) ity, precipitation, atmospheric pressure, winds, and

Conceptual Approaches 535

so forth. Moreover, each of the concepts has manyspecific facts associated with it that give it meaning,as for example: sunlightamount, intensity, com-position; temperaturevariation, change, effects;windsdirection, patterns, causes; humiditydegreeof moisture, dampness, effect on comfort. Conceptsand generalizations are transferable from one settingto another. Facts, on the other hand, have no transfervaluethey are useful and applicable only in theirspecific settings: Columbus discovered America in1492; The Chicago fire took place on October 8,1871; The Great Depression followed the stock mar-ket crash of October 1929. Conceptual approachesare intended to provide a framework or design forthe building up of meanings from facts to conceptsto generalizations.

It has long been known that social studies pro-grams typically include an overwhelming amount ofspecific information. Not only is the existing fact-loadheavy but the problem is additionally confoundedbecause (1) the amount of specific information is in-creasing at a rapid rate due to the discovery of newknowledge; (2) specific information is ephemeral andbecomes obsolete quickly; (3) the rate of forgettingspecific information is kim to be high; and (4) un-less specifics are tied to larger ideas, it is impossibleto establish functional criteria for the selection offacts to be taught. In recent years, therefore, curricu-lum workers in the social studies have turned theirattention to the use of concepts and generalizationsas organizing schemes in an attempt to overcome theproblems just cited. The basic idea is to focus in-struction on a relatively few fundamental conceptsthat have high transfer value and tha t help to ex-plain or predict social or natural phenomena.Specific subject matter is selected to illustrate partic-ularly well the concepts under study and to permitthe application of certain methods of inquiry.

In principle the use of organizing designs of thetype under discussion have been received favorablyby educators and social scientists alike. There is con-siderable agreement that the programs of the pasthave over-stressed learning goals dealing with the ac-cumulation of information mostly of the descriptivetype. Major curriculum revision projects of the pastdecade have, without exception, given some atten-tion to an emphasis on basic concepts and generaliza-tions. The usual procedure has been to turn to thevarious parent disciplines contributing to socialstudies and attempt to identify the core ideas fromthose disciplines. Numerous social scientists havebeen involved in the search for and identification ofbasic concepts from the social sciences, and severallists have been compiled. It is safe to say, however,that to date there are few very good models of socialstudies programs that incorporate basic conceptsfrom thc social science disciplines into functioning

,t7P

536 Social Education November 1966

curriculums. Hardly any are markedlY different fromthose of the past. Perhaps more will be availableafter programs now under development, such asthose in Project Social Studies, are reported.

If conceptual approaches are to become the "basisfor elementary social studies curriculums, somethingmore needs to be done besides simply overlaying alist of concepts from the social sciences on a tradi-tional scope and sequence chart with some minorshifts of content allocations from one grade to an-other. Likewise, conceptual approaches will not con-tribute needed vitalization of elementary socialstudies if conventional methodology is employed. Asubstantial re-orientation to both content and meth-od will be needed before the real values of concep-tually based curriculums can be achieved.

The attention to and development of conceptsnecessarily suggests an instructional emphasis stress-ing inquiry and inductive teaching. This is not tosuggest that a pupil has to discover everything heneeds to knowto do so would mean that he couldnot profit from the accumulated wisdom of mankind.What is being suggested is that the total approach beinvestigation orientedthat teachers will not writegeneralizations on the chalkboard for pupils to learnor have them memorize dictionary definitions of con-cepts. If the emphasis on concept teaching results inpractices such as these, our programs will be in a badway, indeed. Pupils build meanings into concepts bywhat they themselves do and experiencethrough arange of encounters with concepts and through theuse of a vast amount of supporting detail. Generali-zations for the most part should be considered either(i) as tentative conclusions arrived at after lengthyand careful study or (2) as propositions, assumptions,or hypotheses to be tested by stuay and research.

It seems clear, too, that the role of the teacher insocial studies instruction needs to shift from what ithas traditionally been. In today's concept-based andinquiry-oriented programs, the teacher simply cannotremain the chief data source for the class. In many,perhaps most, elementary social studies classes, theteacher and the text continue to be the most impor-tant information sources, utilizing the conventionaltransmitter (teacher and text)receiver (pupils)teaching model. It is obvious that there is little to begained in re-writing curriculum documents in socialstudies if prevailing teaching strategies do not con-form either to the philosophical base or the psycho-logical orientation of the new program. The role ofthe teacher will need to shift to the extent that hisbehavior has to do mainly with stimulating, ques-tioning, clarifying, supporting, providing feedback,guiding, and diagnosing. Because educational tech-nology is making it possible for devices to do manytasks teachers have traditionally performed (pro-viding information, giving assignments, correcting

papers), increasingly it will be necessary for teachersto attend to those unique tasks that only humantcachers can do.

In the present period of curriculum reform, it hasbecome the accepted custom to insist that elementaryteachers have a better knowledge of the subject mat-ter relating to their teaching assignments. This as-sumed need is 6ften accepted uncritically. Given thecurrent educational climate,, emphasis on knowledgeof subject matter, however valid such an emphasismay be, tends to encourage traditional information-giving teaching roles.

There can be little question that the elementaryteacher of today and tomorrow will need a betterbackground in the social sciences than his counter-part did a generation agoalthough not for the rea-sons ordinarily given. The teacher needs a strongbackground not to pass the information on to thepupils he teaches but to be able to know what possi-bilities for investigation inhere in a topic, to knowwhat questions to ask, to know how to test hypoth-eses, and how to arrive at valid conclusions. The un-informed teacher may not know enough about a topicto be able to plan an extended and soundly-based in-vestigation of it with today's informed and sophisti-cated pupils.

Additionally, teachers in concept-based programsneed to know a great deal about the psychology ofcognitive processes and the organization of knowl-edge itself. How do pupils learn concepts and gener-alizations? How can knowledge be organized to en-hance learning? How can concepts be programed ona continuum of difficulty? What are the relevant con-cepts from the various disciplines? How does theteacher enhance and assist transfer of learnings?What concepts arc particularly appropriate for slow-learning pupils? Are the same procedures for conceptdevelopment equally valid for slow learners as for av-erage and high-achieving pupils? Questions such asthese must be answered before much headway can bemade in developing concept-based programs thatreally work.

A generation ago a prevailing nozion in elemen-tary education was that process goals were more im-portant than content goals. This was embodied inthe cliché "What pupils learn is less important thanhow they learn it." Fortunately, we do not go aroundsaying things like that anymore, for we have recog-nized that in addition to teaching pupils in ways thatare educationally and psychologically sound, we alsoexpect them to learn something of substance. Thereis a lesson in this for current thinking about socialstudies.

In the shift from traditional content-oriented, de-scriptive, fact-centered social studies programs tothose that are concept based, there is the tendency

(Continued on page 547)

7`7.7,!Rm7U1AFV-vi.V1,7.1.1,,, .. 7,77K.7.,N

Introducing Social St

in the Primary.

udies Concepts

Gradesby MELVIN ARNOF

Assistant Professor of Elementary EdKent State University

N THE midst of the curriculum turmoil in social

studies can be found the classroom teacher.

While others reflect, analyze the old curricularinfirmities, and propose new courses of study, she is

left holding the educational bag. While the old so-cial studies has been thoroughly denigrated, nothinghas appeared to take its place. One can hardly waitfor the publication of textbooks incorporating all of

the suggested changes, for such a patchwork quilt

would satisfy few.Inaction, 1.-wever, on the part of teachers and the

school is not a realistic alternative. No action is vir-

tually a decision to accept the status quo. In effect it

would condone the continuation of practices an(l

content that are professionally condemned as inade-

quate.Unfortunately, many primary teachers are content

to utilize this era of confusion as an excuse to confine

themselves to almost exclusive instruction in lan-

guage arts and with gaining familiarity with the new

math program and other curriculum innovations.

This inclination is further supported by lack of asufficient variety of appropriate materials for social

studies instruction and by the lack of pressure from

administration to achieve in this curriculum area.The results of reading and math instruction are ob-

servable within a relatively short period of time. Theability to read words of a specified difficulty level and

to compute utilizing the four major functions are

easily stated goals that are tangibly evidenced whenreached. But, like most of the real problems facing

mankind, the social studies are not so amenable to

precise goal-identification and attainment. This does

not, therefore, mean that we should avoid instructionin this area. On the contrary, since the goals andtheir attainment are so elusive, we must organize the

curriculum more thoroughly and begin earlier to at-tain these ends that, in the incidental teaching situa-

tion, always seem to slip through our fingers. It is the

unanswered social problem that daily greets us onthe front pages of our papers. The adults' math andreading skills generally seem to have taken care ofthemselves. The social problems, however, continueto persist. Our community leaders and the peoplethemselves continue to exhibit gross ignorance in so-

537

ucation

cial affairs. Can anyone deny that the new social

studies is long past due? Can anyone assert that an-other area of the curriculum is more important?

And now one must return to the basic problem ofthe teacher: What social studies shall my class pur-sue? In an effort to explore some practical answers tothis question, the remaining sections of this mono-graph will focus on tl e three major problem areas:1) What can children do in primary social studies? 2)

What is the direction of changes in the social studies?and 3) What are some practices a concerned primarygrade teacher can employ in striving toward the newsocial studies?

What can children learn in social studies? One of

the major factors contributing to discontent with the

old social studies has been an emerging convictionthat today's children, if not t -lose of ten or twentyyears ago, through ie varied types of communica-tion to which they a exposed, are capable of assimi-

lating and utilizing much more information and ofbuikling rather sophisticated con epts. It has beenasserted that primary social studies instruction has

been little more than an experience in language; thatchildren, before instruction, knew most of the infor-mation they were about to "learn." Loomis foundthat kindergarten children had knowledge and inter-ests much broader than their curriculum.'

McAulay reported that studies of seventy second-grade children indicated that previous to instruction,sixty per cent of them knew many facts about thecommunity and housing, cattle ranches, dairy pro-duction, and wheat farms. Most of them could iden-tify one or more duties of the police and firemen.2

Not only have studies indicated that children enterthe classroom with a rich background of expetienceand information. They also show that with this basechildren can be guided to achieve more complex con-cepts and generalizations. Seventy-five per cent of thesecond-grade children included in a study by Arnolfwere found to have been able to identify correctly

'Mary J. Loomis. "Some Questions About the KindergartenProgram." Columbus: Ohio State University Center for SchoolExperimentation, 1961. (Mimeographed.)

2J. D. McAulay. "Social Studies in the Primary Grades."Social Education 18:357-358; December 1954.

ierWr:I.T.F.T4,11VT-Wf,


fire chief, highway patrol, law, trial, and severalother social studies terms before the initiation of in-struction in these areas.3

Perhaps the more important 'finding of this study,however, was the fact that seventy-five per cent of thechildren in grade two, after a five-week period of in-struction, were able to comprehend the meanings ofcampaign, split ticket, ballot, subpoena, congress-man, mint, president, levy, property tax, and twentyother terms of government.4

While it would be possible to cite additional re-search such as that conducted by Huck, Capper, Davis,Lowry,5 and others to document the initial positionof this paper, some reservations must be stated. Pres-ton questions whether it is advisable to infer fromchildren's expressions of interest what they shouldlearn.° Mugge also expressed concern over the depthof the concepts children possess.7 Do children knowthe concept or are they using it with only a limitedunderstanding?

Even with these legitimate reservations, it appearsthat reflection, research, and professional experienceunanimously acclaim that the primary grade child isready to encounter a new variety of social study thathe can explore in greater depth. Teachers now mustface the problems of what content, what ends, andwhat means.

What content for the primary grades? The averageteacher is not immediately faced with the problem ofrevamping the social studies curriculum and is there-fore more concerned with determining the nature ofcurrent social studies instruction. In selecting topicsfor the primary classroom, it is probably advisable toexamine the national scene to determine some of thetrends in new content. Although space limits a fulltreatment here, it is important to indicate that newcontent is being drawn from the disciplines of an-thropology, economics, sociology, political science, aswell as from current problems of man and fromstudies of cultural areas.5 The diversity of these

3 Melvin Arnoff. "Adding Depth to Elementary School SocialStudies." Social Education 28:335-336; October 1964.

' Ibid., p. 336.Charlotte Huck. "Children Learn from Their Culture."

Educational Leadership 13:171-175; December 1955. AntonettaCapper. "Science and Social Studies: Small Beginnings forFour- and Five-Year Olds." Childhood Education 35:172-177;December 1958. 0. L. Davis, Jr. "Children Can Learn ComplexConcepts." Educational Leadership 17:170; December 1959.Betty L. Lowry. "A Survey of the Knowledge of Social StudiesConcepts Possessed by Second Grade Children Previous to theTime When These Concepts Are Taught in the Social StudiesLessons." Doctoral Thesis, State University of Iowa, 1963.

6 Ralph C. Preston. "What Social Studies Content for thePrimary Grades?" Social Education 29:147-148; March 1965.

'Dorothy J. Mugge. "Precocity of Today's Young Children:Real or Wishful?" Social Education 27:436-439; December1963.

8 For a survey of some of the new social studies projectssee "Report on Project Social Studies." Social Education 29:

trends suggests that there emerges no clear-cut phi-losophy for the development of the total socialstudies curriculum. Neither is there apparent agree-ment concerning con tent priorities nor grade place-ment. But the drive toward a deeper understandingof the social sciences is evident. The attempt to di-rect learning toward the consideration of man's mostperplexing problems can also be discerned. One isalso aware of a trend toward including all cultures,Western and non-Western, within the curriculum.

These, then, are some of the dimensions of the newsocial studies. While considerable progress has beenmade on many projects, there will inevitably be a lagbetween their development and their implementa-tion into the total pattern of social studies instruc-tion. It is at this juncture that the role of the class-room teacher becomes crucial. While the experts an-alyze and prepare their individually conceived mate-rials, the classroom teacher is in a prime position toexperiment iind develop a social study appropriatefor her class. Neither the central office nor the uni-versity professor can tell the primary grade teacherexactly what social study would be best suited to herclass or how ready her pupils are to profit from anyset of experiences. It is the teacher herself who is in aposition to test the hypothesis that children, withwell-planned experiences, can comprehend rather so-phisticated concepts of the social sciences.

Should the teacher decide to accept the chaliengeof initiating a new social studies curriculum, ratherthan wait another few years until one is imposed,what content can she employ without suffering thewrath of fellow staff members who might point afinger and decry that she strays too far? If we recog-nize that much of the content of the "old socialstudies" will have to be retained in the "new," wecan see the possibility of starting at this point andbuilding new goals into the current framework. Thisis reasonable because the objection has not been thatThe Family, The School, or The Community are in-herently poor topics for study. Rather, it has beenalleged that what has been taught was so oversim-plified and without purpose that it was meaningless.Let us then examine ways to strengthen the socialstudies we already have.

In areas where kindergarten children come toschool with only a limited background of experience,it seems imperative to provide a wide variety of ex-periences for them. Not only should these childrenbe taken out of their neighborhoods to other nearbyareas but they should also have the opportunity tomeet children from other schoolschildren who havehad experiences very different from their own.

Some of the more unusual programs being con-

206-223; April 1965. Dorothy M. Fraser. "Status and Expecta-tions of Current Research and Development Projects." SocialEducation 29:421-434; November 1965.

Social Studies Concepts in Primary Grades

ducted in concert with the new social studies includestudies of Children Around the World for the kin-dergarten child. Thus children are exposed to peoplewho look different and who live on different parts of

the earth. Some classes have even learned how to saya few words in Japanese, Russian, Portuguese,French, or other languages. Certainly songs andgames of other nations are both enjoyable and educa-tionally Erofitable for the young child. In this waythe beginning pupil will have commenced learningthe shape of his planet, the locations of some nations,

the sound of different linguistic forms of communica-ting, and a variety of other discipline-rooted con-cepts.

The facts, however, at all grade levels, must be

only the beginning. Children must be guided in theutilization of facts to reach mediated conclusions orgeneralizations. The techniques for doing this arestill being developed by the most capable teachers.

Even though our knowledge of this complex processis limited, teachers should, nonetheless, attempt to

achieve conceptualization rather :than mere factual

recall.Let us see how the common first-grade topics can

be enriched in line with current thinking. Thepedagogic theory that the child seeks to understand

the world in terms of himself and his own experi-

ences has not been seriously challenged; the practice

of confining his education to these areas has. Let its,

then, start with the child's home. Here one can dis-

cover, aspects of many, if not all, of the socialsciences. The problems must be faced squarely. For

instance, the child should know what a family is and

why it holds together. Every child should know that

a family starts with the marriage of a man and awoman who have offspring. He should know that

families can continue in the absence of one or more

of the parents, that other relatives may live with theimmediate family or even take full charge of raising

the children.A child should know that money must come to the

family so that each member can have the necessary

food, clothing, and shelter. He should know that at

least one member of the family earns this money and

that, while it is usually the father, it may be themother or both parents as well as an older sibling.

Some children should also learn that when parents

are out of work, the government provides the family

money so that they will not go hungry or become

cold. In turn it is the responsibility of the citizen to

spend that money wisely for the welfare of all thefamily, not only for any one member. The question

of whether or not the adults have an obligation to

seek employment should also be discussed.

The rules of the family can be examined to deter-

mine what they are and why they are needed. Why

are children not allowed to play with matches or why

539

are they forbidden to play baseball in a neighbor'syard? Such are the beginnings of the development of

political science concepts of rights, responsibilities,rules, taxes, and laws. In these examples children

have a base for the understanding of economic con-cepts of income, expenditures, and cost. Sociological-

ly they can learn how man organizes to realize his

needs, and that the family inheres for emotional,psychological, economic, and religious reasons.

New content in grade one could also include a sur-

vey of the variety of houses from shacks to trailers tomulti-family dwellings. Because there is an increasingtendency in the newer textbooks to deal with fami-

lies in a foreign culture, similar topics can be pur-sued in this context. A project recently completed by

the author provides an extensive resource guide tomaterials and activities on Families in Japan.9Guides such as these can be very useful to the inno-

vative teacher.The traditional topics in grade two are the com-

munity, community helpers, transportation, food,

clothing, and shelter. These topics can be fruitfullyexpanded in many ways. As indicated earlier, chil-

dren have some information concerning the police-

man and the fireman. But they do not know thatthey are public servants, that some of the taxes paid

by adults pay these men for doing tasks needed by

the whole tommunity. Studies of the local area pro-vide excellent opportunities to introduce children to

elementary concepts from both, political science and

economics. For example, numerous illustrations of

the economic principle of division of labor and con-

sequent production can be found in the local com-

munity.The topic of transportation hardly deserves its tra-

ditional emphasis. Surely it is not mandatory thatevery child know the engine, the caboose, the flat car,

and so on of the railroad. But transportation is im-

portant in terms of economics, government, and so-

ciology. With competent teaching, children can easi-

ly comprehend that the movement of goods from one

place to another contributes to its economic value

and potential utilization. Similarly, they can begin to

understand the essential and vital role of transporta-tion in modern life.

Content in the third grade is a bit more diverse

than it is for the kindergarten and grades one and

two. Nevertheless, the principle of adding new depthwithin the framework of our old curriculum pattern

still applies. If a class studies early Indians orpioneer life, the teacher can aid them in seeing the

viewpoint of the Indian to learn why he fought the


°Melvin Arnoff. "Families in Japan." (A four- to six-week

resource unit for children in the second half of grade one.)

Kent, Ohio: Kent State University, June 1966.

-1771?!,,....71Trs..w.lcz,14'. Ft,. . . .

Beginning Teachers' Problems

in Developing Social Studies Conceptsby AGNES M. S. INN

Associate Professor of EducationUniversity of Hawaii

1N THE past decade curriculum planning for ele-mentary social studies has focused on the de-velopment of important concepts selected from

the social sciences. Whether or not such programswill actually function depends on the extent towhich elementary teachers understand them and canimplement them in their classes. This paper is basedon a study conducted in selected elementary schoolsin Hawaii during the 1964-65 school year to ex-plore problems encountered by beginning teachersin implementing a concept-based social studiescurriculum.1 Sixty teachers in grades 1 through 6served as subjects for the study. Data were obtainedby visits to the classrooms, conferences and interviewswith the teachers and their supervisors, and writtenresponses by the subjects. The teachers in this studywere guided in the selection of major concepts andgeneralizations to be developed in the social studiesunits they were to teach. These were expressed as"main ideas," and the units of study were planned tolead pupils to an understanding of those main ideas.

Children's acquisition of social studies concepts de-pends in part on their teacher's ability to provide asequence of learning experiences that leads them toan increasing awareness of the meanings of ideas cen-tral to the topic under study. Instruction geared toconcept development is thus a planned, systematicprogram based on (I)' an analysis of the specific con-ceptual objectives for each study or unit of instruc-tion, (2) an appraisal of children's ability to handlethese objectives, and (3) the provision of learning ex-periences based on this analysis.

Specific conceptual objectives determine the scopeand sequence of the particular study being undertak-en. The identification and analysis of these objec-tives is an essential prerequisite to selecting and se-quencing of learning experiences. This task calls fora sophisticated knowledge of content extending be-yond that found in children's textbooks and relatedmaterials. Such knowledge is essential because it en-sures that the instruction will focus on relevant con-

Agnes M. S. Inn. "An Investigation to Explore Ways ofHelping Intern Teachers Analyze and Use Conceptual Ob-jectives." Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University ofCalifornia, Berkeley,, 1966.

540

cepts instead of stressing inconsequential detail.Moreover, a solid knowledge of the topic under studyenables the teacher to be more skillful and imagina-tive in planning related learning experiences. Theskillful teacher is not only concerned with providinga sequence of learning experiences but, more impor-tantly, with selecting those experiences that are ap-propriate and pertinent both to the development ofthe concept and to the particular group of children.

The task of providing a sequence of learning expe-riences that leads to the conceptual objective is notan easy one. This investigation revealed that thechief difficulty encountered by the teachers had to dowith selecting and providing relevant learning expe-riences for pupils. Relating specific learning activitiesto the attainment of specific concepts and generaliza-tions proved to be particularly bothersome. Thisdifficulty was noted repeatedly in the logs kept by theteachers and in those kept by their supervisors. It wasrevealed again in their plans, expressed in privateconferences, and observed during their teaching.These sample reactions from the teachers illustratetheir concerns:

1.

3.

Selecting sequentialmain

ecting themain idea.Using a varietysides discussion.

activities, each related to the

best activity to lead pupils to the

Maintaining a balance

of activities; doing something be-

4. of activities between reading-type and doing-type and between small-group andlarge-group endeavors.

5. Clarifying the purposes of activities for pupils.6. Conducting discussions without having pupils become

restless.7. Formulating thought questions to guide pupils dur-

ing discussion.8. Wording questions in a way pupils understand what

is wanted.9. Relating facts and specifics to .main ideas in dis-

cussions.

An analysis of the expressed difficulty of these begin-ning teachers, namely, selecting suitable learning ex-periences for pupils, provides us with some valuableinsights into the complexities of guiding concept de-velopment. First, the teachers' own grasp of the par-

Beginning Teachers'

ticular concept or generalization is critical. It is notsimply a matter of possessing sufficient content back-ground that supports and clarifies the concept; it isequally necessary to have a grasp of the dimensionsof meaning or levels of abstraction of a particularconcept.

In planning, the teacher must be able to analyze aconcept into component elements and must also beable to arrange such elements on a continuum ofdifficulty. This is not possible unless he has somedepth of understanding of the concept himself. Theteachers' limitations in this respect were observed intwo ways. They had difficulty in analyzing the con-ceptual objective in terms of levels of complexity.Teachers tended to perceive the "understanding of aconcept" as an all or nothing affair rather than as de-velopmental and continuous. Observation of theirteaching revealed also that they often did not recog-nize the children's statement of the generalization be-cause it was not couched in the language of theteacher or expressed in the way he believed was cor-rect. It was apparent that the teachers were not fullyaware of the dimensions of meaning or levels of ab-straction of concepts and generalizatons and, there-fore, encountered difficulty in guiding concept cle-velopmen t.

Second, clues that suggest appropriate learning ac-tivities are often overlooked because teachers do notrealize that a conceptual objective itself may suggestleads to suitable pupil experiences. For example, oneof the conceptual objectives identified for a unit onJapan by a sixth grade teacher was "The physicalfeatures of japan influence the ways of living in thatcountry." This relationship can be more readily un-derstood if pupils have had some experience with itsapplication to situations with which they are pres-ently familiar. This suggests the possibility of a fieldstudy beginning with observation and identificationof physical features found in the children's own envi-ronment and relating these to occupations and otheraspects of living. Using this concrete experience as afoundation, the class can now move into intensivemap study and related research on how the people ofjapan, or any other part of the world, are influencedor affected by the physical features found there.Learning experiences for this conceptual objectivecould have been limited to reading about physicalfea tures and their effect on people's lives. But suchan experience is a mature and advanced way of deal-ing with this idea. Preliminary to an encounter withit at this level of abstraction, the pupil should haveexperienced it in a more familiar and fundamentalform and context.

Third, the teachers' comments clearly suggest thattheir search for learning experiences that are varied,interesting, and meaningful was often done withoutsufficient concern for the conceptual objective to be

,

' ^ `,?4,,

Problems in Social Studies Concepts 541

developed. They tended to want learning experiencesthat were exciting and different, but they rarely tiedthis search to the objective. The beginning teachersin the study made a conscientious effort to includelearning experiences other than the conventionalones such as reading books, viewing films andfilmstrips, and discussion.

The desire to seek and use varied and interestinglearning experiences is in itself commendable. Butunless such experiences and activities are directed tothe attainment of specific objectives, additionaldifficulties will be encountered. For example, afourth grade teacher employed role-playing activitiesfor each major concept in a series of units contrastingways of living in various parts of the world. Thisteacher appeared not to sense the inappropriatenessof this activity as a means of extending pupils' un-derstanding of certain concepts. Nor did the pupils'responses suggest to her that the activity was notachieving its intended purpose. It was evident thatshe was not sensitive to feedback from the pupils.Another teacher used drawing as the chief method ofhaving children express their grasp of the major ideain their study. There was little apparent concern forthe appropriateness of this "interesting" technique tothe conceptual objective under study. She was seem-ingly not alert to the children's difficulty in reducingcomplex ideas to pictorial representations. Time andagain teachers in the study found themselves in apattern of seeking interesting and varied learning ex-periences without examining them for their applica-bility and appropriateness to the objective and to thechildren.

Fourth, teachers' reliance on discussion throughoutthe development of a unit study needs to be re-evalu-ated. The enlightened use of discussion is, of course,well established as a desirable learning activity.Nonetheless, when the discussion technique is indis-criminately employed and pupil contributions naive-ly accepted, the opportunities for learning inaccurateconceptions and mistaken information are ever pres-ent. Too often the purpose of a discussion was notclear either to the pupils or the teacher. Consequent-ly, the experience became a recitation by the moreverbal children or a dialogue between a particularchild and the teacher. Frequently the teacher askedquestions that supplied children with answers orquestions requiring one-word answers. In either case,there was little if any need for a discussion. Manyteachers, apparently, do not realize that discussionsare of various typesthat the learning being soughtat the particular time influences the type of discus-sion to employ. This study suggests unmistakablythat teachers need greater skill in framing questionsthat stimulate discussion.

Observations of discussion periods where children(Continued on page 548)

,

1

*

Using Learning Resources

in Concept Developmentby LLOYD K END

Associate Professor of ESan Diego State C

VIEWING a glacier at the mountain ridge ortaking a trip through a paper mill providesthe learner with added dimensions of real

phenomena. Teachers cannot always provide suchdirect, first-hand experiences to ensure proper con-ceptual development in the social studies. Howeverthere is much a teacher can do for pupils within thvery environs of the classroom to enrich meaningssocial studies concepts.

Research in the theory of learning and the explo-sion in the variations of learning resources mandatethe use of a multimedia approach to concept de-velopment. A multiplicity of learning resources arenow available, and they must be utilized if pupils areto grasp the meanings of the many concepts that inun-date the social studies curriculum. The day of a sin-gle approach, relying solely on the textbook as thesource of authority, is passed. It is no longersuffident for pupils to "read" or for the teacher to"tell" pupils about concepts and assume, that learn-ing and understanding are taking place. The inade-quacy of using the social studies textbook as the solelearning tool in conceptual development was report-ed in a study by Manolakes.1 Among the majorweaknesses he reported were the following: (i)Textbooks tend to verbalize concepts rather than topresent materials that would contribute to the de-velopment of concepts; (2) Concepts are treated insuch a way as to suggest that they are a secondary orincidental consideration, and (3) Concepts are notadequately reinforced after initial presentation.

The teacher must therefore reach out beyond thetextbook and include the use of a broad spectrum oilearning resources as he works with his pupils. Thefamiliar materials such as books, films, field trips,maps, and so forth have specific functions in the so-cial studies. Additionally, less conventional resourcessuch as folklore, the Spokesman, drama, television,and museums also contribute immeasurably to con-cept development. Examples of various learningresources and how they contribute to concept de-velopment are examined in this article.

of

I George Manolakes. "Concept Development in Social Stud-ies Textbooks." The National Elementary Principal 37:25-27;May 1958.

542

1

ALL

ducationollege

Concept development is a continuous process thatequires the pupil to analyze, synthesize, and evalu-

ate his experiences. Ideally, a teacher utilizes variedlearning resources to promote intellectual activityrequired for concept development. The opportunityfor diverse experiences in varied contexts, designedto fix or clarify the more abstract meanings of con-cepts, is essential to conceptual development. Con-cepts for which the pupil has no direct reference orprior experience on which to draw, such as loyalty ordemocracy, are particularly singled out as ones re-quiring careful selection and use of learningresources. Social studies content is heavily laden withconcepts that are difficult to classify by drawing onprior knowledge or experiences. The challenge isclearteachers must provide contrived experiences,utilizing learning resources that are best suited to in-troduce or reinforce concepts essential for buildinggeneralizations.

TEXTBOOKS Despite its limitations, the text-book serves as a basic learning resource in the socialstudies curriculum. It provides the launching pad forintroductory experiences in concept development.The textbook establishes a point of reference fromwhich other learnings can develop. Textbooksshould be carefully scrutinized to ensure that thebook selected for use is compatible with the educa-tional philosophy and approach to instruction fol-lowed in the school district.

TRADEBOOKS AND REFERENCE BOOKSTradebooks and reference books are necessary learn-ing resources that augment and supplement the basictext. These books extend understanding and give in-creased meaning to discussions of institutions, ob-jects, and experiences. The amount of material inthis category of learning resources is plentiful. Be-cause of increased financial support from federalsources, elementary school libraries are expanding ata rapid rate.

Tradebooks provide the teacher with a vast reser-voir from which to select material suitable for intro-duction or clarification of concepts. Picture booksand books written with simple or mature vocabularyare available in abundance. Keeping abreast of cur-rent tradebooks presents a formidable task for teach-

t

Using Learning Resources in Concept Development

ers, librarians, curriculum specialists, and adminis-trators. Several sources that provide excellent reviewsof tradebooks and specify grade classification and sub-ject area are listed below.2

Reference books such as enclyclopedias, almanacs,and yearbooks provide pupils with a variety of fac-tual information. These sources can be used byteachers and pupils to check and verify conceptuallevels of understanding. The validity of data and thereliability of various sources of information can beexamined and evaluated. Using reference booksunder careful teacher guidance, pupils can analyze,synthesize, and evaluate understandings at the con-ceptual level appropriate to each individual learner.

MAPS AND GLOBES Maps and globes are visu-al teaching aids that can be used singly or collectivelyto promote concept development. A guiding princi-ple in the use of these learning resources is that ofpupil participation. Pupils need many experiences inhandling and using these materials on a first-handbasis. Such planned experiences should begin withthe child's first formal educational program in theprimary grades.

Geographical and historical concepts are vitalizedwhen presented with the use of maps and globes.These resources may be used (i) to portray changesthat have occurred on the earth's surface and todepict political changes that have occurred in man'srecorded history; (2) to enrich the current eventsprogram; (3) to assist pupils in understanding theparticular area under studyaltitudes, transporta-tion routes, rain-fall, population density, and otherspecifics; and (4) to place events in chronologicalorder for an accurate study in history. For a morecomprehensive and detailed discussion of the use ofmaps and globes, the teacher is referred to The RandMcNally Handbook of Map and Globe Usage.3

GRAPHS AND CHARTS Graphs and charts areappropriate tools for presenting social studies infor-mation quickly and effectively. Children should beencouraged to construct graphs and charts to visual-ly illustrate comparisons, trends, and relationships.Teachers are reminded to emphasize simplicity and

Curriculum Advisory Service, Inc. 823 South WabashAvenue, Chicago, Illinois 60605. Muriel Crosby. Reading Lad-ders for Human Relations. Fourth Edition. Washington, D.C.:American Council on Education, 1963. Helen Huus. Children'sBooks to Enrich the Social Studies for the Elementary Grades.Washington, D. C.: National Education Association, 1961. MaryHill Arbuthnot. Children and Books. Chicago: Scott, Foresmanand Company, 1964. Charlotte Huck and Doris Young. Chil-dren's Literature in the Elementary School. New York: Holt,Rinehart, and Winston, 1961. Nancy Larrick. A Teacher's Guideto Children's Books. Columbus: Charles E. Merrill Books, Inc.,1964.

$ Ruby M. Harris. The Rand McNally Handbook of Mapand Globe Usage. New York: Rand McNally and Company,196o.

543

aim at approximations when treating data. Thechief purpose in using this resource is to presentcomparative, quantitative information quickly andsimply.

PICTURES AND ILLUSTRATIONS Picturesand illustrations provide accurate and attractiveN;sual representation to complement and enrichlcarning. To realii.e the full potential of the pictureas a learning resource, children must be taught pic-ture-reading skills. These skills include: (1) Literalpicture readingrecognizing objects pictured as two-dimensional symbols and enumerating all the objectsseen in a picture; (2) Interpretive picture readingmaking simple interpretations of the incident pic-tured and relating the events to personal experience;and (3) Critical picture readingexamining the valid-ity of events or objects pictured and generalizingfrom the data presented in the graphic.

Once children gain competence in the skill of pic-ture reading, photographs and illustrations con-tained in the text or presented by the teacher take onnew, added dimensions. Pupils see things in picturesthat they had previously overlooked. Cultural con-cepts are broadened from a study of pictures illustra-ting how inhabitants of an area occupy the land,how the people look, what foods they eat, how theydress, and the types of homes in which they live. Topresent this same information in printed contextalone would be a difficult taskwhen illustrationsand photographs supplement printed material, moreaccurate concepts are assured. Concepts about naturalphenomena are likewise made more meaningfulwhen illustrated with pictures. Such physical featuresas mountains, valleys, glaciers, and rivers are moreeasily understood. Children can learn a great dealabout the geography and history of a region by uti-lizing their picture-reading skills.

MOTION PICTURES AND FILMSTRIPS Pro-jected learning resources such as the motion pictureand the filmstrip are of particular value in instanceswhere conceptual development depends on the illu-sion of motion, sequential presentation of informa-tion, or dramatic presentation. These resources arepopular with pupils because they combine learningwith pleasurea feature that should not be under-estimated. Motion pictures and filmstrips provide op-portunities for teachers and pupils to probe deeplyinto selected subjects. These resources can clarify andmake meaningful those concepts that are difficult tomaster with only verbal or symbolized experiences.The visual impact is particularly important for pupilswith reading handicaps. They can profit from thevisual and audio transmission of information.

The filmstrip has definite assets when viewed indi-vidually by pupils because the learner can controlthe rate of exposure. He can manipulate and adjustthe film to meet his own learning needs. This flexi-bility makes the filmstrip a particularly valuable

nirg7t7Tif.rwMr,"47Q 137.7 1,


resource for use in concept development. Segments ofthe filmstrip can be used by individual pupils, smallgroups, or the entire class for review, supplementarylearning, drill, or special projects.

A group of educators in San Diego, California, hasbeen experimenting with filmstrips accompanied bysound tapes.4 The tape is recorded at the scene wherethe frame is photographed. This combination ofaudio and visual impressions has proven to be suc-cessful as part of a unit on community workers. Pu-pils hear as well as see what goes on at the telephonecompany, post office, and electric power plant. ThisSan Diego group hopes to expand the program of"filmstrip trips" designed to add enrichment to thesocial studies curriculum.

OVERHEAD PROJECTIONS Improvements inthe design of overhead projectors and the wealth ofinstructional material available for use with thislearning resource make its use in social studies educa-tion imperative. The excellent selection of transpar-encies available through commercial agencies can besupplemented by those produced by local audio-visu-al departments. Concepts of how the United Stateshas grown can be demonstrated in an effective andpicturesque manner. Beginning with a basic outlinemap showing the country's east and west boundariesrepresented by the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, theteacher can use colored markers to indicate periodsin the nation's growth. The Louisiana Purchase, Flor-ida Purchase, and Western movement can be illus-trated using different colors. Activities of this typeare forceful, and they offer the pupil the advantageof visual retention after the lesson is over.

BULLETIN BOARDS Bulletin boards can bevaluable aids in helping pupils build social studiesconcepts. They can be used to present concrete infor-mation, introduce a particular study area, show con-trasts or comparisons, illustrate a point, or summa-rize a unit. Children should be encouraged to helpwith the preparation of bulletin boards. They cangather and display pictures, objects, reports, andnewspaper stories about specific areas. The manip-ulative freedom offered by this resource provides theteacher with a learning tool of great value.

THE ARTS AS LEARNING RESOURCES Inaddition to making imaginative use of conventionallearning resources, creative teachers utilize a varietyof other resources and activities to strengthen pupilunderstanding in the social studies. Creative dramat-ics in the primary grades and informal dramatizationin the middle and upper grades have been widelyused to develop interest, to illustrate concepts, toevaluate learnings, and to add reality tO situations.Similarly, music and folk dancing can be used to en-rich the social studies program.

Some teachers find paintings to be useful learning

*San Diego Unified School District, Park and El Cajon,San Diego, California.

resources. Through careful study, children are guid-ed to develop insights into human relations and afeeling for the period or situation represented. Thisresource can include paintings from other countriesto aid in conceptual development about foreignlands.

Folklore is also suggested as a valuable learningresource. It is uniquely well suited for study of a par-ticular geographical area such as a region or state.Folklore has cultural and aesthetic value in addi-tion to being a vehicle to be used for conceptdevelopment. These materials are often availablethrough local museum sources and historical li-braries.

INNOVATIONS IN LEARNING RESOURCESTechnology has provided the modern social studiesclassroom with a number of new learning resources.educational television, recorders, single concept films,and others. One such product of modern technologyis the Spokesman. It can greatly expand opportunitiesfor bringing resource persons into the classroom. TheSpokesman operates through an ordinary telephoneinstrument connected to a speaker that amplifies bothsides of the conversation so that it can be heard byeveryone in the room. Small groups or an entire classcan talk directly to experts in industry, government,or any field under study. Resource personspublicservants, artists, performers, professional people, andbusy executivescan contribute to the classroomwithout leaving their offices. Complete informationon the Spokesman can be obtained from any localtelephone company.

Social studies education is on the verge of greatlyexpanded use of learning resources. Good instruc-tional material is available on disc and tape re-cordings. Educational television presents many possi-bilities for enriching social studies and in certain sec-tions of the country is already an important part ofsocial studies instruction. Instructional kits consist-ing of cultural artifacts, reproductions of historicaldocuments, models, and other realia are becomingmore widely used in classes employing inductiveteaching procedures. Instructional resources for slowlearners and culturally disadvantaged, while not ingreat abundance presently, are appearing in in-creased quantity. High quality visual materials of alltypesmaps, charts, diagrams, photographs, illustra-tionsprovide the teacher with an excellent selec-tion of learning resources for concept development.

Learning resources, however, only present oppor-tunities for good teaching and sound learning. Nomatter what the quality of the material or how abun-dantly plentiful it may be, it has no impact on in-struction unless used by an enlightened teacher. Ifconcept development depends on breadth of experi-ence and if teachers apply what is known about indi-vidual differences in learners, sound social studies in-struction must employ a multimedia approach to en-sure adequate concept development.

Organizing Concept-Based Curriculaby FRANCIS YETER HUNKINS

Assistant Professor of EducationUniversity of Washington

THE knowledge of factual information, an ob-jective of instruction, is undergoing adjust-ment in educational thinking. Presently, con-

cern is centered on how one deals with facts. Thisconcern applies to the social studies. Harrison andSolomon's' review of social studies research revealedseveral trends: a) a trend ,toward the development ofsequential curricula so that a year's course would beconstructed on concepts and skills that had been in-troduced previously, b) a trend toward eliminationof much repetition that exists in social studies, c) the

use of area-depth studies, d) a greater employment ofreadings, case studies, and primary sources, e) the ac-quainting of pupils with social scientists' methods ofinquiry, f) an emphasis on thinking and critical anal-ysis, and g) an emphasis on the affective dimension of

learning in addition to the cognitive. Fraser,2 in re-porting on the status and expectations of current re-search in social studies, presented further evidence to

support the existence of these trends.This paper is concerned with one trend, the de-

velopment of curricula based on concepts. This trend

has great potential for bringing depth into pupils'understanding of the social studies. But what is aconcept? As defined by Morrissett,3 a concept is an ab-

straction, an idea generalized from a particular case.

A concept can be considered as a map that links to-

gether certain facts and phenomena into a meaning-

ful classification. Because concepts serve to "pull to-

gether" phenomena, they can very well serve as the

"glue" that can hold together curricular elements.Feigl4 defined a concept as a generalized notion

about objects or ideas.But how does one organize a curriculum based on

concepts? Senesh5 provided a guide in discussing

' Sylvia E. Harrison and Robert J. Solomon. "Review of

Research in the Teaching of Social Studies, 1960-1963." Social

Education 28:277-292; May 1964.2 Dorothy M. Fraser. "Status and Expectations of Current

Research and Development Projects." Social Education 29: 421-

434; November 1965.3 Irving Morrissett. "The New Social Science Curricula."

Concepts and Structure in the New Social Scienee Curricula.

Publication No. 121 (Preliminary) of the Social Sciel -,e Educa-

tion Consortium. March 1966. pp. 1-8.

4 Herbert Feigl. "Concepts and the Structure of Knowledge."

Concepts and Structure in the New Social Science Curricula.

Publication No. 121 (Preliminary) of the Social Science Edu-

cation Consortium. March 1966. pp. 9-19.

5 Lawrence Senesh. "Organizing a Curriculum Around Social

545

"The Organic Curriculum." He advocated an intro-

duction of all concepts in the first grade. This de-mands that the curriculum expert, along with theappropriate scholars, would need to carefully consid-er what concepts are basic and necessary to include in

the curriculum. This approach presupposes that all

concepts can be taught at the primary grade level.

The "Organic Curriculum," as Senesh terms it, ne-cessitates an orchestration of the curriculum in thatfundamental concepts would be taught with increas-ing depth and complexity at each grade level, with

various concepts receiving emphasis at the differinglevels. A program developed along these lines wouldbe life-long, not a crash program.

The New York Board of Education8 has advocated

a similar approach to concept development in the so-

cial studies curriculum. Concepts, introduced in kin-

dergarten, are developed with increasing complexity

at each succeeding grade level through grade twelve.

The New York Board recognizes concepts as assisting

the pupil in developing a cohesive picture of his so-

cial world. Knowledge (i.e. subject matter) in such a

curriculum is utilized to add sophistication to con-ceptual understandings. The State Boards of Educa-

tion of Californiar and Wisconsin8 also have advocat-

ed curricula that stress concepts spiraling toward in-

creasing levels of complexity.Various other projects located throughout the

country add further testimony to the present concern

with concept-oriented curricula. The EducationalResearch Council of Greater Cleveland8 is engaged

in constructing the Greater Cleveland Social Science

Program. The Cleveland program is not advocat-

ing any one way of teaching but is emphasizingthe need to develop concepts and generalizations se-quentially. At the K-2 level, this program recom-

Science Concepts." Concepts and Structure in the New Social

Science Curricula. Publication No. 121 (Preliminary) of the

Social Science Education Consortium. March 1966. pp. 20-37.

Board of Education of the City of New York. Curriculum

and Materials 2o: t-7; Fall 1965.I Social Studies Framework for the Public Schools of Cali-

fornia. Sacramento, California: California State Department

of Education, 1962.A Conceptual Framework for the Social Studies in Wis-

consin Schools. Madison, Wisconsin: Wisconsin Department of

Public Instruction, 1964.Raymond English, clireztor. Handbook for Social Science

Teachers. Cleveland: Educational Research Council of GreaterCleveland, 1965. 84 pp.


mends a laying of a sound foundation of correctvalue judgments and an introduction of basic factsand concepts in geography, economics, and politicalscience. The programs for grades 3 and 4 call for anemphasis on concepts relating to technology and pro-duction in the free world. Grades 5 and 6, programspresently under development, are to employ the prin-ciple of area study in an attempt to coordinate andrelate all essential social sciences concepts.

Not all programs are concerned with the entirepanorama of concepts; some have attempted to dis-pose concepts into major categories. The ProvidenceSocial Studies Curriculum Study10 exemplifies this.The director, Ridgway F. Shinn, Jr., has organizedconcepts at the elementary level around culture with-in a geography framework and at the secondary levelaround civilization within history.

Educational Services Incorporated11 is developinga curriculum based on the concept of man. TheE.S.I. program at the elementary level is organizedaround five great humanizing forces: tool-making,language, social organization, child rearing practices,and man's attempts to explain the world in which helives. Emphasis is on discovering in depth whatmakes man human rather than animal.

Price12 has suggested the utilization of socialscience concepts and workways as a basis for curricu-lum revision. Objectives of the study are concernedwith selecting from the social sciences and allied dis-ciplines major concepts that will afford pupils in-creased understanding. The workways considered inthis project represent the organizational principlesand methods of inquiry unique to each discipline.This approach stresses methodological concepts; ab-stractions exercised by the social scientist in his dis-cussion of methodology. A team of scholars and edu-cators are writing various position papers from whichare being abstracted the concepts deemed important.

Much of the organized attention to concepts in thesocial studies curricula is focused on specific disci-plines at the secondary level. Even though these pro-grams are not directly related to the elementaryschool, they do provide ideas and leads for those re-sponsible for designing elementary social studies cur-ricula. The concepts deemed important by the HighSchool Geography Project,13 directed by Helburn,

" Ridgway F. Shinn, Jr. "Geography and History as In-tegrating Disciplines." Social Education 28:395-400; Novem-ber 1964.

" Jerome S. Bruner. "Man: A Course of Study." E.S.I. Quar-terly Report. Watertown, Massachusetts: Educational ServicesIncorporated. Summer-Fall 1965. pp. 85-95.

12 Roy A. Price. "School Science Concepts and Workways asthe Basis for Curriculum Revision." Social Education 29:218-220: April 1965.

23 Nicholas Helburn, director. High School Geography Proj-ect. Boulder, Colorado: University of Colorado. In Gilbert F.White. "Geography in Liberal Education." Geography inUndergraduate Liberal Education. Washington, D.C.: Asso-cia tion of American Geographers, 1965, pp. 14-17.

could, it seems, be easily introduced in the elemen-tary grades. In fact, if such concepts as map represen-tation, region, man-land relations, and spatial rela-tions are systematically taught at the elementarylevel, an even greater depth of understanding will beattainable at the secondary level. Concepts thatspecifically relate to history, as well as the other so-cial sciences, are the concern of a program at Am-herst College's under the directorship of Edwin Ro-swenc. This project has taken a somewhat unique ap-proach to curriculum development in that it is pro-ducing, in collaboration with a publishing firm, a se-ries of volumes designed specifically to supplementteaching. Each volume is organized around key con-cepts applicable to a particular historical situation.

These various new programs in the social studiesare encouraging, indeed. Social studies education isnot to be a meaningless accumulation of facts butrather a study of basic concepts relevant to an under-standing of man in his world. These programs do no::in all cases advocate a specific method or approach tocurriculum construction. This is to the advantage ofthe curriculum planner. One can be engaged in thesubject-centered curriculum, the broad-fields curricu-lum, the experience curriculum, or the core curricu-lum and still give additional depth and meaning tocontent by a consideration of basic concepts.

If curriculum planning is to be concept-oriented, itmust itself have a conceptual framework that ex-hibits coherency and consistency. A relationship mustexist among objectives, content, methods, and evalu-ation. If concepts are to be the "glue" of the socialstudies, then educators must relate these concepts tothe objectives. They must also ascertain that the con-tent and experiences add depth to the conceptual un .derstandings and that the methods encourage pupilsto search for concepts and generalizations. Finally,they must evaluate to see that the objectives for um-cept-development are achieved.

Taba15 iterated that concept development can beconsidered the basic form of cognition on which allother cognitive processes depend. This statement in-dicates that attention to concepts is paramount. Sheconducted a study to examine the development ofthought under optimum training conditions: 1) acurriculum designed for thought development, 2)teaching strategies that focused on mastery of cogni-tive skills, and 3) a sufficient time allotment to per-mit developmental sequence in training. The

" Edwin C. Roswenc, director. Basic Concepts in Historyand Social Sciences. Amherst, Massachusetts: Amherst College.In Dorothy M. Fraser. "Status and Expectations of CurrentResearch and Development Projects." Social Education 29:423; November 1965.

15 Hilda Taba, et al. Thinking in Elementary Schoot Chil-dren. U. S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare,Office of Education, Cooperative Research Project No. 1574.San Francisco: San Francisco State College, 1964, 207 pp.(Mimeographed)

thought processes, or cognitive tasks, demanded thatattention be given i) to grouping and classificationof information that can be termed concept forma-tion, 2) to application of known principles and factsin attempts to interpret new phenomena, and 3) todata interpretation and inference making. Taba'swork, besides lending insights into concepts in thecurriculum, also stresses the important role of theteacher in curriculum development.

The planning, organizing, and implementing of acurriculum represents a cooperative effort of manyincividuals. For an effective concept-based socialstudies program to evolve, it is necessary to involveappropriately several groups of professionals: thescholars, the educators, the curriculum specialists, thesupervisors, the administrators, and the teachers. Thescholars in the related disciplines should be responsi-ble for selecting or identifying those concepts impor-tant for pupils' understanding. It is the role of thecurriculum specialist to coordinate what the scholardeems appropriate and what the elementary supervi-sor and teacher accept as educationally sound. Thecurriculum specialist understands the entire schoolcurriculum design and is therefore a key person inensuring sequential planning from one level to an-other. The teacher, too, must be actively involved inthe organization of a concept-based curriculum, for it

Organizing Concept-Based Curricula 547

is he who will be responsible for converting the theo-ry into concrete teaching-learning experiences. Therole of the supervisor in such a curriculum is to ex-pedite classroom-level planning and to assist teachersin implementing a program that ensures.an emphasisnot on unrelated facts but on the concepts that unitefacts into frameworks of meaning.

Finally, and most importantly, one must not forgetthe child for whom the curriculum is organized. Thegoals of the curriculum must be considered in rela-tion to expected desired behaviors, the growth inknowledge, the emergence of values and beliefs, themotivation, and the skills at problem solution."Presently, scholars, educators, and curriculum plan-ners are engaging in attempts to improve the en-tire scope of learning experiences. Pupils are beingprovided opportunities that will make learningmeaningful and exciting. The concept-based curricu-lum in the social studies is part of this attempt tomake pupils better qualified for participation in aworld that will place heavy demands on their ration-al abilities.

1° Irving Sigel. "Concepts, Structure and Learning." Conceptsand Structure in the New Social Science Curricula. PublicationNo. 121 (Preliminary) of the Social Science Education Con-sortium. March 1966. pp. 82-88.

CONCEPTUAL APPROACHES: THEIR MEANING FOR ELEMENTARY SOCIAL STUDIES(Continued from page 536)

again to assume that specific content is not especiallyimportant as long as it is representative and that itprovides a good vehicle for the development of con-cepts. This may be a valid assumption from thestandpoint of instruction. A child can develop suchconcepts relating to family life as role, status, andsanctions, for example, by studying a primitive In-dian family of South America. Or a pupil can learnabout social stratification by studying an Oriental so-ciety. But in making the selection of specific contentto be used in developing concepts, it would seem im-portant to bear in mind that there is a body of infor-mational content that is necessary for ordinary civicand social literacy. It would be well to remember,too, that society has institutional expectations re-garding social studies and elementary schoolsthereare some things pupils are expected to know whenthey complete the elementary school. Perhaps on acommon-sense basis one might conclude that it ismore relevant for American school children to learnsomething about the social forces operating in theirown community than to engage in a depth study of apre-literate society in a remote part of the world. Tohave social studies programs designed to build basicconcepts does not mean that topics selected for studyneed to be unusual, unique, or esoteric. There is noreason why elementary social studies programs can-

not combine the development of basic concepts andthe building of backgrounds of functional informa-tion and appropriate processes of thought.

When man substitutes impulsive, emotional, andthoughtless action for behavior that has resultedfrom the exercise of rational, reflective, thoughtfulprocesses, he is not behaving in accordance withthose characteristics that set him apart from otheranimals. All of education, and particularly the socialstudies, should strive to enhance and promote in pu-pils those qualities from which man derives his hu-manness. This is a highly relevant concern for ele-mentary teachers because of the nature of the childduring the time he is in the elementary school. Pu-pils in the elementary school today will in a fewyears be adult citizens of their communities, holdingoffices, voting, serving on school boards, advisingtheir elected officials, and making decisions individ-ually and collectively on social and civic affairs. Con-ceptual approaches to social studies education, sup-ported by compatible teaching procedures, temperedby the good sense and patience of an understandingand psychologically warm teacher, should assist pu-pils to learn how to come to grips with the realitiesof social and civic affairs in thoughtful, intelligent,and rational ways.


INTRODUCING SOCIAL STUDIES CONCEPTS IN THE PRIMARY GRADES(Continued from page 539)

white man. One might even wish to broach the prob-lem of the status of the Indian in our society today.Should the curriculum call for a study of one's owncity or town, there would be ample opportunity toexplore questions such as "Why was our town settledhere?" or "If we were starting a town today, wouldwe start it in the same place?" or "Why did our town(not) grow?"

The teacher who wishes to expand the present so-cial studies curriculum of her school in line withthese recommendations can probably make a mostsignificant contribution to the field. Because even thebest curricula remain paper-bound unless animatedby the skillful, dedicated teacher, it seems only ap-propriate that the teacher now assume the leadershiprole in the social studies. Her insights and contribu-tions in developing new approaches will be of greatvalue to the school district when it begins to tacklethe problems of social studies curriculum develop-ment.

Methods in the new social studies. The good teach-er cannot be deluded by the critics, for she is con-tinually reminded of the importance of appropriateteaching strategy. In general, the effectiveness ofmethods can be judged only in terms of the extent towhich they enable one to achieve the desired educa-tional goals. At the very least, teachers seek to moti-vate pupils to conduct their own learning and to de-sire to comprehend the world around them.

If there are new methods in the social studies, theyare pointed at the attainment of greater depth of un-derstanding. Organizing instruction in terms of theintegrated learning experience, known as the unit,still appears to be the most promising approach formotivating pupils and interrelating the socialsciences. But the teacher needs new and sophisticatedteaching skills in leading children to greater depth intheir unit studies.

Recapitulation. While experimental work con-tinues on the development of new patterns for ele-mentary social studies, the primary grade teacher canlaunch her own explorations of social education,thereby engaging in what can be an exciting adven-ture in learning for her pupils. The current curricu-lum in most schools provides many opportunities forthe teacher to move in the direction of emphases sug-gested by the new developments in social studies.There is little need for today's primary grade teacherto serve as the chief distributor of textual dosages.The concern for the development of conceptual un-derstanding seems to characterize new views of socialstudies education. This article has provided a fewleads to the teacher who is interested in extendingpupils' learning beyond that encompassed by the tra-ditional curriculum. The imaginative and creativeteacher will have little difficulty in ,scovering manymore strategies for guiding pupils to a deeper analy-sis and understanding of their social studies.

BEGINNING TEACHERS' PROBLEMS IN DEVELOPING SOCIAL STUDIES CONCEPTS(Continued from page .511)

were to draw conclusions, to generalize, or to demon-strate their grasp of the objective, revealed that thistype of discussion was most difficult. Reaching forthe idea often consisted of the teacher presenting aseries of leading questions to the pupils. As pupilsresponded to the questions, the teacher rejected thoseresponses that did not answer the question. The pro-cedure more closely resembled a trial and error reci-tation than a discussion. In some cases, the develop-ment of the idea was limited to recall of facts with-out the necessary relating of these details to one an-other in some recognizable pattern. In other cases,the discussion was not supported by learnings de-veloped during the study; hence there was no com-mon point of reference for both teacher and pupils.In many instances the chalkboard was not utilized torecord points as they were made by pupils; thus animportant tool was overlooked for helping childrensummarize and generalize. Discussion can be an im-porta IA technique for concept development, but thisstudy indicates that it requires skillful handling bythe teacher if it is to be so used.

This exploration of teachers' difficulties withlearning experiences that lead to the development ofconcepts has many implications for the teacher's rolein guiding concept development. In a sense, theteacher is a programmer of instruction because hehas the task of breaking down or analyzing the con-ceptual objectives into "teachable-learnable chunks."He also has to design learning experiences that areappropriate to each objective and that are at thesame time manageable by the children. This is theindividual teacher's task because it is he who makesthe final decision regarding the actual study and itsimplementation. No curriculum document, course ofstudy, or resource unit can replace this aspect of theteacher's planning. In this respect, the teacher's rolein concept development is crucial. If the teachers inthis study fairly represent beginning elementaryteachers throughout the country, it is abundantlyclear that they will need many guided experiencesnot only in analyzing and using conceptual objec-tives, but also in selecting and using appropriatepupil learning experiences.

SOCIAL STUDIES EDUCATION:THE SLEMENTARY SCHOOL

focus on valuesBOARD OF ADVISORS

CHARLOTTE CRABTREEAssistant Professor of EducationUniversity of CaliforniaLos Angeles, California

ELEANOR GRAHAMConsultant in Sociai ScienceMetropolitan Public SchoolsNashville, Tennessee

ADELENE HOWLANDDirector of Elementary EducationMount Vernon Public SchoolsMount Vernon, N-riv York









This supplement presents five stimulating andthought-provoking articles on the subject of values andvalue teaching as related to the elementary socialstudies program. Policies concerning the school's rolein teaching values and the valuing process have beenfar from clear or consistent. Consequently, this subjectis not only one of the most sensitive and controversialwith which the elementary teacher and curriculumworker are confronted; it is also one of the most com-plex and challenging.

The five authors prepared their articles indepen-dently of one another and none read any of the othermanuscripts. Nonetheless, the reader will detect thatthe authors reinforce each other's thinking on a num-ber of issues. The authors do not take the position thatthey are presenting final answers to this complicatedproblem. Nor do they expect that readers will agreewith everything they have to say. They do, rather, sharewith the readers their thinking oa this subject with theexpectation and hope that their views will stimulateothers to explore the topic further for themselves.

This is the second collection of five articles devotedto social studies education in the elementary schoolprepared for a special section of the journal. A totalof four such sections will appear during the currentacademic year, dealing consecutively with concepts,values, skills; and individualizing instruction. Thesesections will be available as a sixty-four page bulletinat a nominal price in May. The cost of the bulletin, aswell as directions for ordering, will be announced inthe March issue of Social Education.

Elementary Education Supplementpublished four times a year.

Financed by the MARY E. KELTY FUND

Two Styles of School TalkAbout Values

by WILLIAM R. FIELDERAssociate Professor

Claremont, California Graduate School

WHAT are the orthodoxies of cchool talkabout values? Is there a less conventionaland, hopefully, more useful way in which to

make such school talk? This paper concerns onlythese two questions.

Orthodox TalkHow can teachers impart an idealized consensus

Something (values, American-style) to a collectiveSomebody (kids, American-style)? That's how theschool/value problem is ordinarily posed. Talkabout the problem is usually arranged around ahandful of easily predicted topics. These topics andthe orthodox discourse about them are summed uphere.

The Value Wash-Out. Talkers must have listeners.In making school/value talk, you get listeners by tot-ing up how much has eroded from American life.Sex, delinquency, drugs, draft cards, and divorce arethe common measures of how much has been washedaway. No matter how clumsy or melodramatic aspeaker might be, scare talk about contemporary so-cial conditions makes earnest listeners out of mostpeople.

After getting people to listen, most talkers set towork describing their program. Most talkers do twothings: describe the value wash-out and prescribe aremedy. More prudent speakers insert an intermediatequestion. That is, after describing what is gone butbefore prescribing how to get it back, the carefulspeaker considers whether or not the school is therelevant institution to administer the getting-backprogram he has in mind.

Potent or Otherwise? How much, if anything, canthe schools do to impart values? This is a conven-tional subject for talk and quite obviously a neces-sary one.

The minority position here is that schools areprobably a great deal less than potent in propagatingvalues. Usually the minority expression takes theform of remarking that mothers are more powerfulthan teachers, and social class is more instructivethan schools. The admonition is frequently added

34

".4

that, "Schools get into hot water when they assumethey can do anything the public wants them to."

But the volume of talk favors the position that theschools can do something, if not a great deal, towardinculcating values in children. The orthodox viewappears to be just about as Bressler has described it,"The ideology of mass education rejects the tragicview of life, for philosophy provides the promise andscience the assurance that men can ascend the moun-tain if they but choose to do so together. The ethic ofthe ideology of mass education is therefore the Ju-daeo-Christian tradition, its love, forbearance, andcompassion; its science is alive with options, withchange, fluidity, and development."

One or Many? A politically bewildering problemfor the practical man of schooling involves the fact ofpluralism in values. There are many Americas, asevery school employee learns no later than on the oc-casion when he accepts his second position of em-ployment in the publics' schools.

Do you teach an ideal set, the abstract set of valuesreceiving high agreement but seldom, if ever, experi-enced by people? Perhaps this is the set favored bysuburban, moderate, protestant, business America.But suburban, moderate, protestant, business Americaseems also to favor achievement over education andinstructors over intellectuals. Who can be sure ofsuch people?

A related problem for the schoolman involves thepossibility of colliding values. For example, theAmerican values of free association, rights of proper-ty, the rights of States are now being contested byother American valuesthose of equity, economicopportunity, and the equality of men. In customaryschool talk it often appears that the advocates of asingle system of idealized values must either ignorethe probability of colliding values or else they mustretreat to a very sentimental position when valuesappear to conflict over real political problems.

Direct or Otherwise? Conventional discourse seemsto divide on this issue with some speakers favoring

1 From "Conventional Wisdom of Education and Sociology."In Charles H. Page, editor. Sociology and Contemporary Edu-cation. New York: Random House, 1963. p. 83.

1.

1W;

Two

curriculum and others favoring circumstance. Thereigning aphorism of the latter group is this: "Valuesare caught not taught." Schoolmen advocating theindirect and covert learning circumstance as an ex-planation for how values come to be, suffer the tacti-cal disadvantages of being hard put to offer explicit,practical programs of action. It seems fair to say thatcustomary talk favors those who hold with the curric-ulum possibility. That is, the volume of talk favorsan explicit pedagogy to teach children values inschool.

There is another but closely related topic whenschoolmen discuss the issue of "directness." This isthe issue of "substance." Often those talkers who ad-vocate "direct" procedures see their opponents'teaching as a vacuous, life-adjustment enterprise.

Substantive or Otherwise? School/value talk, afterthe conventional opening topic of value wash-out, isoften detached, temperate, and impersonal. Talkabout the question of "substance" takes on adifferent tone, however, shifting to one of greater in-tensity and involvement.

There appear to be two forms of disdainful talk onthe issue of "substance." Those who seem to see theteaching of values as a vacuous enterprise character-ize such programs as the happy emoting of groupy,talk-talk social studies. Counterpart talk shows its dis-dain by characterizing "substantive" programs as:"Memorize the Preamble forward and back, bring onthe McGuffy readers, and 'Damn the torpedoes. . "

Social Studies or Otherwise? One final bit of com-mon talk concerns the question of whether valueteaching is a total school program or one confined tothe social studies period. The issue seldom seems toexcite anyone, and I would judge that the pre-ponderance of talk routinely acknowledges the no-tion of total school involvement but in-vitably turnsto the social studies teacher to find out where the ac-tion is ... or isn't.

Radical TalkThis closing section asserts a different basis for

school/value talk. I do so in an exploratory attemptto avoid some of the well rehearsed discussion com-mon to the subject.

Standard school/value talk contains these views:

a Something called values was created byAmericans in the indefinite past;kids don't have it;adults do;adults had better get busy giving that Some-thing to kids.

Styles of School Talk About Values 35

Non-standard school/value talk asserts a contraryview:

a Something called values is being created now;kids do value;but, often the valuing is confused and unex-

amined;adults can aid kids toward greater clarity in

their task of valuing.

The central problem of values is first the discoveryof self. Second, it is learning to examine what onefinds, notices, sees, or otherwise fails to avoid encoun-tering in oneself. The value problem for each of us isthe prosaic task of working toward examined self-hood.

I will discuss four deterrents to working at becom-ing a self while attending the public elementaryschools. These deterrents are: associations, myth, de-pendency, and maneuver.

Associations. One condition inimical to the de-velopment of a self is enforced collaboration with de-tached adults carefully playing roles. For many,teaching is the non-expression of self.

Perhaps such conditions begin with the reasonsone has for entering teaching. They are often contin-gent ones. Pleasant sophomores tell themselves andothers they are entering teaching for reasons likethese:

the work schedule each day and month nicelyaccommodates marriage and childrearing;

if anything happens to my husband, I'll alwaysbe able to get a job;

I'll always be able to get a job no matter wheremy husband's company sends him;

teaching is a good way to counteract the bore-dom of middle-age.

Teaching is seen as an appropriate solution to aset of contingencies. It is not often seen as a mannerof expressing the self. Nor is the decision for teach-ing often seer for what it isthe acting out of strongneeds for security. Unfortunately, such a motive maynot be sufficient in the face of the ordinary anticsand contrarine:s of school children.

Teaching as a non-expression of self is encouragedby the established curriculum posture. Conventional-ly, the schools act as if the most important resourcesof a classroom were the textbook and the curriculumguide. It must be so because we take very great careto see that there are standard supplies, standard ex-pectations, and standard procedures for every thirdgrade in a given school district. Teachers are thus en-couraged to regard themselves as neutral agents act-ing out the loose mandates of the third grade courseof study.

We do very little to encourage the expression of self

36 Social Education January 1967

by the uniquely different people hired for work inthe classroom. The curiosity in this matter is thateven while playing roles in denial of self, every smallteaching behavior speaks of who one is. Beingdignified, being very composed, being directive,touching, and laughing may speak to the teacherabout who he is. But customarily, we do not helpclassroom teachers to find in their transactions withpupils traces of the self.

We commonly assume that a teacher is a curriculumneuter, that a value-teaching program is independentof any particular agent employed to enact the pre-planned program. Or, equally false, we assume thatthe agent must embody all the virtues stressed insuch a program and teachers are such people. In ei-ther case we usually put aside consideration of thefirst order task (noticing the self in teaching) and, in-stead, set about pursuing the second order of business(constructing an explicit program for impartingvalues).

Myth. James Baldwin writes that this country is

bothered by identity problems.2 What passes foridentity, asserts Baldwin, is a series of myths aboutour heroic ancestors.3 It's a bitter contention andmust be considered here because I regard the issue ofvalues as only a special form of the identity problem.

There is abundant opinion that school history is

pretty history, that social studies instruction perpet-uates sentimentalities about agrarian, rural, en-trepreneurial America. H. M. Clements puts it mostpungently in his characterization of the schools as"emporiums of popular small-town social mytholo-gies."

Small-town social mythology is defended in schoolson the grounds that children need to be sheltered.However, it is our view that teachers, not children,wish to be sheltered.4 It is teachers that have an emo-tional stake in maintaining averted eyes, in schoolingchildren while looking the other way. It is painfuland threatening to face the hard evidence of conflict,strife, and racism that is importantly a part of thehistory of this country. Only now are there faint stk.-rings in the production of text materials to render

2,lames Baldwin. "A Talk to Teachers." Saturday Review,December 21, 1963.

3 Ibid., p. 44.*See W. R. Fielder. "Education With Averted Eyes." Pre-

sented at the Conference on Moral Dilemmas in Schooling,University of Wisconsin, May 12-14, 1965. Mimeographal

Negroes less anonymous. Only after Negroes haveyanked our heads around to look directly at their so-cial circumstance have we been able to consider eventimid text revisions. The discrepancy between theconflictual history that is known and the pretty his-tory we concoct for children suggests that it is theadult who wishes to be sheltered.

The fact that children are schooled by adults wholook the other way says a great deal. Above all it sayssomething about what Olders are willing to affirmabout themselves. To say that we teach pretty historyto shelter the young is simply to project onto chil-dren the wishes and fears of their elders.

Social concealments, whatever their form, areprobably inimical to nurturing an identity. Even thecustomary curriculum arrangements for the socialstudies offer a concealment. The conflictual Here andNow is effectively confined to the early primarygrades where, as Jerome Brunner puts it, city govern-ment is portrayed as a kind of Cub Scout Den pre-sided over by a scoutmaster,

Dependency. Certain school conditions seem to en-courage children toward dependency on others forfeelings about the self. Children are helped in schoolto live apart from the self. Surely the massive, clumsyuse of peer pressure is one confirming circumstance.

The new critics on the left--Goodman's GrowingUp Absurd, Friedenberg's Vanishing Adolescent,Dexter's The Tyranny of Schooling, Henry's CultureAgainst Man, Holt's How Children Failoffer poig-nant testimony concerning the vulnerability of chil-dren to the alienating propensities of schools.

Maneuver. Finally, schools engage in a series of ad-ministrative maneuvers that are probably inimical tothe development of selfhood. In the name of "SplitReading Program," "Team Teaching," "GiftedClasses," and, ironically, "Individualized Instruc-tion," children are sometimes treated as anonymousunits to be clustered, scheduled, or machined towardsome achievement criteria called, in macabre meta-phor, "terminal behavior."

Administrative maneuver is the artful shuffling oftime, space, materials, and other objects called peo-ple.

But the problems of mass education are just that.What is required is less, not more, genius devoted totreating pupils as aggregates in one administrativemaneuver or another.

or,

,

Values and the PrimarySchool Teacher

by BERNICE J. WOLFSONVisiting Lecturer in Education

University of Chicago

rrHE question "Should a teacher be concernedwith the development of values in her pupils?"is a real question. Merely by the fact of living

with them for the school year, she is an importantinfluence on all they learn.

Particularly in the early school years the teacherprovides some sort of model for the child. In whatdirection she will influence him depends on manyfactors, but undoubtedly he experiences the valuesystem that she inevitably communicates through herdeeds and concerns.

An observer in a classroom can infer what appearto be the values of the teacher, i.e. what is prized, im-

portant, of greatest concern. If, on the one hand, shescolds and embarrasses a child before the whole classbecause he has just broken a large jar of paste, itwould appear that she values this property morethan the feelings of this child. If she tears up achild's paper because it is not neat, she appears to bevaluing her standard of neatness over the child'seffort and feelings.

If, on the other hand, the teacher helps the childto see alternative possibilities and encourages him tomake decisions for himself, she is demonstrating herregard for him as a person. She will be less manipula-tive and judgmental if she truly views him as a val-ued, worthwhile human being. It is apparent that asa teacher interacts in the classroom she is communi-cating in both obvious and subtle ways the fabric ofher personal values.

Where did she get her values? Values and attitudesare learned, and also unlearned, but there is very lit-tle concrete knowledge about how this occurs. An-thropologists, psychologists, and specialists in childdevelopment have looked at the child in the settingof his culture, home, and school. It has been sug-gested that he assimilates the values of his society andhis home as unconsciously as he breathes the airaround him. Possibly he imitates the values and atti-tudes he experiences in his home. When he gets intothe larger society of neighborhood and school (andbeyond), he may further imitate the values of those headmires. As some express it, he identifies with other in-dividuals and accepts their values.

In all these descriptions there seems , to be the as-sumption of determinism at work and of a lack of

37

awareness or choice on the part of the individual.However, it is not necessary to deny the influence ofthe culture and family in order to recognize thathuman beings have alternat' ves. At various stages inhis life, an individual may examine his feelings andnew knowledge, recognize inconsistencies in his val-ues, and revise or radically change his value priori-ties. He is continually valuing arid re-valuing when-

ever he has to make important decisions.Louis Raths1 suggests that the process by which a

person develops, reconsiders, and revises his values isone of clarification. The analysis of this precess, andmany examples of classroom activities found in Val-ues and Teaching,2 will be extremely helpful toteachers of all levels. Each primary grade teacher willof course need to adapt and modify the suggestedprocedures for use with her particular class. Initially,it would be most profitable for the teacher to try thisprocess herself.

The influence of the teacher in value developmentis far from clear; but it should be evident that to theextent that her own value system is unexamined andinconsistent, she may well be providing a model thatis confusing to the child. The questions she wouldreflect on might include some of the following:

i. Is that very important to me?2. How did I feel when that happened?3. What other alternatives did I consider?4. Would I freely choose this alternative?5. What do I mean by .. . ?

6. What assumptions did I make?7. Was this consistent with what I did?8. Do I do this often?9. What can I do about this idea?

io. Would I do it again the same way?How do I know it's right?

12. Why did I do it that way?(Adapted from Raths et al, pp. 56-62)

As a teacher clarifies her values, she also needs toexamine her classroom actions and ask: Are they con-sistent with my priorities? e.g. I believe I value ini-

'Louis Raths, Merrill Harmin and Sidney B. Simon. Valuesand Teaching. Columbus, Ohio: Charles E. Merrill Books, Inc.,1966.

2 Ibid., pp. 112-162.


tiative; does my classroom encourage initiative ordoes it emphasize following directions?

As the primary grade teacher proceeds to reflect onand clarify her own values, she will find it appropri-ate to raise some of the same questions with the chil-dren. She will want to ensure appropriate opportuni-ties for valuing. Raths and his associates express thegoal as:

. . . children who have clear, personal values. Thegoal, therefore, requires opportunities for children touse the processes of (a) choosing freely, (b) choosingfrom alternatives, (c) choosing thoughtfully, (d) prizingand cherishing, (e) affirming, (f) acting upon choices,and (g) examining patterns of living.3

Possibly in the primary years some children will bemore ready than others to reflect and respond toquestions of this sort. (In fact, Raths and his associ-ates suggest that this may not be an appropriate tech-nique for children "who have insufficient ego

strength."4)There are other kinds of experiences that may en-

courage the child to become aware of his own feel-ings and the feelings of other children, to considerthe consequences of alternative choices, and to en-gage in decision-making. Additional activities thatseem to be particularly relevant are: experiencing thefeelings and dilemmas of literary characters; enactingin creative dramatics or role playing the feelings, de-cisions, and consequences of various situations; anddiscussing or role playing some of the human con-cerns and problems that grow out of life at school.

Relatively unstructured literature and art experi-ences can help children keep in touch with their richpre-conceptual feeling for life, which is one of theconcrete referents for the valuing process. Acting out,or discussing how story characters feel in various sit-uations is a vicarious valuing process.

Children spontaneously comment about their ownexperiences and feelings in relation to the story char-acters. They also react in terms of what other conse-quences might follow. In part, it is a growing aware-ness of the common human dilemmas that will assista child in understanding himself and the others inhis world.

Specific suggestions, descriptions, and pitfalls canbe found in the material written by Nichols andWilliams,5 Raths et al,6 Shaftel,7 and Wolfson.5 No

3 Ibid., p. 82.4 Ibid., p. 223.5 Hildred Nichols and Lois Williams. Learning About

Role-Playing for Children and Teachers. Washington, D. C.:Association for Childhood Education International, 1960.

Raths, op. cit.7 George Shaftel and Fannie R. Shaftel. Role Playing The

Problem Story. New York: National Conference of Christiansand Jews, 1952. (Also new book in press.)

°Bernice J. Wolfson. "Reading About Emotions in thePrimary Classroom." Elementary Engli .4-h, 81:146,149; March

1954.

doubt each teacher will select and experiment withthose approaches that seem most suitable to her.

Finally, an additional source of experience thatmay promote value development is a classroom thatprovides a wide variety of opportunities for self-selec-tion of goals and activities by the pupils. If a child isencouraged sometimes to consider alternatives, some-times to consider possible consequences, sometimes toexplain his reasons, and often to examine his feel-ings, he is, indeed, engaged in valuing.

Two basic questions related to the entire discus-sion above are: Does it matter what values the teach-er holds? Does it matter how the teacher arrives ather values?

I would hypothesize that it does matter what val-ues the teacher holds, for her values influence theway she organizes and operates her classroom and theway she interacts with the children. However, moreimportant is how she arrived at her values and if sheis willing to re-examine them and to continue to en-gage in the valuing process.

To some extent we are a pluralistic society. Everyperson meets others who hold values that aredifferent from and in conflict with his values. In ad-dition, many of us do not continuously engage in theprocess of clarifying our values and we do not livethe values we profess. Using Louis Raths' criteria fora value,5 this would mean we do not have these val-ues.

Developmental (Kohlberg)," therapeutic (Gend-lin),11 and educational (Raths)12 points of view allsuggest the need for attention to the valuing pro-cess. How we engage in valuing is significant becausevaluing is a crucial life-time activity.

Different analyses of the process all imply that wecannot in any meaningful or useful sense impose ourvalues on someone else. If I want a person to developvalues that are meaningful and active for him, Icannot insist on my values for him. My values areonly relevant as an example of one acting, valuinghuman being.

It should be stated, then, that the value assump-tions implicit in this paper are generally whatDahlke" referred to as the Humanistic Value Orien-tation. His is primarily a sociological frame of refer-ence, so I would add those assumptions about the na-ture of man that are developed in the more or less


°Raths et al, op. cit., pp. 28-29.10Lawrence Kohlberg. "Moral Education in the Schools; A

Developmental View." The School Review, Vol. 74, No. 1,

Spring 1966, pp. 1-30.11 Eugene Gendlin. "Values and the Process of Experienc-

ing." Chapter in A. R. Mahrer, editor. The Goals of Psycho-therapy. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc., in press.

Raths et a', op. tit.13 H. Otto Dahlke. Values in Culture and Classroom. New

York: Harper and Bros., 1958, pp. 6o-61.

, 7perr,,,rormcw.17,ifF,..77t,,7m,,h7,1S10

Value Teaching in the Middle and Upper

Grades: A Rationale for Teaching

But Not Transmitting Valuesby MELVIN EZER

Professor and Chairman of Elementary EducationUniversity of Bridgeport

LL EDUCATION, we may assume, is aimedat the transmission of values of our culture,and the development of socially acceptable

attitudes [and behavior] towards problems and

conflicts."1"Rubbish! Not only rubbish, but . . . repulsive,"

exclaims Michael Scriven.2 The reason for Scriven'srejection of this educational objective is that in thename of morality, immoral behavior is advocated.The author of this paper is in agreement with Scri-

ven's position as it relates to value teaching in themiddle and upper grades of the elementary school,and an alternative proposal for teaching values inthese grades will be presented.

If there is concern with ethics, as expressed in theopening quote, then a fundamental proposition inethics asserts that the individual has the right to de-termine for himself what is right or wrong concern-ing the basic issues of conduct. It then becomes theresponsibility if not the duty of the public schools ina democratic society to inform the pupil of the alter-natives available to him, to describe the modes andconsequences of his behavior, and to teach him the

skills that are necessary to evaluate these alternatives.The teaching of values does not give the teacher theright to force his solutions on the children he teach-es, except in so far as the information given to thechildren persuades them to accept his views. Under-lying this position of value teaching at.: the assump-tions that value disputes can be settled by rationalmeans and that children in the middle and uppergrades of the elementary school are capable of mak-ing their own value judgments by use of theintellect.3

It thus becomes obvious that it is not the teacher's

1 Preston E. James. "Geography." The Social Studies andthe Social Sciences. Sponsored by the American Council ofLearned Societies and the National Council for the SocialStudies. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., 1962, p. 42.

2Michael Scriven. "The Structure of the Social Studies." InG. W. Ford and Lawrence Pugno, editors. The Structure ofKnowledge and the Curriculum. Chicago: Rand McNally &Company, 1964, p. 101.

39

responsibility to tell children what is right or wrong,but rather it is the responsibility of the teacher toraise value questions and to discuss these within therestrictions of evidence, the rules of logic, and the useof reason. The children should be given opportuni-ties to investigate and discuss value questions underthe teacher's guidance, and then the children shouldbe allowed to make up their own minds about thesevital matters without being unduly influenced bytheir teachers.4

It is at this point that the question of teacher biasis usually raised; that is, if a teacher is already com-mitted to a value position (much in the way this au-thor has particular enthusiasm for his view regardingthe teaching of values to children), is it then possiblefor him to present other points of view in an objec-tive and effective manner? The answer to this queryis that children can and perhaps should be taughtvalues by teachers who have taken a position on aparticular problem or issue, because it is not onlypossible but quite probable that many teachers whohold particular views can present other views fullyand fairly. In addition, there should be the opportu-nity for pupils, and supporters of other views, tomake their presentations with equal zeal.3

Concomitant with the responsibility of presentingvarious points of view on value questions is the re-sponsibility of the middle and upper grade teacher toteach children to become proficient in such skills asclarifying issues, verifying information on which val-ues are based, and analyzing the logic inherent in thesolution of problems. The teaching and attainmentof these skills is crucial to the method of presentingvalues proposed herein.

Let us now take a value question and illustrate themanner in which it can be presented to children uti-lizing the format that has been suggested. Let us ex-amine the problem presented when a decision re-garding the abrogation of free speech is in question,

4Nancy W. Bauer, editor. Revolution and Reaction: TheImpact of the New Social Studies. Bloomfield Hills, Michigan:Cranbrook Press, pp. 75-76.

Saiven, op. cit., p. 102.


a value that is jealously guarded. The problem hadarisen in the midst of an explosive situation that oc-curred in a suburb of Chicago in August, 1966, whentensions resulting from Civil Rights demonstrationswere at their highest. George Rockwell, the self-pro-claimed leader of the American Nazi movement, ap-plied for permission to schedule a rally and speech inthis community. These events could have led to riot-ing, destruction of property, and even the loss of life.The problem that faced the authorities and thatcould have been presented to an elementary schoolclass was whether Rockwell should have been pre-vented from speaking.

An approach that is commonly utilized in this typeof problem situation, if it is discussed at all, is for theteacher to ask the children what decision they wouldmake if they were the authorities. In many class-

rooms the teachers would inform the children whatthe correct or right decision is or ought to be. Paren-thetically, it is highly questionable whether theteacher's solution is more valid than the children'ssince his view may have no better factual or analyticbasis than the children he is teaching. In most in-stances it is at these junctures that the discussion ofthe value question ends.

The author has stated previously that all possiblesolutions should be presented; in this instance, thechildren's, the teacher's, that of newspaper editorials,radio and television commentators, civic authorities,and so forth. These viewpoints must be examinedusing the skills and criteria described earlier. Addi-tional questions must be raised and discussedsuchquestions as the importance of the value of freespeech as compared with the value of life and prop-erty. What would the consequences be to our societyif we abandoned one or both? What would be thelogical consequences for other values in our society ifwe abandoned the right to speak when speakingthreatens life or property? Who is to decide andupon what basis when speech threatens life andproperty? What relief for wrong decisions is avail-able?9

Only after these discussions and explorations havetaken place should the decisions be made, and thenthe children should be allowed to provide their ownanswers and solutions to the problem as individuals.The goal of educational process described above is tohave children arrive at value decisions through ra-tional means. It is also the attempt to develop thecognitive skills that are essential in the study of valueproblems.Moral reasoning and the moral behavior it indicatesshould be taught and taught about, if for no other reasonthan it is immoral to keep children ignorant of the em-

Michael Scriven. "Values in the Curriculum." Social Sci-ence Education Consortium Newsletter, II, No. 1, April 1966,p. 1.

pirical and logical bases behind the law and institutionswhich incorporate this country's virtues and permit itsvices. But in addition to this intellectual payoff is thepractical benefit to a society whose members are skilledin making value judgments. Such a society becomes amoral community offering important benefits to all itsmembers.7

Another question that has not yet been answeredbut that is most important to this discussion is theplace and treatment of "basic," "ultimate," or "abso-lute" values. As teachers and their classes engage inthe analysis of values, the problem of "ultimate" val-ues will certainly arise. The argument about the ex-istence of "ultimate" values is not the concern of thispaper. It is of little import here, also, because the au-thor has been attempting to demonstrate that themajority of value problems that children will con-front in their public school classes can be settled byempirical investigation and logical analysis. Theschool's responsibility is fairly cicar on this issue. It isto have the children use the processes already de-scribed to push the value "frontier" as far as possiblewithout worrying about the last "frontier."9

Any discussion of value teaching must consider theaffective as well as the cognitive realm, because dis-cussions of value questions that only employ the cog-nitive processes for their solution may become aca-demic exercises for the children, devoid of meaningfor their own lives. In the treatment of a value ques-tion there should be emotional involvement by thechild as well as insight. While as full and completean understanding as possible of the value problemshould be the first order of business and is necessary,it is, however, not sufficient. The discussion of valuequestions requires that the child see himself in an-other's position whenever possible. In short, it re-quires empathy and sympathy on the part of thepupil. All forms of ego-involving activities are mostrelevant and appropriate in teaching values.

Here again an example that actually occurred willbe given in order to portray the interdependence ofintellect and emotion in value teaching.

In a fifth grade class discussion concerning equalityof rights ( a value, by the way, to which this nation isfully committed), the various means of attaining thisvalue by political, religious, ethnic and/or racialgroups were considered. Revolution was suggested asa way of achieving equality of rights, thus raising themoral question of the "means-end" relationship. Theconcept of revolution was examined wing Brinton'sAnatomy of Revolution as the authority.9 Three rev-olutions, the American, Cuban, and Orwell's Animal


Ibid. p. 2.s Ibid., p. 1.°Crane Brinton. The Anatomy of Revolution, rev, and exp.

New York: Vintage Press, 1965.

Using Learning Resources inTeaching Values

by GERALD M. TORKELSON

Professor of EducationUniversity of Washington

THE teaching of values in elementary schoolsocial studies is one of the more difficult tasksa teacher faces. This is due partially to the na-

ture of values themselves and the need to clearlydefine what is meant by values. Another compli-cating factor concerns the selection of proper learn-ing experiences that can promote value acquisition.

Values generally are included in the category oflearning called the affective domain. They deal withfeelings, emotional tones, and subjective judgments.They concern what one considers valuable, impor-tant, or unimportant. For an elementary child, forexample, a certain type of behavior may be valuedbecause of Lmily background, prejudices, religioustraining, peer pressures, or cultural heritage. Inorder for the teacher to understand the values thatchildren holdand the values she may consciously orunconsciously reflect in her teaching--it is useful toreview briefly the qualities of values that will be im-portant to consider in selecting proper kinds oflearning experiences and resources.

The principal effort to classify objectives in theaffective domain grew out of a meeting of psycholo-gists in 1948. In the course of their discussions, it wasrealized that common understanding among themwould be facilitated by the development of a com-mon frame of reference. Subsequently, there was de-veloped a taxonomy of educational objectives for thecognitive domain (1956,)1 and, more recently, for theaffective domain (1964).2

One of the tasks facing the authors was therefinement of terms. For example, when the wordvalues is considered, one might think of interest-in,appreciation-of, and attitude-toward. In the Tax-onomy, separation of these words is made in terms ofdegrees of involvement of the individual, or in termsof the internalization that takes place. Internaliza-tion is defined as the process by which a phenome-non or value successively and pervasively becomes apart of the individual. At the lowest level there is lit-

1B. S. Bloom et al. Taxonomy of Educational Objectives,Handbook I: Cognitive Domain, New York: Longman's, Greenand Co., Inc., 1956.

2D. R. Krathwohl et al. Taxonomy of Educational Objec-tives, Handbook II: Affective Domain. New York: David McKayCo., Inc., 1964.

41

tle emotional involvement, simply a perceiving ofthe phenomenon. At the middle levels there is anemotional response that becomes a critical part of be-havior. At the highest levels the behavior has becomecompletely internalized and routine. Emotion de-creases and responses become a kind of ingrainedpatterning or system.

Some of the techniques that teachers may employin identifying children's value systems and in as-sisting them in value development may lie in theways that attitudes and values are acquired. Fourwaysnot mutually exclusiveare by integration,trauma, differentiation, and adoption. All elemen-tary children have acquired by adoption the valuesof the social milieu from which they have come.Some have also acquired values through traumaticexperiences. It is much less likely that values willhave been achieved by differentiation, the result of ageneral state of dissatisfaction; or by integration, ahigher order of experience by which specific reac-tions are systematically generalized into a value com-plex. Undoubtedly there is some of the latter occur-ring, but primarily through the sheer weight of expe-rience on a somewhat unconscious or unexpressedlevel.

Among the four ways of acquiring values, it is gen-erally accepted that the major hope of the elemen-tary social studies teacher would be that children be-come engaged in the processes of differentiation andintegration as objective ways of examining valuesand attitudes. This technique of examination wouldbe consistent with that expressed by Griffin3 in whathe called the "reflective" method of teaching, as dis-tinguished from the problem-solvi,,g technique.While Griffin applied his technique primarily to theteaching of history, there are aspects of this approachLhat have promise for the examination of values andattitudes by children in the social studies.Reflective thought is the active, careful, and persistentexamination of any belief, or purported form of knowl-edge, in the light of the grounds that support it and thefurthur conclusions towards which it tends.4

N. L. Gage, editor. Handbook of Research on Teaching.American Educational Research Association. Chicago: RandMcNally & Company, 1963. (See Chapter 17)

4 Ibid., p. 934.


This conception of learning, according to Griffin,would mean that children would learn that some-thing is true, rather than learn to say that somethingis true. Or, relating it to value examination, childrenwould concentrate on the true aspects of values asdistinguished from learning the symbols that repre-sent the values. These suggestions that the child en-gage in reflective thought have direct implicationsfor the use of learning resources. The first concernsthe selection of various kinds of materials and de-vices that have the potential for involving thelearner in some direct or vicarious way.

Recognizing that values and attitudes are com-posed of feelings and emotional involvement, it be-comes imperative that the experiences selected pro-vide some degree of emotional tone. This is not tosuggest that every experience dealing with an atti-tude or value must evoke trauma, even to a slight de-gree, for sometimes cold facts must be examined inan analytical way. Rather, the emotional tone wouldbe necessary to provide a state of readinessand per-haps anxietythat would make acceptable and neces-sary the examination of the "facts in the case."

Two kinds of learning resources that lend them-selves very well to attitude and value examinationare role playing and sound motion pictures. Bothhave certain powers of empathy. While many personshave been moved to tears by some powerful motionpicture, this reaction is less likely with role playingbecause it does not provide the "privacy" that thefilm affords during viewing. Film techniques alsolend credence to the "illusion" of reality that roleplaying cannot provide as artfully.

As a rule of thumb in using motion pictures forreflective teaching, a useful procedure is to use thequestioning approach. This would serve several pur-poses. One would be to require overt reaction by thelearner, thereby supporting personal involvement inthe film. This approach is also consistent with con ,clusions from motion picture research that indicatethat this technique results in more learning fromfilms. Rather than telling learners what they are tosee, the teacher asks the pupils what relevant infor-mation they expect to gain from the film and, afterthe showing, asks what was seen and what it meant.As part of this procedure the pupil should verbalizehis responses to gain experience in structuring his be-liefs and attitudes. This approach is also used to ad-vance the levels of "internalization" that require theorganization of values.

Another aspect of motion picture use for shapingattitudes and values concerns the film introductionand follow-up. Sometimes an unthinking teacher candestroy the inherent value of the film for evokingemotional response by inept and inadequate intro-ductions. A case in point is the use of the film DueProcess of Law Denied, a condensation of a Holly-

wood production of the historic Oxbow Incident.5Through excellent acting and appropriate moodmusic, this film dramatically portrays the story ofthree men in the Nevada territory who are wrongful-ly accused of cattle rustling and murder by an impa-tient posse. Contrary to the typical television "West-ern," the three men are hanged before it is learnedthat they are innocent. This writer has observed on anumber of occasions that members of the audiencewere moved to tears by their personal involvementand their revulsion to the injustice done.

In contrast to this technique of simply announcingthe film and letting it carry its own message, imagine,if you will, how the impact of the film could be sub-stantially diminishedin fact, destroyedby com-ments such as, "Now boys and girls, we have beenconsidering the effects on people of different kinds ofinjustice. Today I have a film that deals with such anincidentthe Oxbow Incident. In this film you willsee that three men on the American frontier are ac-cused of rustling and murder, are caught by a hastilycomposed posse and are hanged. This is unfortunatebecause soon after the hanging, the sheriff arriveswith word that the man who committed the murderhad been caught. This is a rather tense movie inparts, but don't get too involved. By the way, afterwe have seen the movie, we will discuss the inci-dent."

There have been a number of experimental studiesdealing with the use of films for shaping attitudes.The principal conclusions are aptly summarized byHoban and Van Ormer in Instructional Film Re-search,1918-1950.In the light of research data and psychological theory,it is becoming increasingly evident that the ability ofany medium of communication, including motion pic-tures, to modify motivation, attitudes, and opinionslies not so much in the medium itself, but in the rela-tionship of the content and bias of the medium to (1)the personality structure of the perceiving individuals,and (2) the social environment of the audience. Anymedium of communication is exactly thata medium ofcommunication. In the process of communication the roleof a communicator is not to impress his interpretation ofexperience on an audience. Rather, it involves the re-action of the audience to the communicator's interpreta-tion of experience which he transmits by means of sym-bols. Hence, the content of communication, the audi-ence predisposition, and the social milieu must all beconsistent and mutually reinforcing, if the motion pic-ture is to influence motivation, attitudes, and opinions.6


5Teaching Film Custodians, Inc., 25 West 43rd Street, NewYork City 10036.

F. Hoban, Jr. and E. B. Van Ormer. Instructional FilmResearch, 1918-1950. Technical Report No. SDC269-7-19, Nave-xos P-977. Special Devices Center, Port Washington, Long Is-land, New York, 1950. Chapter V, p. 20.

Guaranteeing the Values Component inElementary School Social Studies

by NANCY W. BAUERCoordinator of Social Studies

Birmingham, Michigan Public School District

BECAUSE of the variety of interrelated goals oftoday's social studies, and because of the reali-ties of program implementation in the

schools, the burden of values-centered teaching andlearning cannot fall entirely on the teachers and thelearners. If the values component is not built intothe elementary social studies curriculum from thevery beginning, there will be no predictable changein pupil behavior.

We have finally come to gr:ps with the uncomfor-table understanding that unless our pupils indicateby their behavior that they have not only understoodbut have internalized our high-minded goals relatingto values, we have not succeeded, no matter howhard we have tried. What is worse, we will havefailed the children, the communities we serve, andthe academic disciplines we represent. We mustevaluate our academic efforts by the behavior of ouralumni. Instead of the disillusionment of the Rectorof Justin, "It has always been my chief regret that[we have] sent so few men into public service,"1 it isour expectation that a values-oriented curriculumwill send pupils into a lifetime of social study andthoughtful social action.

The first step in any curriculum design is, ofcourse, the statement of goals and the courageous de-termination, in writing, of what behavior on the partof our pupils will indicate that goals have beenachieved. Stating overt behavior goals means we arewilling to be evaluzted. The Birmingham, MichiganPublic School District, under a "taxpayers grant" forinnovation and improvement,2 began its K-12 curric-ulum re-making in social studies just this way. Thegoals were developed with the help of national pub-lications and with the specific aid of university con-sultants working with a K-12 steering committee ofteachers and administrators. The Social StudiesStructure3 states as its "goals for students":i. That they will be motivated to continue learning-

1Louis Auchincloss: The Rector of Justin. New York: TheNew American Library of World Literature, Inc. (Signet Press).1964, p. 240.

2Birmingham, Michigan Plan for Individualized Instruc-tion. Dr. John Blackhall Smith, Superintendent.

. 'Social Studies Structure. Birmingham, Michigan PublicSchools. June 1966.

43

as evidenced by their free choice of how they spendtheir time when not in structured classroom situa-tions.

2. That they will understand basic concepts and bodiesof information

as evidenced by identification and use of that in-formation in new situations.

3. That they will reason on the basis of skillful inquiryas evidenced by:their analysis when confronted by new problems.their dialogue with others on matters of public con-troversy.

4. That they will function (act) successfully as an in-dividual and as a participant in group (involvement)

as evidenced by the acceptance of leadership whenit is needed and the ability to work on a team or tofollow when that behavior seems warranted.

5. That they will possess objective attitudes which willenable them to judge responsibility

as evidenced by:their ability to analyze, judge, and take action in newacademic situations.their behavior in and outside of school in discussionof controversial issues with others.

6. That they will be able to accept differencesas evidenced by their refusal to use the existenceof differences as justification for discrimination againstpeople different from themselves.

7. That they will believe in equality; although peoplediffer, every individual has an equal right to free-dom

as evidenced by their refusal to participate in dis-criminatory activities which deny others the abilityto act or which deny others privileges they wish for orenjoy themselves.

A rapid look at these goals indicates that they areconcerned with the multidimensions of today's re-search on interdisciplinary concepts in social studies,cognition, motivation, social behavior, and values.The seven goals are completely and irrevocably in-termingled; the last two, which are specifically "val-ues," depend on and are in turn a part of those thatprecede them. These goals also "value" reason, judg-ment-making, and action-taking.4

*The distinction among the equally significant .aspects of


The adoption of a set of goals that includes values,critical thinking, facts, and action side by side re-moves forever, we trust, the obsolete argument of lifestudies versus academic subject matter. There is in-herent in this package of behavioral goals the under-standing that without real academic learning and thecontinuing desire to make learning a life-long taskand responsibility, there is no such thing as a ration-al human being. To be a rational human being re-quires not only a life study of changing academicknowledge but a life-long commitment to an inter-nally consistent and rationally based value system.

The Unit SequenceWhat happens to the history, geography, and civics

curriculum and its objective view of the facts whenvalue questions are to be raised? Are we throwingout the knowledge baby with the rote-memory bath-water? Are we going to develop argumentative chil-dren who cannot find Boston, much less Peking, onthe map? Is it not "good enough" at age eleven justto know about Paul Revere?

Our answer to this lies in the careful structuring ofthe order or sequence of learning experiences in eachunit of every year's work, K-12. There is a definiterelationship of the fact goals to the thinking, judg-ing, and action goats. It is this relationship that se-cures the academic validity of the curriculum.

FACTS (chosen for contrast and forpotential values discussion)

without, consciously or subconsciously, judging therelative value of the data and of the alternatives foraction. Choices are determined by what the individ-ual, the group, or society feels is most important.This is what the historian calls cultural condition-ing. It is value judgment. The significant points forthe curriculum builder are (i) do not let the pupilsmake value judgments until they have collected theraw data and recognized how many kinds of probelems coexist, and (2) let the value judgments be madein an application to real problems. There is a two-part corollary to this; do not let either the materialsor the teacher make value judgments before the pu-pils have collected and classified the data and drawnsome conclusions. Teachers must not tell them whichare the most important items of information aboutthe policeman or the four main causes of the discov-ery of the new world. To do so would be to feedthem the results of someone else's value judgments asif they were objective data. Cause and effect are not alist of arbitrarily weeded-out "facts" but a crowd ofconflicting issues. If the book says, "Paul Reverefought against the tyranny of England," the pupilhas, by omission, been committed to an oversim-plification to the point of distortion.

Just as we wish to avoid making judgments for thepupils, there is equally to be avoided the trap of ran-dom or superficial selection of factual material. As acurriculum development strategy, it is better to p/an

CATEGORIZING AND GENERALIZING(concept formation)

411APPLICATION TO A PROBLEM

(involving choices)

111VALUES JUDGMENT

This follows the patterns of history as well as thepsychologists and sociologists determination of howdecisions are made. No one can reason without itemsto reason about. Inquiring, organizing, generalizing,hypothesizing are activities performed on raw infor-mation. No one takes deliberate or thoughtful action

values: valuing reason, believing in certain human values,and studying about values has been clearly articulated by Dr.Ronald Lippitt in his presentation "Value Inquiry in the So-cial Studies Classroom" at the 45th Annual Meeting of theNational Council for the Social Studies, Miami Beach, Florida,November 24-27, 1965.

ACTION RECOMMENDED AND DEFENDED

the value questions when you plan the concepts,main ideas, and skills; before you decide which factsof current or past history to use as illustrations. Inthis way you select content and materials that are po-tentially more meaningful, less trivial. The questionof coverage becomes more efficient and economicalbecause you select the raw facts that will lend them-selves to values discussion and application in action-taking experiences.

In the Birmingham fifth grade program, we de-cided to focus first on groups meeting needs andwhat happens if the group as a nation no longer

71'71.0ftT.W.71',,,F

meets changing needs. What should an individualdo? We begin with the Lippitt-Fox BehavioralScience Study5 of how groups form and how and whyleaders are chosen. Then the pupils gather data onPaul Revere, in which he and his compatriots had tomake the agonizing decision to overthrow the gov-ernment. They had tried all legal means to havetheir problems solved, even some minor illegal ac-tions including a "clump in," and now decided to takearms against the legal government because they be-lieved it to be immoral. We want the pupils to real-ize that the significant choices are not between blackand white, good and evil. They are more often asAchilles knew, and as Paul Revere knew, betweentwo complexities, each involving both good and evil.This is factual history, full of dates, places, names,and events. But the pupil must analyze as well as em-pathize; then he can and must debate the issues andthe universal value questiondoes one ever have aright to revolt against legal authority? The valuesdiscussion comes at the point of decision-making.The planning for it came right at the start, when thefacts are out and the devil and the deep blue sea areclearly in view. Were the people who remained To-ries "bad guys?" Would Tom Paine have been a goodcandidate for President? These were real times, withreal people, using their real strengths and weaknessesto solve real problems.

Recognizing and building in the values componentactually makes the pupils more aware of the need forfacts than ever before. It also makes them less hastyin judging the actions of others. Knowing that somepeople could look at the facts and decide to stayloyal to England and that others could look at thesame facts and decide to risk their lives in battle,does not make pupils unable to decide which sidethey would select. Such knowledge reminds them ofthe necessity to recognize existing values and of theneed sometimes to build one's own. It makes themless opinionated, quicker to spot stereotyped prej-udice, and more committed to the values they holdand can defend. Inciclently, it does not diminish theheroism of Paul Revere to know what he had to gothrough to make his decision.

Comparative ContentValue questions are more easily built into a com-

parative curriculum than one that calls for the studyof single topics, one at a time. If values are studiedwithout looking both at ourselves and at others, wesee ourselves less clearly. Charles 0. Hucker, China

Writt en by the Michigan Social Science Education Project,Center for Research on the Utilization of Scientific Knowledge,University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan. To be pub-lished by Science Research Associates, Inc.

Guaranteeing the Values Component 45

scholar at the University of Michigan, has pointedout that nothing makes Americans so aware of whatis unique here than a study of traditional Chinesecultural history. Contrast is not new to other disci-plines. In new math, nothing makes our number sys-tem stand out so clearly as a system than to work inbase eight for a while.

Pupils in comparative social studies "come upon"differences in what people value without having tobe told what they are; discovery method and valuesinquiry complement each other. This helps to answerboth those who worry that our children will have novalues at all and those who are afraid that it is un-democratic to push democracy. In a comparative cur-riculum, the pupil sees the advantages of democracyin a pluralistic world and in our pluralistic nation.He comes to understand that to believe in democra-cy, to accept differences, and to protect the freedomof every individual is different from relativism. Thecurriculum must realistically reflect the pluralism ofAmerica and the world and recognize the ethicaland pragmatic value of democratic decision-making.This is understanding and acceptance of pluralismleading to unity, not relativism versus uniformity.We hope pupils will recognize their own and other'svalues and realize that one acts because of and inlight oF them.

In Birmingham we have done this in the firstgrade by comparing the life of a child in the innercity to ourselves in the suburbs. When the six- orseven-year old finds out that one child lives near theport where there are no trees and no grass, and an-other lives near the great museum with its beautifulpaintings, he can then talk about differences in com-munities. Knowledge of and interest in others maylead to the question, "Should we care about peoplewho do not live in our neighborhood?"

In the second grade we compare how some dino-saurs adapted to change, some did not; how earlyman adapted to change, and how people today adaptto change in tribal societies, in newly industrializedcountries, and how we ourselves accommodate tochange. Pupils learn that change can take manyforms and that accommodation can be physical orcultural. It is possible to change one's environmentby reading poetry, decorating one's house, playingmusic, or making new friends. Beauty is part ofman's environment, and he can control it and createit.

When values inquiry is a part of content, our re-ports from teachers and parents indicate a great in-crease in motivation. As for evaluation, Birminghamhas sent a statement to teachers and parents that pu-pils will not be "graded" on their solution to a prob-lem but on the degree of insight, ability to make in-ferences, ability to hypothesize, and ability to applyinformation to a new problem with factual thor.

4,k4v,


oughness in defense of their value judgment.There are those who feel as long as children learn

to reason, that reason will take care of all decision-making. We do not share this point of view. Ignoringthe impact of the values dilemma after careful rea-soning is to ignore the reality of human relations. Toassume that all thinking people will come to asimilar solution to a problem on the basis of havingsimilar inforination is a gross oversimpliEcation aswell as an ice-cold approach to personal and culturalvalues and differences.

The research of Piaget is sometimes cite4 to sup-port the idea that young children cannot handlemultidimensional problems. It has been our experi-ence that pupils can handle more than one dimen-sion of a problem providing they are presented oneat a time. This can be done in a cumulative and ad-ditive fashion, at least through grade 4.6

We are firmly committed to the idea that everyunit, from confrontation and data-gathering to val-ues inquiry and decision-making must be plannedahead of the time it is taught. We do not believe wecan rely on pupils to bring up value questions whenthey are "ready" for them because (i) the prejudicedchild will bring a value-laden topic up withoutenough background for the class to discuss it, leavingthe teacher to agree or disagree with the child, orworse yet, to ignore him or silence him; (2) theapathetic child will not see the value question as rel-evant to the facts; he can memorize monsoons andnot care about the people of India; (3) the frightenedchild will wait to see where everyone else standsmorality by consensus; (4) the quiet, thoughtful childmay be troubled and receive no help.

It is our belief that the sequence and the contentshould be planned so that value questions for eachage and maturity level do come up at a time and in away that children can learn to handle them. In sodoing, we separate teaching values from raising valuequestions and thcreby teach children how to handlevalue questions. Hopefully these children as adultswill not say, "We don't discuss religion and politics."After all, what else is there to talk about!

New Materials

Many of the new materials now coming on themarket are disappointing in the values area. They doorganize content in terms of generalizations or con-cepts, and they do present topics for thoughtful com-parison of similarities and differences. Most stopthere without adequately developing the values di-

Consultants on this part of the project were Dr. IrvingE. Sigel, Chairman of Research, Merrill-Palmer Institute, De-troit, Michigan, and Mrs. Annemarie Roeper, Director of LowerSchool, Roeper City and Country School, Bloomfield Hills.Michigan.

mension of topics. Perhaps this stems in part fromfear of public reaction to debate in the classroom andin part from lack of appreciation for the role of val-ues in achieving conceptual and thinking goals.

Role of the TeacherThere is a point of view that values and value in-

quiry should be taught separately from history andthe other social sciences. Our experience suggests thatseparate values discussions place too great a burdenon the teacher's ego and the teacher's role. It leads to"What is right, Miss Jones?" and to teachers eitherpreaching values or playing the devil's advocatewith pupils. The latter role may suggest to the pupilsthai. nol everyone has to be committed to values andapply them courageouslythat it is enough to beable to argue the opposing view cleverly. Betweenpreaching and complete relativity lies the area we aremost interested in: values applied to reason, leadingto commitment and action.

If we rely on the teacher alone and unassisted tohandle each issue raised, we are expecting everyteacher to have enough background in psychology,sociology, and anthropology to understand values,and sufficient strength of ego to deal with value ques-tions without being threatened in the process. Webelieve that the curriculum documents should pro-vide the teacher with background information on se-lected issues as well as suggestions as to how suchmatters should be handled. This ensures not onlythat value questions will come up but will be treatedin a manner least threatening to the teacher and theparents.

The form of the teacher's guide of a values-cen-tered curriculum must provide clear and honeststatements of purpose for teachers and parents in aneasy-to-read design. Lack of confidence of elementaryteachers in subject matter and in values discussionsmake many teachers and principals feel, "Well, atleast we can teach map and globe skills and how touse the library." Many people avoid controversy bykeeping the focus on mountains, earth science, anddescriptions of occupations around the world.

We think pupils need to know not only whereplaces are and how to locate them but why we careabout the people who live there. We agree that skillsmust be learned but in context in the solving of realproblems. Then motivation is high because the pupillearns the skills as he discovers the need for them.The format of the guide should help the teacher andthe principal keep the program integrated and se-quential. We hope to avoid the situation in which ateacher "studied the South" for four months with afifth grade class; then when queried about how hehandled the race question, answered, "You know, itnever came up."

Guaranteeing the Values Component

PRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHER(Continued from page 38)

humanistic* approaches to psycho1ogy. 14It may well be that many teachers believe that

their values are humanic. However, from the pointof view of social scientists, much that goes on inclassrooms is stereotyped, manipulative, and basedor conflicting value orientations.15

We are undoubtedly concerned with a problemthat is of vital importance to education and indeed

*Labels are inadequate and not very meaningful. I usethis one to give the general emphasis without clarifying thespecific details.

"See Arthur Combs and Donald Snygg. Individual Be-havior: A Perceptual Approach to Behavior, 2nd ed. NewYork: Harper and Row, 1959; Abraham H. Maslow. TowardA Psychology of Being. Princeton, New Jersey: Van Nostrand,1962; Carl Rogers. On Becoming A Person. Boston: HoughtonMifflin Company, 1961; Frank T. Severin, editor. HumanisticViewpoints in Psychology. A Book of Readings. New York:McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1965.

13 See Jules Henry. Culture Against Man. New York: Ran-dom House, 1963; Seymour B. Sarason, Kenneth Davidson andBurton Black. The Preparation of Teachers. New York: Wileyand Sons, 1962; Donald N. Michael. The Next Generation:The Prospects Ahead for the Youth of Today and Tomorrow.New York: Vintage Books, 1965.

47

to civilization. Our ignorance is great and our knowl-edge meager, but our need to learn and to act is ur-gent. Our social problems, both national and inter-national emphasize this urgency.

Looking at the societal need, Gardner analyzed theproblem as follows:

We are beginning to understand how to educate forrenewal but we must deepen that understanding. If weindoctrinate the young person in an elaborate set offixed beliefs, we are ensuring his early obsolescence.The alternative is to di velop skills, attitudes, habits ofmind and the kinds of knowledge and understanding thatwill be the instruments of continuous change and growthon the part of the young person. Then we will havefashioned a system that provides for its own continuousrenewal.16

the last analysis, only the valuing teacher canensure a classroom environment designed to encour-age the development of the valuing process in chil-dren.

"John W. Gardner. Self-Renewal: The Individual and theInnovative Society. New York: Harper Colophon, 1965 edition.c. 1963.

MIDDLE AND UPPER GRADES(Continued from page 4o)

Farm" were studied in light of the Brinton thesis. Atthe termination of the study, the children under-stood the causes of revolution and some might haveeven resolved the value question regarding thejustification if not of revolution, per se, then of aparticular revolution. However, it is very doubtful ifthe children had any empathy for revolutionaries at-tempting to achieve equality of rights. The problembecame one of attempting to have the children feelas nearly as possible how people can be moved to re-volt. To this end the following situation evolved.

One day shortly following their discussions on rev-olution, a "new" teacher who was to replace the"regular" teacher was introduced to the class. The"new" teacher then changed existing classroom pro-cedures. The children who had been seated in a semi-circular grouping were separated by the "new"teacher into two groups on the basis of eye color.One group was composed of only blue-eyed children,the other group contained other-color-eyed children.Any contact between the two groups was forbidden.Two separate doors for entrance to and exit from theclassroom were used, one by the blue-eyed group andone by the other-colored-eye group. Separate toilet

,..

"George Orwell. Animal Farm. New York: The New Ameri-can Library Inc., 1946.

tr,

facilities, water fountains and lunchroom tables wereassigned to the two groups. The "new" teacher in-formed the blue-eyed children that they were to sitonly in the seats at the rear of the school bus whencoming to or returning from school. The blue-eyedchildren were made to feel inferior in other ways be-cause their toilets and drinking fountains were lo-cated at a greater distance from the classroom andbecause their table in the lunchroom was in a less de-sirable location. Separation of the two groups was re-inforced by taking the children to the playgroundand lunchroom using different doors for both groupsand by having children use the different tables whileeating their lunches. Complete and total segregationof the blue-eyed group from the rest of the class wasaccomplished approximately one hour after the"new" teacher had entered the classroom. It was atthis point that the "new" teacher left the classroomintimating that he would return again the followingday and that the "old" or "regular" teacher wouldnow resume her role. The children reacted immedi-ately after the "new" teacher left the classroom. Theydemanded that they be allowed to resume their form-er semi-circular seating arrangement in spite of thewarnings that the "new" teacher would return. Sev-eral children suggested that they act as a delegation


to the principal to urge the dismissal of the "new"teacher. Other children requested permission to tele-phone their parents in order to be taken home andhopefully transferred to other rooms or schools. Stillother children vowed never to return to school andothers even suggested various means, violent andotherwise, of ridding themselves of the "new" teach-er.

After further venting of feeling and some discus-sion of their situation, the children began to realizethat they had been suggesting revolutionary measuresas a means of improving their lot for much the samereasons that other groups had revolted at other timesand in other places. For the first and only time intheir lives these children were able to appreciate howand why people can be driven to revolt.

The children were now in the optimum positionof fully understanding the causes of revolution (thecognitive realm) and of having participated in a rev-olutionary movement of sorts (the affective realm).They were adequately prepared to make the value

judgment concerning the use of revolution as ameans of achieving equality of rights. From thispoint it was a relatively simple matter to make thetransition to a discussion concerning the "NegroRevolu tion."

The subtitle of this paper is "A Rationale forTeaching But Not Transmitting Values." In totali-tarian countries the rigid transmission of one valuesystem is what is taught in school, whereas in a de-mocracy such as ours it seems proper that education,and especially the education of young children,should be concerned with teaching them not onlyunderstanding about their own culture and its valuesbut about other cultures and other value systems aswell. In addition, it is incumbent upon our schoolsto teach children the skills necessary to make intelli-gent choices among the alternativos and to create sit-uations whereby feelings about value-questions maybe appreciated. The point of view presented is nei-ther novel nor unique;,---lwevi--it is one aboutwhich teachers should take a firm position.

LEARNING RESOURCES(Continued fronz page 42)

Additional evidence from film research suggests thatfor the influence of films on attitudes to be lasting, anumber of films meeting the above criteria must beused over a considerable length of time. Of course,there may always be the exception of a film so power-ful and so perfectly matched to audience predisposi-tions and purposes that it may have lasting effects.

Role playing is another learning activity having anumber of attributes that support the examination ofvalues and attitudes. One is that practically all ele-mentary school children can readily engage in thisactivity, becoming more perceptive and adept at deal-ing with human conflicts as they advance to the uppergrades. Because role playing requires a certain spon-taneity and is unscripted, it lends itself to the imme-diate analysis of many kinds of human situations. Us-ing the front of fictitious names, role playing also af-fords protection for the individual who is defending orespousing a point of view. If a participant is taken totask by his classmates, his defense is that he wasmerely the mouthpiece for the other person he repre-sented.

Referring to the process of value internalization, assuggested by the Taxonomy, higher level organiza-tion of feeling will be assisted if the teacher engagesthe pupils in an objective analysis of the problem ex-plored. For those readers who may not have hadmuch experience in role playing, the followingsuggestions may be useful.

1. In setting the stage for role playing, ask the childrenfor problems they wish to explore. List these on thechalkboard, but make no qualitative remarks.

2. Ask them to choose the problem they wish to act out.3. Discuss the details of the problem so that the partici-

pants will know specific kinds of points to express.

4. Ask for volunteers for the various roles, being care-ful not to force any child into a role. If the dass appearsreluctant to participate, forego role playing until a morepropitious moment.

5. Let the children choose names for the actors. Pre-pare name tags to provide the "protection" elementin role playing.

6. If the role playing "wanders," interrupt to ask for areappraisal of the roles or the situation.

7. Since role playing does not require a prescribed be-ginning or ending, the teacher should be alert todiscontinue it at the moment it appears that theproblem has been explored adequately.

8. As a variation, ask another group to role play the samesituation showing how the conflict and its solution mayhave developed in a different direction.

9. Help the class to organize its thoughts about theelements of the problem and the factors that remainto be explored, thus moving higher on the internaliza-tion hierarchy surestecl by the Taxonomy.

The important points to remember in summaryare that values in the elementary social studies maybe developed successfully' with a variety of learningresources if the teacher (1) is cognizant of the charac-teristics of values as suggested in the Taxonomy, (2)provides learning experiences tha t promote personalinvolvement, and (3) requires overt response to andobjective examination of the factors involved in thevalue or attitude.

'.7,61.710, F?'11.7".r,A7FAT,AIN, Fey


focus on skillsBOARD OF ADVISORS

CHARLOTTE CRABTREE

Assistant Professor of EducationUniversity of CaliforniaLos Angeles, California









GILBERT M. WILSONChairman, Department of ElementaryEducationBoston UniversityBoston, Massachusetts


The Role of Skillsin Elementary Social Studies

b y HELEN MCCRACKEN CARPENTERProfessor of History

Trenton State College

THE gentle groundswell of change that characterized socialstudies instruction for many decades has become in the last fewyears a volcanic eruption of colloquy, publication, experimenta-

tion, and reform. From all indications, the streams of educational lavacan be expected to well forth at an even greater rate in the next fewyears. The extent to which this flow is likely to seep into the classroomsto benefit the social studies teaching and learning of the three Ameri-cans in every ten now enrolled in formal education cannot be assessedat this time. Herein lies the difficulty in attempting to take bearingson the current situation in any definite way. Analysis, of necessity atthis time, involves factors tha t are fluid.

Skill development in elementary social studies is not at the forefrontof attention in the current ferment. Of the forty projects within thenational spotlight, less than a fourth deal in any way with the ele-mentary grades and most of these focus on subject-matter content ormaterials. Only three touch the core of concern here, and the findingsof these are not yet available. It is necessary then to look at implica-tions of general developments in considering the function of skills inelementary social studies.

POINTS OF CONTINUING AGREEMENT

Skill development has always been recognized as an important re-sponsibility of elementary education. In fact, the need to teach youngcitizens the three R's was advanced as a major justification wheneverand wherever the drive to establish public schools was underway. Con-cern for competence in reading, written expression, and arithmetic, now

Elementary Education Supplementpublished four times a year.

Financed by the MARY G. KELTY FUND

220 Social Education March 1967

dignified as "the new math," is still central to the goalsand curriculum for six- to twelve-year-okls. Achieve-ment in these basic skills is of vital concern to socialstudies instruction because reading with all its variedpurposes and formswords, pictures, charts, graphs,tables, mapsparallels with increasing utility, as anavenue to learning in this field, the growing maturityof the child; mathematics supplies the foundationnecessary to progress in developing a sense of timeand chronology; and the expression of ideas and un-derstandings in writing is, next to behavior, thetruest yardstick of comprehension. As horizons ineducation widened, other skills were added to theprogram. Examples include the cluster concernedwith locating, organizing, evaluating, and applyinginformation; communicating orally; participating ingroup undertakings; listening; and observing. Therelevancy of all these to progress in social studies isadmitted and responsibility for fostering competenceis accepted. Concern today then does not involve lackof recognition, by either teachers or administrators,of the need for skill development in the social studiesprogram.

There is common acknowledgment also of the re-ciprocal relation of factors involved in the instruc-tional situation. One helpful result accruing fromviewpoims of psychologists shaping current thinkinghas been to highlight the inextricable relationshipexisting among all elements in the educational pro-cessobjectives, subject matter, method, materials,pupilsthat has been obscured at different times inthe past as the spotlight swung, over-emphasizing onefactor and then another. The same is true within thecategory of objectives. The close connection of thecognitive to the affective realmsof knowledge andintellectual skills and abilities to attitudes, apprecia-tions, and valuesis manifest. Knowledge suppliesthe substance for the development of skills and pro-vides standards necessary to value formation. Intel-lectual skills function both in the gaining of knowl-edge and in the process of valuing. In turn, affectiveelements color interpretation of knowledge and theeffectiveness of skill development.

Among the several classifications of goals to whichsocial studies teaching is directed, agreement is gen-eral that the development of skills should receivemajor attention. The scales tip heavier to skills thanto knowledge because of the rapid rate in the obso-lescence of much information today and, therefore,of the diminished transfer value of knowledge. Skills,however, represent more generalized learnings andthus are likely to be applicable continually in all fac-ets of an individual's life. With reference to valueformation, skill development weighs somewhatheavier for different re2rons. The heart of the matterhere concerns substantive valuesthe qualities ofmind and character constituting moral eXcellence inan individual as well as concepts of ideals, customs,

and institutions necessary to the good society. In apluralistic nation like ours, social studies instructionin public schools cannot approach this area head-on.It can teach the process of making value judgments.Because skills are generally considered to pertain toprocess rather than to product of learning, skill de-velopment provides children with basic tools for ar-riving at their own values.

Unanimity continues also on the identification ofskills that should be developed. The new socialstudies incorporates no categories beyond those setforth in the 33rd Yearbook of the National Councilfor the Social Studies.1 Hence, on need, relative im-portance, and scope of skills in elementary socialstudies, thinking has changed little in recent years. Itis in the approach to skill development involvingmethod and organization that challenging considera-tions arise from the current stirrings.

Focus ON INQUIRY THROUGH PROBLEM-SOLVING

Accelerated exploration of the nature of intellectu-al growth as a key to improvement of educational ex-periences has been a major trend in the ferment ofthe last decade. Perhaps the most seminal single stim-ulus to the movement was the appearance of Brun-er's capsule-size Process of Education,2 reportingfindings of experimental programs in science andmathematics as well as the thinking of scholars froma variety of fields participating in the 1959 WoodsHole Conference. Renewed attention to inquiry, ordiscovery, as a method of learning to think is thefacet of the total trend with the most pertinency inthe consideration nf skill development. Inquiry isconsidered to be the process by which a child, moreor less independently, comes to perceive relationshipsamong factors in his environment or between ideasthat previously had no meaningful connection. Thenew understandings evolve through application andreorganization of past experiences. Insight and self-confidence grow as the child meets successfully situa-tions of increasing abstractness and complexity; as hemoves up the ladder from observation, classification,and application to generalization.

Thus the inquiry approach views the learner as anactive thinkerseeking, probing, processing datafrom his environment toward a variety of destina-tions along paths best suited to his own mental char-acteristics. It rejects passiveness as an ingredient ofeffective learning and the concept of the mind as areservoir for the storage of knowledge presentedthrough expository instruction directed toward a pre-determined, closed end. The inquiry method seeks toavoid the dangers of rote memorization and verbali-

1 Helen McCracken Carpenter, editor. Skill Development inSocial Studies. Thirty-third Yearbook. Washington, D.C.: Na-tional Council for the Social Studies, 1963.

Jerome S. Bruner. The Process of Education. Cambridge:Harvard University Press, 196e.

zation as well as the hazard of fostering dependencyin citizens as learners and thinkers. Advantages of theinquiry approach are considered to be in self-direc-tion as a motivating factor for learning and in de-velopment of a form of mental behavior essential ina democratic society. The measure of ultimate successin education through inquiry lies in the degree towhich the teacher becomes unnecessary as a guide.

The parallelism of ideas such as these being exam-ined today to John Dewey's concepts of long ago is

evident. Dewey's belief in the development ofreflective thinking by means of inquiry shaped thephilosophy and functioning of the children's schoolfounded at the University of Chicago in the mid-1890's.3 In the years following, Dewey elaborated hisideas on reflective thinking and its relation to educa-tion in a democratic society4 that Kilpatrick5 as hisdisciple helped keep dominant into the Twentiesand Thirties. Although the last three decades havewitnessed many changes in American education, thedesirability of developing citizens who are indepen.dent and skilled inquirers has been recognized intheory even though efforts to realize the goal lan-guished. To Dewey and to leaders in the currentmovement, an important approach, or strategy, facil-itating inquiry is problem-solving. Dewey's analysisof the mental state involved has become a classic,... reflective thinking, in distinction from other operationsto which we apply the name of thought, involves 1) a stateof doubt, hesitation, perplexity, mental difficulty, in whichthinking originates, and 2) an act of searching, hunting,inquiring, to find material that will resolve the doubt, settleand dispose of the perplexity.°

Although slight differences in classification of theelements involved in problem-solving exist, the pat-tern is essentially as follows but does not necessarilyproceed neatly in the rank order given:1. an awareness and identification stage

Consisting of a feeling of disturbance, perception offactors involved, and clarification of the core of theobstacle

2. a data-processing stageIncluding collecting, organizing, and evaluating rele-vant information

3. an analytical-synthesizing stageInvolving comparing, contrasting, inferring, specu-lating, and applying in hypothesis formation

4. a critical, testing stageConstituting probing the validity of hypotheses, re-constructing data, reaching plausible conclusions in

3 John Dewey. University Record. 417-422, No. 32; Novem-ber 6, 1896.

4 . Democracy and Education. New York: The Mac-millan Company, 1916; How We Think. Boston: D. C. Heathand Company, 1933.

5 William H. Kilpatrick. The Project Method. New York:Teachers College Bureau of Publications, Columbia University,1919.

Op. cit., How We Think, p. 116.

Skills in Elementary Social Studies 221

the foutt of tentative principles useful in the next en-counter

These ideas seem like old friends to many elemen-tary school teachers who have long used problems asa means of getting their pupils to think critically.The current emphasis on inquiry, however, high-lights interesting considerations about skills and theproblems approach as a means for developing them.

hIPLICATIONS FOR SKILL DEVELOPMENT

Most important is the fact that the problems ap-proach, as often interpreted, does not necessarily pro-mote the goals of the inquiry method. The crux ofthe matter concerns the difference between inductiveand deductive learning. Inquiry emphasizes the in-ductive process. Learning experiences set up in prob-lem form may, or may not, call for inductive proce-dures, depending on the nature of the problem andwhat the learner is required to do. For example, if aproblem is posed as "How do the religious beliefs ofsome people in India increase famine there?", thelearner is pointed toward religion and hunger. Therelationship is established; his job is to prove it withspecific data. If the question is put a little lessspecifically, "Why does India continue to have ashortage of food?", there is no real change in the na-ture of the task especially if sub-problems are at-tached, such as, "What is the popu3a don of India?""What methods of farming are used?" "What doesIndia have to offer other countries in trade?" Thislearning experience is not designed to give pupils anopportunity to develop and test hypotheses; they arecalled on to proceed deductively. A corollary to thisapproach often is the use of materials that supply theanswers organized in the same way the information isrequested.

If, on the other hand, the problem is posed in amore open-ended way, such as "What accounts forproblems facing India today?", and materials areprovided that give data of various kindsgeographic,demographic, cultural, politicalthe task of finding,assimilating, evaluating, testing, rejecting, re-apply-ing, deciding is left to the child. There is room fordisagreement among pupils on the relative impor-tance of causes and the effectiveness of possiblecourses of action. The learner is given the chance todraw relationships himself rather than to explain orsupport those made for him. The strategies employedby a child working inductively are revealing indica-tors of thinking style and intellectual growth.7

For more detailed discussion of these aspects than is per-mitted here, see Fannie R. Shaftel, Charlotte Crabtree, andVivian Rushworth. "Problem Solving in the Elementary School"in The Problems Approach and the Social Studies, edited byRichard E. Gross, Raymond H. Muessig, and George L. Fersh.Curriculum Bulletin No. 9, revised edition. Washington, D.C.:National Council for the Social Studies, 1960. pp. 25-47; Char-


Skills Teaching in the Primary Gradesby JOHN JAROLIMEK*

Professor of Elementary EducationUniversity of Washington

THE term skill is applied to the ability to dosomething with some degree of expertness inrepeated performances. To have a skill or to

be skillful, however, is usually something of a rela-tive matter. The kindergarten child is highly skillfulin his use of language when compared with a two-year old. We would say that he is less skillful in mostthings he does when compared with an upper-gradepupil. Adequacy of skill development must not onlytake into account the expertness of performance perse, but the age and prior background of the learner.

When children enter the primary grades, they havealready developed a number of skills. They can carryon conversations with others, follow directions, takecare of many of their personal needs, play simplegames; some can read. Such skills are essential for or-dinary living. Left unattended and untutored, thechild will improve these skills simply through con-tinued use. The refinement of the skills the child haswhen he comes to school and the learning of othersthat are introduced as a part of the curriculum willbe greatly enhanced through careful and systematicinstruction. From the moment the child entersschool, his continued success in the school environ-ment will depend to a significant degree on the ex-tent to which he is able to learn and use essentialskills.

There can be no doubt that well developed skillsenhance the ability to do other school-related tasks.Conversely, poorly developed skills result in arrestedschool progress. Pupils who are off to a poor start intheir skill development in the primary grades fallfarther and farther behind in their overall achieve-ment. Eventually the deficit accumulates to a pointthat becomes overwhelming to the pupil and nearlyimpossible for him to overcome. School dropouts atthe high school level invariably present histories ofskill deficiencies that can be traced to the earliestgrades in school. Skill competence strengthens thechild's positive perception of himself, an importantcomponent of school success. The child uses skills todeal with the social world confronting him, and con-sequently, skills contribute directly to his social com-petence. It would be hard to underestimate the vitalrole primary grade teachers play in ensuring a suc-

* This article is a substitute for one of the same title that wassolicited from another author but not received.

222

cessful introduction of the child to the skills pro-gram.

In the primary grades it is almost impossible toseparate social studies skills from the skills objectivesof the total primary grade program. There is no par-ticular reason to label certain skills as being theunique province of the social studies, providing es-sential skills get the instructional attention they de-serve. The advantage of singling out social studiesskills in the curriculum is to ensure that they are in-cluded and taught systematically. Moreover, skillspresented in a social studies context 'can often betaught in a more realistic and functional setting thanwhen presented either in isolation or in the frame-work of another curriculum area, as for example,in the reading program.

In the first article of this supplement, ProfessorCarpenter has noted that in spite of the concern forsocial studies revision in recent years, no new skillshave been identified. Essential skills persist in theirimportance in modern programs even though therehave been some shifts in emphasis. Uniqueness inskills teaching does not come through the discoveryof some new skill but in imaginative approaches tothe teaching of those that have always been regardedas important. The social studies skills with which theprimary grade teacher is concerned are less complexvariations of skills that continue to receive attentionthroughout the total program.

One large group of such skills deals basically witha variety of intellectual operations. Thinking, askingquestions, using language, solving problems, inter-preting stories and pictures, and making simple anal-yses are a few examples of skills of this type. In mostcases they are related to the informational content ofthe program. They do not deal basically with gettinginformation but with interpreting, processing, andusing information. In the following example, noticehow the teacher is building thinking skills with herfirst graders:

The teacher selected a picture from a magazine advertis-ing a dishwasher. The picture shows a young mother re-moving sparkling clean dishes from the washer while herdaughter (about a six-year old) looks on. One can see abright, modern kitchen and the landscape greenerythrough the kitchen window. The teacher prepared the fol-lowing questions in connection with this picture:

T.. -Aya,r*

i. Is the mother taking the dishes out or putting themin the washer?

2. Is this a large or small family?3. Does this family have a comfortable home?4. What season of rhe year is it?5. What might other )criembers of the family be doing at

this time?6. Do you think the lady is the little girl's mother?7. Is this a city home or a farm home?

The purpose of this exercise is not to establishright or wrong answers to the questions. Indeed, itwould be impossible to determine precisely the right-ness or wrongness of some of them. For example, onecould not be sure about the size of the family by thenumber of dishes used; the family may have hadguests, or the dishes may be an accumulation frommore than one meal. Similarly, the season of the yearcould not be verified by the presence of greenery be-cause some parts of the country are green the yeararound. Pupils could be expected to point out thesepossibilities, and while they may select what theythink is the most likely answer, the door should bekept open to the consideration of other alternatives.In activities of this type, it is more important to con-sider a variety of possibilities and have pupils givereasons why a response is plausible than to agree ona right answer. (This degree of flexibility would notbe acceptable, however, in considering factual ques-tions where correctness can be established. Factualquestions serve a different purpose from those de-signed to encourage reflective thought.)

Other examples of intellectual skills can be de-veloped around such situations as these:

1. Identifying sequencesWhat happenedhappened next; what happened last?

2. Considering alternative solutionsCan you think ofanother way to do it? What are some other ways theman could have solved his problems?

3. Differentiating between fact and fictionWhat partsof the story are true and what parts are make-believe?How can we find out if something is true?

4. Developing sensitivity to wordsCan you think ofwords that make you feel happy? Sad? Angry?

5. Predicting or speculating on outcomes of situationsHow do you suppose the problem was solved? What doyou suppose will happen next?

Telling pupils to think or adnionishing them fornot thinking are not effective methods for developingintellectual skills even though such practices in oneform or another are fairly common. More productiveapproaches call for the pupil to respond to simplequestions of the reflective type that may not have asingle answer but force him to consider many alter-natives, predict likely consequences of each, and de-cide the best course of action. There can be little ifany thinking if the pupil does not have to consideralternatives in situations that involve choice or deci-sion-making.

first; what

-4V041..tr-tt.,4,141.tno

Skills in the Primary Grades 223

The importance of intellectual skills, and especial-ly thinking skills, is often overlooked in the primarygrades because of the widespread belief that onegains knowledge first and then uses that knowledgefor thinking purposes at some later time. As a resultthe development of thinking abilities of young chil-dren has not always been the concern of primarygrade teachers. Children at this level were expectedto build literacy and work-study skills and expandtheir backgrounds of information. Thinking wouldcome later. There is no evidence to support the no-tion that knowledge acquisition and knowledge usein the thinking process are separate and discretefunctions. In fact, the practice of disassociating askill from its functional context is rejected as un-sound practice in most other realms of skill develop-ment. It is unfortunate that it should persist inteaching pupils the most important skill of all,namely, thinking.

A second large group of skills important to theprimary grade social studies involves social relation-ships. They include ordinary social skills needed forharmonious living and working with others, as wellas those more structured skills related to instruction-al processes, i.e., working on a small committee, con-tributing to a group project, participating in classdiscussions, and so forth. These skills are the concernof the total curriculum of the elementary school, ofcourse, but the social studies provide excellent set-tings in which to teach them because of the nature ofinstructional processes associated with this area ofthe curriculum.

The most important point that could be made inconnection with social relationship skills is that theyneed to be taught. It is often assumed that all that isrequired are activities in which pupils can apply andpractice them. Consequently, pupils are forced tolearn the skills of social interaction on a trial anderror basis. In the process the teacher may becomeannoyed, isolate those pupils who were not "coopera-tive," and return the others to their seats to a moreformal instructional posture. While there might betimes when a child should be separated from theothers, no child ever learned the skills of social inter-action while he was in isolation. Neither do classeslearn such skills in formal instructional settingswhere social interaction is not allowed or is discour-aged.

A third category of social studies skills has to domainly with the use of learning resourcts and toolsincluding simple map and globe reading, knowingwhere to go for information needed, how to speakbefore the class, reading signs and symbols, and othersimilar operations. They are commonly called work-study skills. The need for instructional attention tothese skills has been generally accepted through the


Building Skillin the

b y

Asso

s for Social Study

Middle Grades0. L . DAVIS, JR.

date Professor of EducationThe University of Texas

STUDYING social phenomena involves childrenin abundant knowledge. Not only is adequateprior knowledge necessary to embarking on a

study, the acquisition of increased k owledge is a de-sired instructional objective. But social study also re-quires skills and should also result in increased skilldevelopment. Indeed, to neglect skills in social studyis not to study at all.

Basic to social study is the development of sensitiv-ity and openness to situations, data, and problems.This essential awareness, dulled too frequently in thefirst school years, is not uncommonly expressed inpupils' apathy toward the social studies in the mid-dle grades. Diagnosis must admit that most middlegrade pupils are confronted with a real problem:how to "get through" the mass of conclusions withwhich they are faced. This closed and circumscribedperception of the social studies often makes thestudies seem unreal and irrelevant to pupils. Conse-quently, skills become rituals rather than importanttools for learning. Yet the important social problemsand situations, and probably most of the small ortrivial ones, are not closed to study except as individ-uals believe them to be. Corrective measures wouldinclude a variety of procedures.

As a begin ing, pupils could be encouraged totrust their own experiencing. Does the situation seemreal to me? Have I had an experience like that one?What might I do in such a situation? I've neverknown a name like that; isn't it interesting? To asksuch que tions is to be personally open and engagedwith a true problem and to encounter and considerreal data.

Another practical step is to foster pupils' awarenessof and acquaintance with multiple data sources.Knowing that additional data might reveal presentlyunrecognized dimensions to the study of a situationencourages inquiry. For example, fifth graders mightconsider: If we had a letter from one of Custer'stroopers written before departing for his final battle,might it help us understand the ideas about Indiansheld by the frontier cavalrymen? Or, in our study ofthe development of cities, how would telephone di-rectories over a period of years be helpful? Opennessto sources of data can take many forms, but it must

224

exist and develop continuously if adequate socialstudy is to proceed.

Observation by pupils provides perceptions andinformation in their study; it is the means by whichthey gather data. To observe, one must know how tofocus his senses and know the relevant sources. Inmost social studies programs, pupils' observation isrestricted to reading and, as a consequence, socialstudy is grotesquely identified by many as reading thetextbook.

Reading is more than an appropriate observation-al procedure. Because most materials, both primaryand secondary, are printed, increasing skill in read-ing is essential to social study. Nevertheless, readingmust not be seen as the only or even the most impor-tant skill as pupils study various topics. Althoughmost pupils use reading as a means of gaining infor-mation, instructional strategy should include an op-tion for some to read very little ,or even nothing.Rather than lament the low reading skills of some, orberate school policy that does not provide socialstudies materials at several reading levels, construc-tive alternatives are possible. For example, when pu-pils examine a picture of an English town to identifyarchitectural features that differ from their owntown, they are both observing and using the text.

The adopted textbook, long represented as the vil-lain by reformers of classroom instruction, persists asan important observational source. Over the yearssocial studies texts have been improved; they are ac-cepted to be accurately written, however general, andto contain a number of aids to pupils. Maps, pic-tures, charts, questions, suggested activities, color,and type size variability help make the contemporarytextbook a flexible instructional resource. Neverthe-less, it is abused primarily by misconceiving it asbeing like a novel or like a set of footprints everyonemust follow at the same time and at the same pace. Atextbook is not meant to be read from cover to coverfor the story. It has large divisions and small seg-ments. A unit in the middle of the book may bestudied appropriately before a section at e.e first ofthe book. Some segments need not be read by everypupil. These comments are not to suggest that text-books have no logical organization or that they con-

tain non-essential information. Rather, they are toassert that classes and pupils have a logic to theirstudy and therefore require information that maydiffer from that of other groups. Moreover, the pu-pils may need the information organized in a waythat does not conform to the organizational patternof the text.

Pupils in the middle grades should also have theopportunity to gather datathrough readingfrom anumber of sources other than their textbook. Im-proved elementary school libraries usually have stan-dard references available, such as encyclopedias andatlases, current periodicals, novels, and other booksappropriate for use in sia1 study. Increasingly, pu-pils need access to specialized reference works (e.g.,Who's Who in several fields, statistical abstracts, ti-tles limited to a treatment of a single country, peri-od, etc.). Modern technology now makes possible ac-quisition by school libraries of microfilmed materi-als (e.g., books, magazines, newspapers). Yet, availabil-ity of a number of data sources is not, in itself, suffi-cient.

Take the case of one sixth grader. To encouragethe pupils to consult several references, the teacherrequired that they list at least six books they padused in the preparation of their report. For one boywho chose as his study, "England in World War II,"this requirement clearly frustrated study. Must heread all of the six books he found? ("I don't havetime to read so much.") Would one book he liked (acollection of photographs) qualify? How could he"take" something from each book for his report?("This would make my report a mish-mash.") Therewas no attention to notetaking, to paraphrasing, to"copying"; no attention to important and irrelevantobservations nor to noting an observer's own impres-sions. Under such conditions, observation becomeschaotic, random, haphazard, and, not uncommonly,yields sloppy study procedures and work habits, notto mention careful and guarded deception and dis-honesty designed to satisfy the requirements.

But in many situations observation needs to be ex-panded beyond reading. Pictures, films, filmstrips,recordings, and maps and globes are data sources andrequire specific skills for their use. Looking forimpressions, examining details, viewing for specificobjectives, listeningthese serve to illustrate the widerange of opportunities to observe non-printed ma-terial.

Essential to most social study is observation usingoneself, other people, and the realia of social life.Older children must be aided in understanding thestrengths and limitations of their own personal ob-servations, including factors like distortion due toemotion, selective perception of details, and generalregularity of behavior. These skills, for example, canhelp pupils look for and note differences in trafficpatterns to and from town at different times of day,

Skills in the Middle Grades 225

the routes and frequency of use by a boy going toplay and a father driving to work, and reactions of agroup of people to a street corner scuffle. Other chil-dren, adults (including the teacher), and places awayfrom school can yield relevant and valuable informa-tion in some study situations. Stereotyped by theterms of "interview" and "field trip," the activitiesmay lose some of their power. Yet, possibility forsuch observations needs to be provided. The visits ofa few pupils to the neighborhood political partyoffice can insert a significant dimension into a studyof an election; so also can pupils' reports of reactionsof two neighbors to a campaign issue. Pupil involve-ment in planning to gather data in these ways addsother facets to this observational skill.

In all observation in social study, several factorsare critical. Observation is more than seeing and lis-tening; it is the focused employment of all senses.Seeing and listening will be used most, but also im-portant are touching (the brittleness of the century-old map; the smoothness of an oft-used churn plun-ger), smelling (the aromas of the perfume bar in thedepartment store; the odors from the stockyard), andtasting (pemmican and unleavened bread). Allow-ance must be made for children to observe their ownfeelings and actions. (For example, how did I feelwhen I watched the film of President Kennedy's as-sassination? What do I remember doing as I came toschool this morning?) In the process of observation,children must also recognize the incompleteness andpossible distortion of the data gathered. Such anawareness makes them better prepared to use thedata in making inferences, deriving conclusions, andunderstanding the limitations of their study.

Even before observatibn begins, and recurringthroughout a study, pupils make predictions, bestguesses, and speculate as to the probable relevance oftypes of evidence. Recognition of information al-ready possessed makes possible fewer diversions andhelps keep efforts focused. Decisions about whichdata to gather and what priorities to assign to var-ious tasks are made, not only at the outset butthroughout the inquiry. Of continuing importance,also, is attention to the adequacy of data sources.(For example, to what extent can we give credibilityto this wire service account, this signed article, andthis report of an interview? For our study of Israel, isthe textbook map adequate? What is the map's date?Are there maps that were made at other times thatwould be important?) Recognition that additionalevidence is needed or would be helpful (even evi-dence unavailable locally) is important, too, as arecontinued openness to various types of data and tosuggestions of possible sources.

Data gathered remain bits and pieces until com-pared, contrasted, analyzed, and organized. The actu-al involvement of pupils in these processes is impor-tant, but so are their decisions as to how to proceed.


For example, is a chronological framework appropri-ate? Would a topical framework be better? Ratherthan the assignment, "Make a two-step outline," thequestion, "What data seem to go together?", is pre-ferred. Helpful at various times are summaries of sin-gle elements and of the total situation. To add vari-ety and to provide for the use of a broad range ofskills, summaries can be composed in different formsoral, narrative, pictorial, and graphic. The prep-aration of a summary may well suggest additionalcomparisons. In a study of natural resources of onestate, for example, hydroelectric power of severalstates and countries was compared by making a bargraph. Pupils' conclu ions should also be comparedwith those advanced by others. It may be profitable,too, for pupils to contrast the varied conclusions ofauthorities.

Pupils must be helped to understand and use ana-lytic techniques throughout their study. Analysis iscertainly involved in problem definition. The pvocessis also employed in developing plans for a study (priorto and during its conduct), in proposing hypotheses,working with assumptions, testing (affirming and re-jecting) assumptions, as well as in gathering andusing data. As pupils' analysis proceeds, they need tolearn to defer judgment, to assert tentative conch--sions, to consult with others about their first conclu-sions, and, yet, at some point to take a stand on con-clusions and act

Not all social study concludes by pupils' making ajudgment (evaluation) although various judgmentsmay have been exercised during the study. For an actto be evaluative, criteria must be employed. Experi-ence in establishing criteria is an obvious asset to thegeneral development of pupils. A well conductedstudy will provide them with frequent opportunitiesto learn and use certain generally agreed upon cri-teria, both external and internal, to the messagebeing judgedevidence, summary, generalization,idea, product. For example, a class can list criteriaguiding the selection of topics for individual study(e.g., is the topic specific enough? Are there enoughsources of data?) Pupils should begin to understandand gain increasing skill in applying tests of internalcriticism (e.g., accuracy of reporting, ability to tellthe truth).

One of the most neglected social study skills is theability to develop a message from accumulated evi-dence (synthesis). Too frequently, discrete data areemphasized at the expense of pupils' generalizations.Or pupils are liven a generalization without theirbeing aware of or understanding the data on whkh itrests. Generalizing, however, is not the only formsynthesis should take. It may include developingplans for individual and group reports and presenta-tions as well as the actual development of the reportoral, written, dramatic, pictorial. Teachers need torecloize, of course, that pupils reports copied from

one or several sources, under an assignment to "makea report," are patently not synthesis. A probable nec-essary requirement for the exercise of this thinkingability is that most of the process and the product arepersonal, that is, the pupil's.

In the middle grades increased attention to the useof language in social study is merited. Accuracy is anobvious objective, but there are others as well. Pupilscan begin to learn to detect distortion, bias, andpropaganda in messages. They can learn to look forand recognize the impact of usage. For example,Jefferson and his colleagues might have chosen anumber of words rather than "necessary" in theopening sentence of the Declaration of Indepen-dence. What are some of the words? How do theysound as substituteg Why do you think they choseIt necessary"? Concern for the nature of metaphor isvital as is practice in thinking about and with meta-phors. Also important is attention to slogans, theirlogic, appeal, and wes. Language experiences in so-cial studies not only foster a more precise under-standing of language but help pupils develop skill intheir own use of language.

The middle grades offer vastly increased opportu-nities for pupils to develop interpersonal skills ofworking with others. Although most social study isproperly an individual quest, pupils need not workalone on all tasks. Their study is often enhanced byworking with others in small and in large groups.Skills for such activities do not appear full-blowneven when adequately stimulated in the primarygrades. Consequently, a skill development programbegins by engaging pupils in short tasks withlimited objectives. Pupils must have opportuni-ties to analyze what they did in the group activity(e.g., Did everyone have a chance to offer suggestions?What actions seemed to get in our way?) In the pro-cess and with teacher guidance, they develop insightsthat will aid them in a decision to work on a projectas individuals or in a group. They also recognize cir-cumstances in which a group needs or does not needexplicit rules and to he able to formulate the ap-propriate structure (rules) for group action. In theseand other dimensions of group work, pupils learn tosuggest ideas and to respect the opinions of others.They learn to differ with others' ideas without re-jecting them and to deal honestly with feelings. Forchildren to gain such skills, they may engage in au-thentic projects, in role playing, simulation, and inmany other activities.

Skills of social study are not discrete. Althoughthey are described separately, they relate intimatelyto other skills. They may suffer diminished attractionwhen isolated from the knowledge to which they areconnected in the instructional setting. Nevertheless,the skills briefly noted in this discussion, and others,have substantive elements, too. For example, recog-


Using Learning Resources

in Social Studies Skill Developmentby CLARENCE 0. BERGESON

Director of Instructional ResourcesState University College

Geneseo, New York

DEVELOPING skills for dealing with socialand political problems must obviously bean important area of concern to teachers of

the social studies. True, in the secondary school onemight well expect that pupils will bring with themmany if not most of the needed basic study skills. El-

ementary teachers, on the other hand, cannot ignorethe important need for much basic skill developmentas younger children approach the task of understand-ing the people in their expanding world.

Admittedly this is both an extensive and complextask. Its complexity increases with each new commu-nication, transportation, and political innovation.Technology, the handmaiden of this "progress," addsits own unique burden of change. However, for theteacher who is willing to explore these changes, helpexists in the technology itself. It can provide effectivelearning through the use of new channels and moreefficient means of using older channels. Such learningresources have many potential uses in developing so-cial studies skills in young children.

Discussion of learning resources in this contextneeds to be based on the recognition that many ofthese materials are "newer media," and as "media"are themselves skills to be learned by the elementaryschool child. Teachers must systematically assess andprepare for such skill learning before any intelligentapproach to using media for the learning of otherskills can be successfully attempted.

What does the child see in the wandering lines onthe pages of an atlas, lines that adults so quickly rec-ognize as a map? What does a child understand inthe varying shades of gray, deep blacks and shinywhites, the straight and curving lines that modernadults so easily accept as black and white photographs?

How clearly does a child understand the implica-tions of a graphic caricature of the president of theUnited States, the symbol of a foreign land, or thestereotypes of good and bad as used in cartoons andcomic strip presentations? To what extent can achild "read" into a motion picture the intended pas-sage of time between scenes, the rapid transpositionof location, the manipulated sequence of events punc-tuated with sophisticated cinematic techniques?

Would it not be fair to say that their ability in anyof these media skills all too often develops without

227

guidance and without any certainty that needed lev-els of proficiency exist?

These children live in a world that operates withmany media, not just one. They are both a productof that multi-media world and its heirs. To be illiter-ates in any of these media, when meeting that worldis to court disaster. For their future and the futureuse of these learning resources in the school the chil-dren must learn a wide variety of modern communi-cation skills.

Fortunately, literacy can often be taught by usingthe very media in question. A class and a teacher canlook at a picture, not only as social documentationbut also as a picture. How has the picture been dis-torted or determined by the use of a special lens, aspecial angle, a special frame? What does it say andwhat does it not say?

Who took the picture and what might have beenhis biases? After all, a picture is at most a very se-lected view, a momentary cross-section of a dynamicevent. Even the singular aspect of size must be inter-preted by both photographer and viewer. To a great-er or less degree, then, the picture is an interpreta-tion; it is not a fact. It is a medium that must belearned and can be learned through a critical ap-proach by teacher and pupil.

Map "reading" skills, though universally recog-nized as important, still cannot be overemphasized.Most teachers know about the sand box or table-topdisplay as possible beginning experiences with mapmeanings. A flannelboarcl or a hook-and-loop boardprovides a good surface for more abstract approaches.The overhead projector will present simple map ma-terials as well as a large variety of commercially pro-duced map transparencies. Kits demonstrating con-cepts of map projection and distortion give opportu-nities for developing more sophisticated understand-ings. Numerous commercially produced films andfilmstrips help build skills in map meanings and mapusgse.

4 All media require an overt effort on the part of thecommunicator and the perceiver to understand the"grammar," the "rules of composition," before effec-tive learning can be expected. This is doubly true inthe social studies where the events of man and hisworld are no longer "documented" exclusively on the


printed page, but where these events can be seen,heard, and felt through an expandihg array of mediaand materials. The elementary teacher of socialstudies must be knowledgeable and sophisticated inusing these resources. He must help pupils developsimilar skills.

Flaying said that media are skills that one mustlearn and having recognized the multi-media worldpupils must face, it becomes only natural to considerthese media and related learning resources as teach-ing vehicles and techniques for learning other neededskills. In other words, these learning resources canact as tools for meeting effectively those principles oflearning that are active in skill development.

Since all too often newer media and materials con-jure up a passive role for the intended audience, itmight be appropriate to begin this part of the discus-sion by remembering that pupils learn better orbenefit more when doing the things they are learningrather than only witnessing a task. Of course, a mo-tion picture documents an event. But as such theteacher should make certain it enters the learning sit-uation as a result of the pupil's search or need for"evidence" on a topic, proklem, or project.

Pupils can actively use modern media in a numberof ways. Modern automatic equipment makes possi-ble classroom produced motion picturesa summaryreport, an event recreated, a documentary of a fieldtrip developed by the pupils and teacher. The chalk-board, and its modern counterpart, the overheadprojector, can serve as a ret order of progress in pupildiscussions or outlining the progress of group plan-ning sessions.

Television production facilities (where available)can. be a vehicle for class project reporting, for pupilinterviews of local and visiting specialists not avail-able at class time, for pupil-prepared dramatized so-cial or historic situations, and for class directed cur-rent events presentations. Closed-circuit systems withvideo recording equipment bring to classrooms theopportunity to organize and deliver a report, inter-view, or presentation; view the product; criticize andrefine the presentation in terms of content, organiza-tion, and techniques; and then record again.

Recording and editing audio tapes of a report andcombining the re9.nec1 version with slides offerssimilar possibilities for pupil participation. These ex-periences not only contribute to developing skills ineach respective media but also build skills in locatingand organizing needed information, in presentingsuch information through many media, and in view-ing critically the work they and their fellow pupilshave produced.

In building skills as in other types of learning, theneed for the experience to be meaningful to the childis imperative. Of course, such meaningfulness shouldfirst reside in the overall curriculum, the course ofstudy, and the assigned unit of work. Often, however,

it becomes necessary to start with the "now" andwork toward pupil understanding of larger goals.

Here, properly chosen karning resources can help.Of course, a diagram on a chalkboard may very wellmake the organization of a village or town percep-tually tangible and possibly more meaningful. Mo-tion pictures of past events in history, still pictures ofthe important cities of the world, bulletin board dis-plays of community service agencies all have the pos-sibilities of developing greater meaningfulness.

Perhaps teaching techniques are equally as impor-tant as the material one chooses. Why not includepupils in planning sessions? A small group can selecta filmstrip for showing to the class. Let them preparethe introduction and lead the discussion. They arecapable of some self-direction. And in the processthey will generally expose that which is and is notmeaningful to them.

Meaningfulness as a criterion for useful learningexperiences leads directly to the principle that pupilstend to learn only that which they can perceive in asituation. Skill experiences too far beyond their pres-ent level become an enigma. Past experiences colorand, in fact, control what pupil's learn.

Much is said these days of the culturally deprived.These and many other learners might more accurate-ly be described as experientially deprived. Theirhome environment, their relation with parents, theircommunity horizons, all tend to leave many childrenwithout needed experiential background for dealingwith controversial issues, with newspapers and mag-azines, with using the library, and the like. Suchdeprivation poses a real problem for the teacher ap-proaching social skill development in the elementaryschool child.

Modern media and materials can go far in reme-dying a dearth of experience in specific areas. Thegrowth of 8 mm "single concept" loop films representsone channel for help. Remedial films, filmstrips, re-cordings, maps, charts, and diagrams all are as legiti-mate a part of the classroom as remedial reading ma-terials.

The teacher might also provide an opportunity to"translate" from one media to anothera picture ofthe inauguration of a president changed into words,the data about population in a motion picture ex-tracted and built into a graph or a diagram, or aword description developed into a chart or a drawing.

Building useful social studies skills does requiremeaningful, understandable, learner-involved experi-ences. But the child facing a need to learn a skillmust have something more. How ought the pupilwork with other children in a small group, on jointprojects, in class activities? How should a democraticmeeting be run? How does one develop an organiza-tional outline for a topic summary? Guidance by theteacher becomes imperative.

Special step-by-step instructions become universally

,

available when tape recorded and placed at a listeningstation at the back of the room, in the library, or inau independent study center. You can combine tapednarration with colored slides in automatic projectorsfor pupils who need to see and hear about such thingsas example outlines or sample library cards.

Record those models of performance, of error, of ex-cellence on audio or television tape needed as refer-ence by class members, including such examples asproper parliamentary procedures and proper respectfor fellow class members when developing groupprojects. Exemplify the usual steps in approaching acontroversial social issue through a set of pictures.Emphasize the proper approach to reading a book bybuilding a bulletin board display.

The teacher need not depend exclusively on him-self for these models of skill performance. Commer-cially produced motion pictures review the steps in-volved in making a legislative bill into a law. Somefilms deal with proper and improper parliamentaryprocedure while still others explore good study hab-its closely associated to social studies skills. Filmstripscover such topics as introducing the young pupil tothe library and helping him understand the sequenceof events in history, the interpretation of time, andthe use of geographic tools. When programed intostudy tables or listening stations these materials be-come teacher-directed-activities delivered by remotecontrol.

With thousands of motion pictures presently avail-able to schools, multiple titles deal with each of themany social studies skills. One title might be used ina scheduled clas1 discussion while another could bemade available later to individuals or small groups.Where the children are very young or the school can-not provide individual pupil service, then multipleshowings might satisfy.

Another technique would be to tape record smallgroup discussions of a controversial topic. Play backthese tapes for pupils to analyze the procedure used,to see if good evidence played a part in the discus,-

sion, to check if the a'-signed topic remained the cen-ter of attention, to notice if good social studies skills

were used. Later pupils might listen to other groups;still trying to understand which procedures provedprofitable for equitable group discussion.

In other words, modern media such as television,motion pictures, still pictures, and audio tape Teadilyadapt to the need for varied replication of experi-ences when learning social studies skills. Onceplanned or prepared, these materials free the teacherfor keener observation of all pupils in the class andfor personal, individual help to a larger number of

children.This latter need to cope with each child as the

unique entity that he obviously is, remains a majorproblem for the teacher. In skill development as inother types of teaching the modern and modernized

Using Learning Resources 229

types of learning resources are finally receiving recog-

nition as potential avenues for meeting the individ-uality of children's needs.

A "library" of teaching/learning materials should

reside in the classroom, the level varying within thecollection. Introduction of concepts relating to timeand the calendar, for example, may need first of all

simple introductory manipulative materialse.g.,moving clocks of wood and clocks built on overheadtransparencies. Single concept films can range fromsimilar introductory material to the relatively sophis-ticated concepts of dates in history. A child canchoose and study the material he needs whether he

does or does not have the teacher's direct help.Documentary films, recorded speeches, and photo-

graphs all provide individual study opportunities.Assignments to evaluate such materials as sources ofinformation about historic events or social institu-tions and agencies can help the child who needs spe-cial experiences and provide expanded horizons forchildren especially motivated toward a specific topic.

.Let some children, at least, design their own over-head transparencies, tape record dramatizatiors, and

prepare feltboard presentations. If possible, arrangefor small groups to take less difficult, more special-

ized field trips, even if it is only to nearby stores.Learning resources are avenues for exploration

and development of skills for each child in a class.They should not be thought of as mass presentationprocedures or group techniques exclusively but as in-dividualized resources for unique pursuits.

Many of the resource examples and approachescited above serve more than those principles of learn-

ing and teaching already considered. Important toskill development are those characteristics of media

that provide opportunities for the pupil to see him-

self as he appears to others. More to the point, thesemedia confront him with an untouched, mirror-viewof his actions and his skills for his own evaluation.

The television taping of reports by pupils, of class-

room discussions, of small group activities, all pro-vide the pupil with a look at himself. An audio tapenarration together with still pictures requires thatthe pupil perceive his report on a topic very much asother children see it. Taking a field trip planned andprepared by pupils forces them to live and learnfrom situations of their own design.

Under such conditions the teacher frequentlychanges his role from dispenser of narks to sympa-thetic supporter and desirable guide. The child mayvery well become his own most severe critic. This be-

comes a uniquely gratifying position for the teachersince automatically his role is constructive.

Almost a corollary to the above, and certainly notto be overlooked, is the caution that success in learn-ing generally breeds success, and failure can inducefailure. Many apparent failures can more easily be


Skills in the Elementary SchoolSocial Studies Curriculum

by CLIFFORD D . FOSTERAssociate Professor of Elementary Education

University of Washington

ALTHOUGH skill development is generally

conceded to be one of the major outcomes ofsocial studies education, it is the exception

rather than the rule to find a school with a well-planned and fully functioning skills program as anintegral part of the elementary social studies curricu-lum. In an examination of statements of objectives inprofessional textbooks and in curriculum documents,one is led to believe that the learning of skills ranksequally in importance with the acquisition of con-cepts and factual understandings and with the de-velopment of attitudes and values. Some would insistthat skills are even more important, because theyconstitute the tools for learning. A closer inspectionof curriculum materials, however, reveals that theobjectives dealing with social studies skills frequentlyare not accompanied by models for the teaching ofthese skills. Although skills are among those learn-ings that are the easiest to evaluate for mastery, skillsprograms are often not operational to the extent thata thbrough-going evaluation is possible. The unfor-tunate status of skills teaching in many schools isdue, in part, to the nature of the curriculum itself.This paper examines some of the curricular dimen-sions of social studies skills teaching and learning.

Curriculum workers and teachers must givethought to various philosophical and psychologicalimplications for skill development in the elementaryschool social studies program. Philosophically, asound program of skill development is based on theassumption that the child is a feeling, thinking citi-zen. The skills he needs, therefore, are contained inthe various processes of instruction as well as in thecontent of the program. If the philosophical positionis one that values the acquisition of factual informa-tion to the extent that processes involved in workingtogether, accepting responsibilities, and cooperatingwith others are neglected, then the program is a nar-row one indeed. Psychologically, a sound prograir. inskill development recognizes that: (i) skills arelearned most efficiently when a need exists, (2) directteaching at the point of need is necessary to establishmastery of many skills, (3) repeated opportunities areneeded to practice skills in a variety of applications,(4) skills develop along a continuum throughout theelementary and secondary school program, and (5)

differentiated instruction is necessary in order tomeet the individual needs of pupils.

The social studies teacher must be given guidancein the selection and the teaching of skills. It is easy tooverlook the importance of the need for teachingskills in the social studies. The teacher frequently as-sumes that the social studies program is one in whichskills taught in reading, arithmetic, science, art,music, and related communication areas will betransferred automatically by children to socialstudies learning activities. This assumption belies thefact that unless those skills learned in the remainderof the curriculum are focused, with the teacher'shelp, on specific social studies learning tasks, mostchildren will not transfer these skills as efficiently aswould be possible. For example, the child who haslearned to use the table of contents, the index, andthe glossary in the reading class needs to be taughtthat these skills are usable in certain work-study ac-tivities in the social studies. A directed lesson inapplying these skills in the social studies is necessaryfor many children.

Balance in the types of skills selected by the teach-er is important in the development of an effectiveprogram. In order to achieve balance in the selectionof skills, the teacher needs a classification system.One such classification system groups social studiesskills according to work-study skills such as reading,outlining, map reading, and interpreting graphs;thinking skills such as critical thinking and problemsolving; group-process skills such as those involved inleading or participating in other ways in group un-dertakings; and social-living skills such as acting re-sponsibly, cooperating with others, and living andworking in a group setting.1

It is not unusual to find that the work-study skillsare emphasized to the virtual exclusion of the re-maining three groups of skills. In the intermediategrades, group-process skills and social-living skills aretaught only on an infrequent basis. The newer pro-grams are stressing thinking skills; however, muchneeds to be done in order to give the group-process

230

I See John Jarolimek. "The Psychology of Skill Developmentin Social Studies," in Helen McCracken Carpenter, editor. SkillDevelopment in Social Studies. Thirty-Third Yearbook. Wash-ington, D.C.: National Council for the Social Studies, 1963. p. 18.

-

and social-living skills their proper place in the socialstudies program. On the primary level, the group-process and the social-living skills are begun by con-scientious teachers only to find that an over emphasison content in the intermediate grades relegates theseskills involving the actual processes of human rela-tionships to a less important status. In the final anal-ysis, the teacher who believes in the importance ofhelping children acquire competencies necessary foreffective social living will see that a balance exists be-tween these skills and those involved in acquiringand interpreting information.

A sound program for the development of socialstudies skills provides for continuity. Although thereis no definitive research to guide the exact gradeplacement of specific skills, teachers need guidance asto the types of skills appropriate for pupils on atleast three levels of emphasis in the primary and in-termediate grades. The first level of emphasis pro-vides for the introduction of a given skill, the secondprovides for the systematic practice of the skillthrough repeated applications, and the third pro-vides for the maintenance and the extension of theskill. This approach suggests that it is not soundpractice to identify specific skills peculiar to a singlegrade for any one of the three levels of emphasis.Rather, it is better for the teacher to be aware of thevarious sub-skills in the work-study, thinking, group-process, and social-living categories and to applywhichever level of emphasis is appropriate for thechild's needs and to the topic of study. Skills should beintroduced, developed, and extended when the maxi-mum poten tial for learning exists. This means thatfor certain childrerra skill in the work-study categorymay be introduced appropriately at the first gradelevel. For another group of children, the same skillmay be appropriate at the second grade level. It isimportant, however, that once the skill is introducedthat it be maintained and extended from that timeon. The third grade teacher may find that the sameskill must be emphasized on all three levels of in-struction in order to meet the diverse abilities of allof the children in the group.

A curriculum that provides for continuity in skilldevelopment not only classifies social studies skillsaccording to major groupings, it also provides forthe identification of the sub-skills in each major cat-egory. These sub-skills are then arranged sequentiallyin accordance with the three levels of emphasis dis-cussed here. An excellent guide for the analysis andgrade placement of socia: studies skills has been pre-pared in chart form for teachers by Johns andFraser.2

See Eunice Johns and Dorothy McClure Fraser. "SocialStudies Skills: A Guide to Analysis and Grade Placement," inHelen McCracken Carpenter, editor. Skill Development in So-cial Studies. Thirty-Third Yearbook. Washington, D.C.. Na-tional Council for the Social Studies, 1963. pp. 3t0-327.

Skills in the Elementary School 231

Teachers need a curriculum guide that is ex-

plicit as to the objectives for skill development aswell as useful in its provision of suggested teachingstrategies. A curriculum guide that merely lists skillsappropriate for the study theme fails to provide theteacher with a model for making the objectives oper-ational. It is not reasonable to expect that the de-velopment of social studies skills should consume thebulk of the teacher's time and effortthere are otherlegitimate teaching tasks that require his attention. Auseful curriculum guide, therefore, will identifythose skills that are basic to the effective utilizationof the learning activities suggested in it. In addition,the guide should provide suggestions from which theteacher can formulate a teaching strategy designed toimplement the skill on one or more of the three lev-els of emphasis, i.e. (i) introduction, (2) systematicpractice, (3) maintenance and extension.

In many curriculum guides there is a merging oflearning activities and skills. It seems to be commonpractice in the typical curriculum guide to lump to-gether these two aspects of teaching and learning.Usually skills and learning activities are combined inthe curriculum guide under a heading frequentlydesignated as "learning activities." This practice en-courages opportunistic as opposed to systematic ap-proaches to the teaching of skills. Its results are wellknown. In the first place, it encourages the indiscrim-inate use of learning activities that depend on thepupil's mastery of skills basic to the effective prosecu-tion of the learning activities. Granted that a learn-ing activity such as "map study" is built entirely onthe pupil's general ability to study maps. Referenceonly to map study, however, does not identify thesub-skills that are necessary for the success of thatlearning activity. The same applies to a learning ac-tivity labeled "establish a committee to locate studymaterials." Again, numerous skills are involved, someof which are a definite responsibility of the socialstudies while others are not. Moreover, the relation-ship between the specific activity and the skill it issupposed to enhance may not be clear either to theteacher or to the pupils. More attention needs to begiven to the relationship of social studies skills andlearning activities by authors of curriculum guides.In order for the objectives in skill development tobecome operational, a methodical plan of re-enforce-ment is needed. This can be accomplished by the in-clusion of selected skills throughout the guide thatare stated as expectancies for pupil growth.

'Whenever a skill is identified, it should appearstrategically at the place where various learning ac-tivities are appropriate both to the utilization of theskill and to the development of the main idea or con-cept to be learned. For example, on the primary levelthe ideas to be learned may be embodied in the state-ment, "Each member of the family does importantwork." During the study of this idea, certain skills


are included as pupil expectancies in skill usage. Theexpectancy that the child should grow in the abilityto share with others is a skill that is developed bygiving the child an opportunity to explain to thegroup the type of work his father does. Anotherlearning activity appropriate to the development of asecond type of skill involves the child's ability toplan and to evaluate his learning experiences. Thisexpectancy materializes as the child helps to plan adramatic play activity based on the experiences offamily life. What shall we play? How many will weneed? How shall we play? What shall the rest of thegroup do? The child then participates in the evalua-tion of the learning activity. What did we do? Howcould it be improved? Finally, a third expectancy,that the child needs to grow in his ability to controlbodily movement, becomes operational throughlearning activities in which he uses paint brushes andscissors in making figures of members of his family.The child may also participate in rhythms repre-senting home activities such as working, ironing,baking, and sweeping. These activities are suggestedwithin a meaningful context, not restricted simply tothe idea to be learned, but requiring the applicationof skills basic to the learning activities.

Continuity in skill development can be illustratedin an example from the intermediate grades. Theidea to be learned is summarized in the statement"pioneers moved west to improve their living condi-tions." Pupil expectancies in skill growth involve inthe first instance the correct use of work-study skillsThe learning activities include writing a story de-scribing the depression of the late 1830's, making apopulation map of the United States in 1840, andwriting a poem on pioneer love of open spaces. Acommittee ir; designated for each learning activity.These learning activities require the pupil to applywork-study skills involving the use of the book indexand the table of contents zo find information on thedepression of the late 183o's in nrder to write thestory and the poem. Making the population map, inaddition to the mastery of map skills, requires thepupil to use study aids such as the glossary, pictures,charts, tables, and graphs. In each learning activitythe skill of notetaking is basic. The study of the ideainvolves the group-process skills necessitated by work-ing on a committee in which the pupil must help thegroup plan, knows what his specific job is, does the

job within the time limit set, and respects the rightsof others. Finally, the expectancy that the child con-tinue his development of skills in motor coordina-tion is made operational in a learning activity inwhich the child participates in folk dances similar tothose done by pioneers. These examples from theprimary and intermediate grade levels illustrate thepossibilities to make skill development operationalin the on-going study of the main ideas comprisingthe theme or unit topic. The strategic location ofstatements relative to skill teaching in the organiza-tion of a curriculum guide can do much to alert thesocial studies teacher to the importance of skills. Asystematic provision for skill development helps tominimize the possibility that learning activities andskills will become merged to the point where skillslose their identity and thus are neglected altogether.

An effective program in the development of socialstudies skills provides for an ongoing evaluation sys-tem. If measurement of learning outcomes in the so-cial studies is restricted to the determination of theamount of content that the pupil has acquired, thenthere is only an indirect feedback with respect to thepupil's degree of mastery in the four categories ofskills. In order to have immediate feedback for teach-ers and pupils, the curriculum guide should providesuggestions for the evaluation of skill mastery withinthe context in which the skills are used. In the exam-ple of skills teaching provided earlier, the primaryteacher should use several evaluation techniques inorder to assess the degree of skills mastery demon-strated by the pupils. Observation in this situationwould permit the teacher to determine how eachchild participates in group planning, contributes tothe group and uses the various learning tools. Theexample that illustrated the appl;:ation of socialstudies skills on the intermediate grade level con-tained numerous possibilities for the evaluation ofskill proficiency. In this instance, teacher observationand the use of a check-list designed to evaluate pupilprogress in work-study skills would be appropriate.

In the final analysis, a good program in skill de-velopment does not just happen. It is carefullyplanned and taught in a developmental, sequential,and systematic fashion. The time and energy neces-sary to develop an effective program will pay hand-some dividends in providing pupils with the toolsnecessary for effective citizenship.

ROLE OF SKILLS(Continued from page 221)

The emphasis, then, that will be dominant de-pends on the nature and amount of direction pro-vided by the teacher. The need for guidance of learn-ing, be it inductive or deductive, must, of course, berecognized. With children who are younger, less able,or inexperienced in inquiry procedures, the greaterbecomes the need for direction. Opportunities forstructuring cxist in the depth of the problems to beresearched, the questions posed for discussion, theworking definition used for an hypothesis, and thenumber of obvious cues contained in study materialsprovided. As pupil competency develops, the teachercan widen the horizons and plant fewer and fewercues in the learning experience.

Gagné discusses the nature of direction as one ofthe conditions of problem-solving along with conti-guity of the elements involved and recency of recall.He observesGuidance may vary in amount .or completeness, alwaysshort of clescriNng the solution itself. At a minimum,guidance of thinking takes the form of informing thelearner of the goal of his activity, the general form of thesolution; this amount appears to be required if learning isto occur at all. Greater amounts of guidance function tolimit the range of hypotheses to be entertained by thelearner in achieving solution . . . When these conditionsare present, the learner is able to solve the problem, al-though the time required for this solution is likely to varywith the amount of guidance provided, as well as with cer-tain innate capacities of the learner.8

The prime requisite for the teacher is the abilityto distinguish between goals of various kinds and toidentify the learning procedures appropriate forlotte Crabtree. "Inquiry Approaches: How New and How Valua-ble?" Social Education 3o: 523-525, 53 t ; November 1966; J.Richard Suchman. "The Child and the Inquiry Process" inIntellectual Development: Another Look, edited by A. HarryPassow and Robert R. Leeper. Washington, D.C.: Associationfor Supervision and Curriculum Development, 1964. pp. 59-77;Robert M. Gagné. The Conditions of Learning. New York: Holt,Rinciprt. and Winston, Inc., 1965. Ch. 6.

a (Gagne!, Conditions of Learning), p. 163.

Role of Skills 233

different ends. Important also is willingness to letpupils venture on their own, to elicit suggestions fornew ways of proceeding to encourage differingopinions, and to respect pupil fumblings along theway.

Another implication concerns the relative impor-tance of various classifications of skills. The prom-inence currently given to the inquiry method, withfocus on cognitive skills, may seem in effect to dwarfthe importance of other kinds of skills. Actually, theopposite is true because effective thinking is facilitat-ed by competency in a variety of abilities somewhatless complicated in nature. The quest for informa-tion cannot proceed far without the ability to deter-mine and find the kind of resource that will supplythe data needed and know-how to extract the infor-mation efficiently. Similarly, the organizing skills ofnotetaking, outlining, and reporting are steps alongthe way. In addition to such work-study skills asthese, proficiency with the intake skills of observing,listening, and reading is basic to effective livingtoday. The competencies to which social studiesmake a particular contributiondeveloping a senseof place and space, and a sense of time and chronol-ogyprovide perspective for decision-making. Andthe need for effective group-work skills, in school andin life, is apparent. In fact, at the primary level, thiscategory of skills may well be not only basic to butalso as important as the cognitive abilities.

Nothing in the current examination of learning inrelation to thought processes contradicts either theprinciple of sequential development of skills (al-though stages cannot be expected to proceed neatly)or the concept of readiness (although time is subjectto re-interpretation).

The need, then, is for thoughtful design and man-agement of the learning environment to maintainbalance both horizontally and vertically among thevarious kinds of skills needed for effective livingtodayand tomorrow.

SKILLS IN THE MIDDLE GRADES(Conthzued from page :226)

nizing and using special map/globe symbols expandsboth a knowledge of map usage as well as the meansof gaining information from maps.

Developing social study skills, then, must be a con-scious, perhaps detailed, and certainly a specificeffort. Most middle grade pupils will not "master"the skills, but they should extend those introducedearlier, maintain those already possessed at a func-tional level, and begin to develop some not ap-propriate for younger children. Perhaps more class

time will be needed than is ordinarily devoted toskill development. Undoubtedly more rather thanfewer opportunities for pupil work will be required.Decisions to "get through" less bulk with fewer con-clusions will have to be made in favor of more thor-ough attention to the processes of study. Honegtplans to develop skills will have a fruitful yield, be-cause well-developed skills are prerequisite to socialand civic: literacy.


SKILLS IN THE PRIMARY GRADES(Continued from page 223)

years. Conventional reading programs ordinarily de-vote some instruction to work-study skills that arerelevant to social studies.

It often happens that a specific activity can be usedto attack several related work-study skills. For exam-ple, a third grade class may be collecting picturesthat show the way of life in another country. Such anactivity might be used to promote any or all of thefollowing skills:

i. Locating appropriate pictures.2. Explaining or telling the class something about the

picture.3. Classifying informationplacing pictures in appro-

priate categories such as those that show home life,those that show work people do, holiday observances,or sports events.

4. Comparing information from one picture withanother.

5. Learning and using new words and concepts repre-sented in the picture.

6. Asking appropriate questions cOncerning picture con-tent.

7. Planning and arranging an exhibit, such as a bulletinboard.

8. Creating and writing appropriate captions and/or ex-planations to accompany the pictures.

Similarly, in the selection of activities for the de-velopment of work-study skills, the primary gradeteacher can attend to intellectual skills and social re-lationship skills as well. For example, in teachingpupils how to use the school library, the teacher willundoubtedly stress such intellectual skills as listeningto directions, observing carefully, asking questions,and knowing what information is liv:tn ted. If the ac-

tivity involves going to the library as a class or insmaller groups, she will also use the experience as away of teaching or reinforcing social behavior of pu-pils. Finally, in the process pupils will learn some-thing about use of the libraryhow it is arranged,where to look for certain kinds of books, and how tocheck out a book. Although we separate these skillsfor discussion purposes and focus instruction onspecific skills from time to time to ensure learning,the whole cluster of social studies skills is highly in-terrelated.

To a degree skill growth is related to the develop-mental pattern of children. Consequently, no matterhow intensively skills are taught in the primarygrades, there are definite upper limits on the level ofproficiency that can realistically be expected of mostprimary grade pupils. It is advisable, therefore, to es-tablish reasonable criterion levels of expectation andsettle for those rather than to expend an excessiveamonnt of instructional time in order to get smallincrements of improvement in performance. Thegrowth curve on skills rises sharply to a point andthen levels off; perhaps the optimum performanceexpectancy is just beyond the point where the curvebegins to plateau. If adequate instruction on skillscan be assured and reasonable expectancy levels set,there will be time to spend on other important di-mensions of an effective primary grade program.Skills and skills teaching, while extremely important,should not entirely dominate the primary grade cur-riculum to the exclusion of art, music, poetry, litera-ture, and other learnings vital to the total develop-ment of the young child.

USING LEARNING RESOURCES(Continued from page 229)

pointed toward success and the experience can leadto greater maturity when the pupil is the evaluatorand the teacher an empathetic, constructive guide.

Modern learning resources can help skill develop-ment in the social studies in many more ways thanenumerated here. These examples merely indicatethe special roles they might play. Having recognizedtheir usefulness, a reminder seems in order. Theteacher using learning resources must remember thatthe pupil generally experiences learning as a totalhuman being. He makes an indivisible approach toany learning task.

Many learning resources, on the other hand, aremono-sensoryvisual or auditory or tactile. The

pupil is not. The motion picture and television, atleast, deliver bi-sensory experiences. Display boardscan be multi-sensoryvisual, tactile, and even audito-rythough all too often they are not designed byteachers to make full use of these possibilities.

Therefore, it behooves the teacher to plan careful-ly when using such learning resources. He must allowfor broadening experiences through a wide variety ofresources. He must plan for integration of these ex-periences int6 the total pattern of the pupil's de-velopment. And finally, he must allow the pupil todevelop independence in using these media and ma-terials. Then, modern learning resources will con-tribute greatly to the learning of social studies skills.


focus on individualizinginstructionJOHN JAROLIMEK, Editor

BOARD OF ADVISORS

CHARLOTTE CRABTREEAssisstant Professor at EducationUniversity of CaliforniaLos Angeles, California










The Individual and theSocial Studies

by VINCENT R. ROGERSProfessor of Elementary Education

University of Minnesota

()NE of the most provocative books to burst on the Americaneducational scene.in recent times is John Holt's controversialHow Children Fail. Among other things, Holt warns us that:

We cannot have real learning in school if we think it is our duty and ourright to tell children what they must learn. We cannot know, at any mo-ment, what particular bits of knowledge or understanding a child needs

most, will most strengthen and best fit his model of reality. Only he can do

this. He may not do it very well, but he can do it a hundred times betterthan we can. The most we can do is to try to help, by letting him knowroughly what is available and where he can look for it. Choosing what hewants to learn and what he does not is something he must do for himself?

This point of view must be exceedingly disturbing to those of usworking in what might be called "the mainstream" of current curricu-lum reform movements in the social studies. It hits hard at a numberof prevalent, obviously cherished notions about curricular organiza-tion- that have gained an almost unquestioned acceptance among so-cial studies "revisionists" from Cambridge to San Francisco.

Holt is telling us, essentially, that each child is differentthat eachis a unique and miraculous pattern of interests, attitudes, motives,values, and perceptions. This, of course, is not a strikingly new educa-tional insight. To paraphrase Churchill, never in the field of humanbehavior has so much been written b1 so many ?bout a single ideaand perhaps, utilized by so few. To some observers, it seems as if weare engaged in a massive effort to fit children to a host of preconceived,

1 John Holt. How Children Fail. New York: Pitman Publishing Corp., 1964.

I). 179.

405

406 Social Education May 1967

"logical" curricular patterns that smack of teachermanipulation and over-planning. Indeed, it has beensaid that one of the great educational ironies of ourtimeparticularly in social studiesis that, while weknow more than we ever have about the individualchild and what makes him tick, we tend to teachmore and more uniformly.

Those who had anticipated that the thirty or socurriculum development projects that broadly com-prise "project social studies" would begin to supplysome positive answers to the individualization prob-lem have been, for the most part, disappointed. Whilethe projects have given a tremendous stimulus to allof usparticularly in our attempts to take a detailedand careful look at where we were going and whythey have not, as a rule, addressed themselves to thethorny problem of individualizing instruction.

The disappointment and implied criticism ex-pressed by some educators at the lack of individual-ized approaches to learning among many of ourmajor curriculum reform projects may, however, besomewhat unfair. That is, those individuals responsi-ble for the planning and development of nationalprojects recognized early in the game that no curric-ulum designed in Minneapolis, or Cambridge, or Ev-anston, or Syracuse could possibly fit the specific edu-cational needs of American communities as diverse,say, as Rochester, New York and New Underwood,South Dakotato say nothing of meeting the educa-tional needs of individual children within such com-munities. The most one might hope to do is createbroad guidelines and illustrative teaching materialthat would stimulate educators everywhere to re-evaluate what they were doingto at least considerthat they might be "wrong"and to adopt or adaptthose portions of nationally planned programs thatseemed appropriate, counting (as we always have) onthe classroom teacher to "adjust" for individualdifferences.

In any event, if one conceives of the purposes ofthe vast majority of national projects in these terms,it seems fair to say that they are, in fact, fulfillingthei, function.

Whether or not one accepts this conception of thefundamental purposes of current curricular reformefforts, however, the teacher is still faced with thefact that his group of children are often perplexinglydifferent. They come to him, for example, with vastlydiffering maturity levels. Their abilities to work ontheir own without constant teacher direction vary, asdo their abilities to initiate and sustain academiceffort. Similarly, many are barely able to deal withabstractions of any kind, while others delight in ma-nipulating ideas.

Children differ also in the ways in which they usewhat they have "learned"; the ways in which theyreorganize ideas and apply them in new situations.Consider, for example, Herbert Thelen's description

of a group of eighth graders engaged in a study of"revolutions":. . . they concentrated for three weeks upon revolutions.They studied three or four revolutions and then it be-came time to test their knowledge. I said, 'Why don't wetry to find out something about what revolutions meanto these youngsters?' We tore pictures of the RussianRevolution out of Life magazine and said: 'All right,you've been studying revolutions. Here's a snapshot of arevolution.' We then gave them instructions: 'What doyou think happened before, what's going on now, andhow's it going to turn out? Make up a story.'

One girl wrote: 'This picture shows the poor, down-trodden, unhappy peasants. The mothers are worriedbecause they don't know how they're going to feed thelittle ones, the fathers have been taxed to death by thedictator and are in jail, the brothers are hiding in thehills to avoid military service, it's pretty bad."How's itgoing to come out?"No good.' A 14-year-old boy, whowas a problem youngster, produced the following:'There are four basic causes of revolution: economic,political, social and religious.' A third boy wrote: 'Thispicture shows the common herd milling around the baseof the palace of the king. The king is a wonderful man.Gentle, kind, educated, friendly, and he really wants todo well by his people but he gets bad advice from hisgovernment.'2

These children reacted essentially in terms of theirown needsin one case, the need perhaps for person-al identification with "the downtrodden"; in an-other, an almost complete divorcement from anyhuman involvement.

Similarly, Frank Estvan's stimulating investiga-tions of the "social perceptions" of elementary schoolchildren indicate that there is considerable variationin what one "sees" or responds to in pictures, say, ofa rural farming scene, pictures depicting poverty,and so forth. Such perceptual differences appear tobe related to factors such as age, sex, intelligence,and experiential background.3

Children differ in other ways as well. For example,there is a growing body of research relating to thedevelopment of feelings of sensitivity and concern inchildren. These studies lead to the inescapable con-clusion that children vary tremendously in the de-gree to which they express such feelings, the ways inwhich such feelings may be developed, and the ratesat which they develop.

Jerome Kagan's studies of personality and learning4have particular relevance for those who see the in-ductive or inquiry approach as a basic method of in-struction for all elementary school children. Kagan's

W. B. Waetjen, editor. Human Variability and Learning.Washington, D.C.: Association for Supervision and CurriculumDevelopment, 1961. pp. 41-42.

F. J. and E. W. Estvan. The Child's World: His SocialPerception. New York: G. P, Putnam's Sons, 1959.

4 Jerome Kagan. "Personality and the Learning Process."Daedalus, Summer, 1965, pp. 553-563.

research indicates that some children will attack agiven problem In a deliberate, reflective way, allow-ing time enough for the development and mentaltesfting of, perhaps, a series of hypotheses. Other chil-dren react far more impulsively and attack with thefirst hypothesis that occurs to them. Further, Kaganargues that it takes considerable conscious effort for achild to delay reactingto mull over a problemtomake inferences< For many children, Kagan con-cludes, the necessity of even a few minutes involve-ment with no apparent reward is simply not worththe effort, and they are likely to intellectually "with-draw" from the task. Kagan raises serious questionsabout the degree to which primary grade childrenare able to understand the very nature of a "prob-lem"an understanding that would appear to be cru-cial for a curriculum built around "inquiry" meth-ods. This should not imply, of course, that an in-structional program might not attempt to developsuch abilities and understanding in children; how-ever, the implications of such questions for those ad-vocatingor suggesting by default"uniform" meth-ods and materials should be obvious.

Still other differences appear among the childrenwe teach; differences that are exceedingly relevant tothe teacher whose educational goals and objectivesare not narrowly academic. Consider, for example,

is passage from Claude Brown's revealing analysisof his Harlem childhood, Manchild in the PromisedLand:

I remember when [my brother] was thirteen or fourteen.He was in the eighth grade. He came home one day andsaid, 'Mama, I think I'm gonna become an Air Forcepilot and fly a jet plane.' It seemed a normal thing thatany little boy might say to his mother and get some kindof encouragement, but that didn't happen in [his] case.

Mama told him, 'Boy, don't you go wantin' things thatain't for you. You just go out there and get you a goodjob.' A good job to Mama was a job making fifty orsixty dollars a week, and that was as much as anybodyMould have wanted, in Mama's opinion. Sixty dollarswas damn good money. That was enough to retire off,the way they used to talk about it.5

Thousands of children in rural and urban "disad-vantaged" areas have had their levels of aspirationtheir confidence in and respect for what they are andwhat they might becomeshaken and sometimes de-stroyed during the impressionable years precedingand including attendance at an elementary school.Studies of such children indicate that, in general, wemay find these sorts of differences in both learning"style" and attitude:i. Culturally disadvantaged children find it considerablymore difficult to deal with "distractions" of various kindsin classroom learning situations than do middle-class

Claude Brown. Manchild in the Promised Land. NewYork: The Macmillan Company, 1965. g. 280.

The Individual and the Social Studies 407

children. Screening out the irrelevant and concentratingon the "academic business of the day" is exceedinglydifficult for many of these children. The lower-class child,often living in noisy, crowded households, is, in a sense,trained not to listen.

2. Similarly, a whole host of language barriers that wehave come to associate with lower-class living make for theexistence of a group of learners who find it increasinglydifficult to compete with their middle-class counterpartsin academic or "school" situations.

3. Such differences often lead to other difficulties thatinterfere with a child's chances for success in school;particularly in what might be called the "informational"subjects such as science and social studies. Differencesappear, for example, in what might be called "memorytraining"; in one's ability to make judgements involvingtime; in one's level of conceptualization in general.

4. Motivational differences appear as well, as do differ-ences in children's willingness to ask questions, to be"consciously curious"to ask, "why?"

In all of these ways and dozens more, the childrenwe teach are, for better or for worse, uniquely them-selves. This, of course, creates agonizing problems forsensitive teachers. At the same time, however, ourrecognition of such differences and, hopefully, ourwillingness to build social studies programs geared tothe developing of existing strengths as well as to theovercoming of academic and other weaknesses ineach child, provides us with an opportunity to par-ticipate far more effectively in the educative process.

What, then, does all of this mean to the classroomteacher and to those responsible for curriculum de-velopment in the social studies? Does the existence ofsuch differences call for more "special" classes? For"track" systems? For computerized "programs" foreach child? Or perhaps, must we return to the laissezfaire, unstructured approaches advocated by JohnHolt and others? Is the notion of some sort of "com-mon curriculum" based on a series of fundamentalconcepts or generalizations to whkh all the childrenin a given school system will be exposed really a via-ble approach?

Hopefully, the articles that follow this one willprovide at least some snecific answers. I would like toconclude this introductory statement, however, witha series of propositions that may offer some guide-lines for our attacks on the individpalization ques-tion.

1. It seems to me that it is absolutely essential that weteach the indivicrual within a framework of societal andcultural significanceand that we do so without violatingwhat we know about the great variety and complexity ofthe differences that exist among children. What we study-does make a difference; while the words "societal andcultural significance" are open to broad interpretation,


Individualizing Instruction in the

Primary Grades

"..`

by LORRAINE D. PETERSONElementary Social Studies Supervisor, K-6

Los Angeles City Schools

0NE of the healthiest changes in the education-al climate of the schools has been the moveaway from uniformity in and conformity to

the same goals for all children and the increased em-phasis on the search for new opportunities for theindividual's growth toward his potential. It is no newidea that children differ widely in their physical, in-tellectual, and emotional patterns; neither would itbe original to suggest some organizational patternsplanned to meet the challenges of the gifted, theslower-learning pupil, the physically handicapped, orthe pupil needing social adjustment.

Sufficient evidence also exists to demonstrate theadvisability of reducing the range of ability levelswithin classrooms to allow, where possible, groupingsof children with similar abilities. Even further at-tempts have been made over the years to lessen therange of individual differences through nongradedor ungraded classrooms, semi-departmentalized ele-mentary programs that cluster similar interests orabilities in activity clubs or classroom units for cer-i ain subjects, or the divided-day reading program forprimary classes that permitted teachers to meet withhalf the class before and the other half after the en-tire group joined for the day's activities. Team teach-ing, tutorial programs, partnership readirg, andother innovations represent efforts to cope with thedifferent learning needs of pupils in the primarygrades.

Classroom equipment and materials have been de-veloped to provide some mczoure of help in individ-ualizing instruction. Programed texts, though lim-ited in content and scope, help to develop individualrates of learning. Science kits, reading kits, map read-ing kits, prepared commercially or by local schooldistricts, can be used successfully with either smallgroups or individuals. Inc eased availability of mate-rial for listening and vic ,,,ing centers has brought anupsurge in the purchase of tape recorders, phono-graphs, filmstrip projectors, and automated devicesfor using cartridge loops, single-concept films, andsound-accompanied filmstrips. The visitor to theprimary classroom is no longer astounded to seeheadset-adorned children seemingly attached bywires to machines, deeply absorbed in projects to ex-tend, expand, and enrich their backgrounds.

408

Yet, the answer to individualizing instruction is

only partially found in machines, devices, materials,cluster groupings, and innovative organizational pat-terns. Rich environments of library books, blocksand accessory materials, tool carts and constructionmaterials, and art and music centers are merely thesetting for the skillful and creative teacher. The es-sential and critical variable in success of individual-izing instruction is the teacher.1 Particularly in theprimary grades, the teacher is challenged to adaptthe rate of learning and the depth of experience tothe individual within a broad framework of plannedgoals and objectives. Few school districts are commit-ted to an unstructured primary program. Most pro-vide guidelines for content, for the development ofskills, attitudes, and understandings, for suggested ac-tivities, and for resource materials needed. It is withinthis framework that the sensitive teacher attempts toassess the strengths and weaknesses of each memberof the class and to build for each a program that willmove him toward his optimum functioning level.

Children entering the beginning primary gradeshave had little exposure to structured programs.They bring with them their creative imagination, anintense curiosity, and an interest in experimenting,manipulating, exploring, discovering, and observing.Some children have been carefully nurtured, read to,taken to cultural centers and have traveled widely.Others have been enclosed in a tight web of neglectand poverty, bringing with them their lack of back-ground, their lack of experiences, and their incipientfailures.

The schools accept all these children; then seekways to foster creativity and stimulate self-directionthrough a variety of approaches and tactics such asthe following:. . An accepting and approachable manner on the partof the teacher permits children to express themselvesfreely and is evidenced by their willingness to participate,their eager enthusiasm, and their cooperative responses.2

. . A careful analysis of specific needs, interests, talents,abilities, and background of experiences will be formed

1 Bernice J. Wolfson. "Individualizing Instruction." Na-tional Education Association Journal 55:31-33; November 1966.

Lois N. Nelson. "Maximizing Creativity in the Classroom."Young Children XXI: 131.135; January 1966.

on a tentative basis and will be subject to constant re-evaluations throughout the year. The continuous shiftingprovides opportunities for heterogeneous or homogeneousgroupings whereby more competent youngsters may actas partners to reinforce learnings of other children;highly motivated children may stimulate and extendinterest of others in new projects; and children withspecial -,needs may have small-group attention.

. . There need to be opportunities to solve various typesof problems that are purposeful and meaningful and forwhich children know the purpose and the significance.The teacher's questions must be probing and thought-provoking and should lead to more problem-solving ac-tivities. Very young children tend to be satisfied with apartial answer, for it provides a -iolution to an immediateproblem. Continued questioning as to "Why do youthink . . . ?" or "How could we find out?" or "What mighthappen if . . . ?" stimulates active pupil participation bymany other children not previously involved directly inthe project. Pupils begin to learn to think for themselves,to seek ways to find answers, to test their answers, andto change their opinions as new information is discov-ered.

. . . Many work centers for varied activities need to beprovided to encourage individual selection and direction.These centers of interest may be organized for indepen-dent work for a single child, for partners, or for a smallgroup. Within the limitations of their value to the totalprogram, the centers need to expand as ne,,i understand-ing is reached, to provide a tangential approach wheninterests flag, or to be discarded when children havereached closure.

. . Finally, on-the-spot evaluations of problems noted bythe teacher in moving about the room from activity toactivity are needed as well as group discussions in theevaluation period as the children are drawn to analyzenew directions and to offer additional suggestions.

Having outlined some of the generally acceptedprocedures, it would be pertinent to see how theseprinciples can be put into operation by a zealous andcreative teacher. On a visit to a kindergarten-firstgrade combination classroom at the end of asemester,3 it was possible to watch purposeful activitythrough the planning or "purposing" minutes, the"building" of the interrelated community, the role-playing and interaction of members of the "commu-nity," and the evaluation and determination ofadded direction during the evaluation period.

Although many objectives are listed for blockwork,4 among the most important are clarification ofthe child's ideas and the opportunities he has for oralexpression. As tangible and manipulative materials,

3 Visit to kindergarten-first grade classroom taught by Mrs.June Morrison at Roscomare Elementary School, Los Angeles,California.

'Dorothy H. White and Ina M. Metcalfe. Education theChild's Way. Los Angeles: Tommy Manwell Publications,1954. p. 9.

Individualizing Instruction 409

floor blocks of varying sizes and shapes take on mean-ing as symbols for parts of buildings, access roads, andairplane approaches. Anyone who has watched youngchildren work with floor blocks and accessory materi-als has seen evidence of children's ability to assumeresponsibility, to think more critically and analyti-cally about problems, and to work more cooperative-ly with others as time progresses. Mrs. Morrison'sfive- and six-year-olds demonstrated rather sophisti-cated and complex understandings of the interrela-tionships of the community.

A typical work period produced a harbor commu-nity, an airport, a post office, an oil field, a lumbercamp, a farm, and a wholesale market. A specializedarea of the room suggested that a farm raising cottonproduced sufficient quantities for both home con-sumption and for export; while another label indi-cated that a banana plantation in South Americacould be a source of imports.

Although the total working community was in it-self indicative of the growth of important concepts,and as a community offered opportunities for inter-action between children performing the tasks of pro-viding goods and services, it served also to launchother centers of interest to extend ideas and to solvenew problems.

An important adjunct to the preparation of workcenters is the teacher's daily notes indicating the rea-sons for setting up the work centers, the child or chil-dren for whom it was initially intended, what prog-ress, has been made, what extensions have been nec-essary, what modifications have been made, and whatmust still be accomplished. Careful records make itpossible for the teacher to comment in a manner asto invoke newly aroused enthusiasm for continuing aproject. Such a comment might be "Yesterday, Jay,you were having trouble with . . . ; What do youthink you might do today to . . . ? Can anyone elseoffer a suggestion?"

Each of the work centers had a relationship to thetotal class project and was modified to meet individ-ual needs. Below are some of the purposes and activi-ties and the application of learnings that were appar-ent in the work centers.

WORK CENTER 1 Study of harbor formation.Purposes and Activities: Some children were dissatisfiedwith the harbor design and were developing map under-standings through

a. Studying harbor formation using teacher-made mapsof brown and blue construction paper for land andwater areas.

b. Using a magnifier to enlarge aerial photographyand pictures of harbors.

c. Discussing contour of land, purposes of harbors,and possible changes in the classroom harbor.

d. Using filmstrips at viewing center to compare man-made and natural harbors.


Application of Learnings:a. Planning block harbor to conform to specific land

formations.b. Developing map understandings through relating

the pictured land and seacoast formation to blockwork.

WORK CENTER 2 Interpreting map color key.Purposes and Activities: Children developed the under-standing that lumber was found in some regions of theUnited States and cotton was grown in other regionsthrough

a. Discovering that colors on a wall map representedelevations.

b. Relating color symbols to topography.c. Using a template to trace the total area of the

United States and providing relief features throughsand to indicate mountains, valleys, and level areasin preparation for more permanent relief mapsmade of other material.

Application of Learnings:a. Identifying land best suited for raising cotton or

for growing lumber.b. Relating topography to routes for transporting ma-

terials.

WORK CENTER 3 Developing understandings ofweather.

urposes and Activities: Children observed different kindsof weather and applied their learnings to their airportt rough

a. Reading simple weather maps prepared by theteacher.

b. Learning simple symbols representing weather con-ditions.

c Determining the best flight pattern to reach NewYork from Los Angeles, avoiding rain and snowareas indicated on a map, and showing flight witha string.

AN)/a.

ication of Learnings:Alerting pilots at the airport through weathermanfor safe flying pattern.

b. Charting weather conditions for particular areas.

WORK CENTER 4 Problems of food storage.Purposes and Activities: Children wanzed to find outwhich foods spoiled quickly, which ones took longer, andwhich foods did not spoil, through

a. Or anizing a display of fresh fruits, such as half apear, half a lemon, and a peeled banana; sugar;salt; milk; other foods.

b. Noting daily changes in foods through observing,smelling, and feeling.

c. Recording changes.

Application of Learnings:a. Determining which kinds of food must be refrig-

erated or processed to prevent spoilage.b. Relating types of transportation to kinds of food to

be imp._ ?.d or exported.

WORK CENTER 5 Use of policy and other simplemachines.Purposes and Activities: Children developed understand-ings of ways machines make work easier through

a. Experimenting with single pulley on stand to liftslutiP item.

b. Usir; inclined planes and fork lift to move cargo.

Applicion of Learnings:a. Using a pulley on the docks to lift cargo and under-

standing the use of the "boom."b. Learning that simple machines are used throughout

a community to make work easier.

WORK CENTER 6 Producing cloth from cotton.Purposes and Activities: Two children attempted to dis-cover how raw materials can be made into finished prod-ucts through

a. Using library center, carefully provided with bookson cloth and clothing.

b. Examining series of pictures to discover sequencein cloth production.

c. Examining woven cloth under magnifying glass.d. Experimenting through pounding, pulling, and

finally twisting.

Application of Learnings:a. Learning the sequence of steps from picking cotton

to exporting as a raw material.b. Relating raw material to a finished product.c. Planning to experiment with wool.

Through the work at the interest centers and inthe discussion period that followed, there was evi-dence that the complexity of the solution to theproblems, the depth of insight obtained, and thevalue applicable to the situations varied with theself-direction of the children involved. Planning bythe teacher through previous notes had made avail-able a wealth of diversified materials for a variety ofapproaches to the problems. Children felt a responsi-bility for working toward predetermined goals anddemonstrated the ability to appraise their work andto participate in planning additional steps. Therewas no fear of failure,5 but, rather, an attitude of in-quisitiveness and willingness to learn from previousmistakes. Arthur W. Combs states, "One of the nicethings about self-direction is that it does not have tobe taught. It only needs to be encouraged and set freeto operate."

There is no single teaching strategy that will pro-duce self-directed, self-realizing, creative individuals.However, given the materials and tools, the atmo-sphere of enthusiasm and sensitivity created by theclever teacher, and the opportunities and motivationto work with growing independence, the young childin the primary grades today has a better chance todevelop his fullest potential through instruction"tailor-made" for him.

°Arthur W. Combs. "Fostering Self-Direction." EducationalLeadership 23:375-376; February 1966.

Ibid., p. 376.

'

,

e-,

Providing for Individual Difrences:Middle and Upper Grades

by N. LINWOOD CHASEProfessor EmeritusBoston University

ATEACHER concerned with individualdifferences plans work-period activitieS andparticipation in total class experiences so

that each pupil feels what he is doing is importantand that success is possible. An individual pupil mayperform in a whole-class activity, in small groups ofvarying size, or as an independent worker. Some-times, during a single class period he may operate inall these categories.

Until the classroom teacher decides that planningfor individual differences is imperative, nothing ofgreat importance is going to happen in making pro-vision for them. Uniform assignments and whole-class teaching do not provide for nor encourage indi-vidual differences. Small-group activities properlyplanned, differentiation in tasks with common in-structional material, and special assignments do.

Guidelines for effective service to children suggestthat the teacher must'. Adapt instruction to various levels of ability. To bringtogether the right materials and the right activities forthe right children at the right time is a demanding task.

2. Provide for different progress rates in learning. Plansshould be flexible enough to allow some pupils to learnfaster than others; to allow others to proceed at a pacethat will result in success at different levels.

3. Teach to specific points of weakness. This calls fordirect teaching to the point of error or weakness onlyfor those children who need the assistance.

4. Encourage individual and group self-direction andinitiative. Each quest for knowledge should be stimulatedby teacher-pupil planning. Grouping is flexible and isrelated to specific learning objectives.

5. Enrich learning to make it significant and useful. Usea variety of related activities and instructional aids. Makeskills instruction closely related to meanings, definiteapplications, and specific evaluations. Stress organiza-

aional, elaborative, and critical thinking.1

Adapted from Donald D. Durrell et al. "Adapting In-struction to the Learning Needs of Children in the Inter-mediate Grades." Journal of Education 142:1-78; December1959.

jarolimek suggests that there are five adjustmentsa teacher should make that will help provide for in-dividual differences:These are (i) adjustments in reading, (2) adjustments inclassroom activities in which the children may participate,(3) adjustments in qualitative and quantitative aspectsof the child's wort-,, (4) adjustments in the level ofconceptualization expected of individual children includ-ing the formation of temporary subgroups in the classfor this purpose, and (5) acjustments in the amount ofsupervision and guidance the teacher gives individualchildren.2

411

Even when we are concerned with individual needsand consequent provision for growth we do not ne-glect the rightful and desirable opportunities forwhole-class activities. The sharing of common expe-riences in a noncompetitive situation adds importantvalues to social living. Legitimate whole-class activi-ties are those that involve introduction of a unit,demonstrations, field trips, exhibits and displays, filmsand filmstrips, listening to poetry and other readings,plays and dramatizations, choral reading, discussionsin building group standards, current affairs, appre-ciation lessons, recordings, radio or television pro-grams, group and specialty reports, concluding activ-ities in units, class planning, and listening to expla-nations and directions.

Though listed as whole-class activities, many canbe carried forward to greater advantage by usingfeedback from small groups to the total class. For ex-ample, preparatory to viewing a film or filmstrip, thequestions set up by the teacher or by pupil contribu-tions in whole-class discussion may be distributed toviewers according to ability; slow learners will beasked to name or list, average learners might havequestions concerning the nature of a process or sim-ple interpretation, more able learners will compare,contrast, analyze, synthesize, evaluate.3

2 John Jarolimek. Social Studies in Elementary Education,Third Edition. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1967.p. 152. Chapter 5, "Individualizing Instruction in SocialStudies," will help the teacher plan specific types of activities.pp. 141-171.

Norris M. Sanders. Classroom Questions: What Kinds?New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1966. (Paperback)

74

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One of the ways of introducing a unit is throughsmall group discussion. One teacher introduced aunit on Great Britain by dividing a class of twenty-eight into seven groups. Following the appointmentof a secretary in each, two of the groups used text-books, three groups were given large globes, a pair inone group was sent to a political wall map and theother pair to a physical wall map, and the finalgroup used atlases. Mutual aid within a grouphelped overcome any difficulties in understandingexperienced by an individual. The secretary kept arecord of the group's deliberations. Observationshowed nearly every pupil participated in the groupdiscussion.

There is little educational justification for a ques-tion-and-answer recitation where questions demandfact answers. Such classwork can be better done byusing self-checking fact sheets, or by pairs of pupilschecking each other. In either case, more pupils areparticipating than is the case in oral question-answerprocedures.

In a unit on "Colonial Life" a teacher assignednine pupils to the New England Colonies, nine tothe Middle Colonies, and eight to the Southern Col-onies. Each group of nine was divided into threegroups with a team leader for each. The teacher metwith the six team leaders to discuss how to use a re-search guide that she gave them. The eight pupilsstudying the Southern Colonies were the slowlearners. Each day she met with this group, givingdirect help in locating specific information about atopic, interprIting pictures to gain knowledge, re-lating map information to what was read, and thenorganizing information into a final report to theclass. They were given prestige because they were theonly group to present any information to the class onthe Southern Colonies. The tasks they undertookwere nearly always done in teams of two or three pu-pils. They supported each other in mutual aid. Suchchildren need considerable help. It is often suppliedby detailed work sheets and very specific directionsfor tasks of short duration, using various instruction-al aids.

Taped lessons provide many possibilities for indi-vidual pupil work. One teacher tape recorded themain headings of an outline and the directions forfilling in the details. As the recording was playedback, pupils completed the details of the outline asdirected. Six children, sitting around a table with thebooks, plugged in earphones, listened, and per-formed.

At those times when a basal text or when commonsupplemental reading is used, many teachers havefound study guides useful. These can and should bedifferentiated in difficulty to fit the instructionalneeds of major groups within a class. Some of the fac-tors that may be varied in difficulty are:

i. The text to be studied.Vocabulary burden may be heavy or light.

Sentences may be short and simple or long andcomplex.Content may be concrete or abstract.

2. The length of the passage to be read before responding.Questions may relate to a sentence, a paragraph,

or a chapter.

3. The time of prese-,tation of the questions.Questions prior to reading make study easier; th,,z.:

longer the delay between reading and questioning,the more difficult the task.

4. The form of questions set. These are in general orderof difficulty:

Multiple-choice or true-false questions.Short answer or completion questions.Multiple answer questions that require listing.Unaided summaries.

5. The intellectual task required by the questions. Al-though the difficulty may vary within types, an approx-imate order follows:

Verbatim answers on facts.Interpretation required through variation of vo-

cabulary.Organization by sentences or categories.

Elaborative or inferential thinking.Critical thinking.

6. The nature of expression required.Selecting answers provided.Oral answers.Written answers.4

Because each of the factors above may be variedindependently, a great variety of combinations ispossible. A study guide for the very easiest taskwould combine simple material, response after eachsentence, multiple-choice form of question, verbatimresponse only, and answers to be underlined. Adifficult study guide would combine abstract materi-als with difficult vocabulary, response after longunits of reading, tasks set after reading, an unaidedsummary required, and response to be written.

The Pupil Specialty5 is a special assignment for theable learner that deals with some topic, person,place, event, product, or period of time. It is an oral-visual report because it requires displayed materialbut is much more comprehensive than the usual oralreport. Specialties have high motivating value, theyenrich the classroom program, and give the pupil afeeling of importance. A specialty allows the child to


4 Adapted from unpublished material by Donald D. Durrell,Boston University.

For details of development see W. Linwood Chase. AGuide for the Elementary Social Studies Teacher. Boston:Allyn and Bacon, Inc., 1966. pp. 41-55.

,11, Aft

Learning Resources for IndividualizingInstruction

by HUBER M. WALSH

Associate ProfessorThe University of Toledo

THERE are several reasons why teachersequipped with proper learning resources canmeet individual learning needs in a superior

manner. First, instructional materials make it possi-

ble for the classroom teacher to "stretch" his time.

When resources such as auto-instruction media areutilized to perform certain routine instructional taskslike drill, the teacher is freed for other tasks demand-ing more creative, human teaching. Second, childrendo have different learning patterns and these necessi-tate the use of various instructional vehicles to"reach" them successfully. Books and other printedmaterials are the most effective keys to understandingfor some pupils, but individual learning patternsmay make viewing a motion picture, hearing a taperecording, or working with self-directed programedmaterials more profitable for others. Most pupils willrequire all of these and perhaps others in combina-tion. The point is, we have yet to discover a univer-sal skeleton key in teaching children. No single bestway to reach all pupils exists; hence, the need is cre-ated to find and to use the right material(s) tailoredto the particular needs of particular individuals.Third, good instructional materials seem to havebuilt-in child appeala kind of intrinsic glamourand fascination that tends to intrigue youngsters. Atleast in the beginning, they find most new media at-tractive and, consequently, are motivated to usethem. This phenomenon tends to vitalize socialstudies instruction and make it more enjoyable.Fourth, certain of the learning resources now avail-able are well suited to individualizing instruction inthe fullest sense of the term. That is, these devicescan provide instruction on a fully self-directed basisallowing the child to investigate and discover on hisown when there is no teacher present to assist him.Innovations in technology have simplified equip-ment operation to such an extent that pupils can usemachines easily. Such refinements have made it possi-ble for children to use motion pictures and filmstripsat home evenings and week-ends as their own privatetutors.

Reviewed below are several new resources thathold the promise of being quite useful in "reaching"children of varying abilities in social studiestheslow learner, the culturally-disadvantaged child, the

413

L-7 r

non-verbal youngster, the retarded readu, the giftedlearner, and others. An attempt has been made tofocus on salient new developments that provide re-freshing, innovative approaches to individualized in-struction. Most of these are already available to theclassroom teacher; others, however, are in the devel-opmental stage and will become available later on.

8mm Cartridge Projector. Because of its compact-ness, lightness, and simplicity of operation, the 8mmcartridge projector is particularly valuable as a toolfor individualizing instruction. It can be used easilyby youngsters in the classroom or at home for inde-pendent study because the problem of threading filmis eliminated. Film is housed entirely within a plasticcase and formed into a continuous loop makingrewinding unnecessary. Using the projector is as sim-ple as inserting the cartridge, turning a switch, andmaking minor focus adjustments.

A variety of film loops germane to elementary so-cial studies is available, with most designed to teacha single concept. The ordinary film runs for aboutfour minutes, then repeats itself as many times as de-sired. This continuous presentation feature makesthis a particularly valuable resource in meeting theneeds of individuals requiring more than the usualamount of repetition for concept mastery. Such chil-dren, on their own, can view and review the film asmany times as is necessary to fully grasp the idea. In-asmuch as present-day film loops are without soundtracks, the ideational presentation is exclusively visu-al, with very slight use being made of printed cap-tions. Thus these films are advantageous for slowreaders and pupils with restricted language back-grounds such as those coming from culturally-disad-vantaged environments.1

The Multi-Media Kit. Multi-media kits are rathercomplete learning-resource packages containing awide variety of audio and visual media, printed ma-terials, artifacts, and other learning tools related tovarious social studies units. They will be particularlywelcome in those classrooms where a wide diversity of

1 For additional information, contact The Technicolor Cor-poration, 1985 Placentia Avenue, Costa Mesa, California 92627.


individual learning needs exist. Each kit containssomething beneficial to and usable by almost everychild, whether he learns best visually, aurally, or tac-tually.

The use of kits simplifies the often vexing problemof instructional materials procurement, for it is farsimpler for the teacher to procure one package con-taining an array of media than to have to order eachitem separately. Its most important contribution,however, is that is provides excellent resources forthe individualization of instruction. In a multi-media kit on Mexico, for instance, one would haveat hand the following resources: (a) informationbrochures k. n Mexico City (these appropriate for useby gifted children); (b) filmstrips with accompanyingrecords (these could be used for research by averagechildren); (c) photographs (slow readers could usethese to advantage); (d) a collection of Mexican toysand other artifacts of the culture (non-readers andnon-verbal children could make discoveries fromstudying these articles).

Multi-media kits to be used in cross-culturalstudies are commercially available,2 and, in addition,some school districts have begun to develop theirown multi-media kits for social studies teachers.

Programed Materials. The ever-expanding array ofprogramed materials for social studies instruction isan additional resource useful in meeting individuallearning needs. Though many of these are intendedfor total-group use, perhaps their most significantcontribution to learning is made when they are usedto individualize instruction on a single-pupil basis.Programed materials become particularly valuablefor reviewing, reteaching, and re-inforcing knowl-edge already presented by the classroom teacher.Used in this way programed materials do not sup-plant human teaching, but instead provide a way tomeet special needs of a given learner without necessi-tating the expenditure of a disproportionate amountof the teacher's time.

One new set of programed materials provides in-struction in map and glot e This kit, like thetwo described immediately below, uses very much thesame color-coded, sequential approach as is used inthe SRA Reading Laboratory Materials. The mapprogram consists of materials to teach basic concepts,study-exercise materials, and self-checking devices.

A recently introduced organizing and reportingskills kit is a program designed to provide instructionin reporting, note-taking, and outlining. Its compan-ion set of materials is a graph and picture skills pro-gram intended for the upper-elementary grades.Skills in interpretation and application of graphic

2 For further information, contact International Communi-cations Foundation, 870 Monterey Pass Road, Montterey Park,California.

materials such as photographs, editorial cartoons, di-agrams, charts, and the like are included.2

A study skills library will answer the need of manypupils for individualized instruction in social studiesreading skillsespedally those needing remedial in-struction. Comprised of seven different sets of materi-als, the library encompasses reading levels HIthrough IX. Within each is a series of sequential les-sons predicated on a self-directed reading exercisefollowed by a self-checking activity. Individual les-sons are designed to teach such specific sk ills as inter-pretation, judging relevancy and significance, verify-ing accuracy, and finding and organizing ideas.4

Automatic Projection Center. A fascinating newidea that is destined to capture the imaginations ofcreative social studies teachers is the Automatic Pro-jection Center. Capable of a myriad variety of mul-ti-media presentations, the device consists of twosound z-iotion picture projectors (16mm and 8mm);three slide projectors, and a stereophonic tape re-corder.

The heart of the center is a punched paper tapethat programs the presentations. Equipment isstarted, paused, stopped, and reversed on commandof the tape. Slide projectors may be programed tooperate individually, to project in 1-2-3 order acrossthe screen to illustrate a step-by-step process; or allthree may be used in concert to produce a cinema-scope-like, wide-screen panoramic view. Inclusion ofthe 8mm projector makes it possible for teachers toaugment commercial film presentations with theirown inexpensively-made films. The flexibility of tapeprograming produces almost unlimited possibilitiesfor individualizing instruction. Using the same pro-jection materials, for example, one program can beprepared appropriate to the learning requirements ofthe gifted learner; another can be made for slowlearners; and yet another can be developed for use byaverage pupils. Though the same instructional mediaare used in each case, such factors as order of presen-tation, and provisions for repetition and review arevaried according to need differential. Although theAPC is not yet commercially marketed, its compo-nents and plans for its construction are available.5

World Affairs Reports. Teachers searching forresources in current affairs for use with above-averagepupils may find what they are looking for in a newseries of materials entitled World Affairs Reports.

For additional information on these three programs, con-tact Science Research Associates, 259 East Erie Street, Chicago,Illinois 60611.

*For additional information, contact Educational Develop-ment Laboratories, Huntington, New York.

For additional information, contact Eastman Kodak Com-pany, Rochester, New York 14650.

Though created for use in secondary classi loms,these materials appear equally well suited to limitedspecialized use in the elementary school. A typical setof materials consists of a 25-30 minute sound tapepresentation containing on-the-spot recordings ofnews events as they happened (these made in coop-eration with United Press-International); multiplecopies of a programed textbook to complement thetape and teach additional information; and a guide-book for the teacher. Kits are to be issued on amonthly basis, and future topics will focus on "TheNegro Crisis," "Russia vs. China," and "The Poor."These materials seem particularly well suited for in-dividual use by elementary children as self-tutoringdevices. In some cases, however, there may be advan-tage in using them with small groups of advancedpupils.6

Project Discovery. A new departure from custom-ary materials utilization and a not worthy venture inindividualizing instruction is underway at MercerSchool in Shaker Heights, Ohio. There pupils takehome projectors and films for independent studywith much the same ease and regularity that their el-ementary-school counterparts elsewhere take hometheir books. This began over three years ago whenthe school was designated as the pilot unit for Proj-ect Discoverya cooperative effort by manufacturers,school districts, distribut rs, and universities to in-vestigate the effects of saturating an individualschool with audiovisual materials and equipment.An important aspect of the total concept is to facili-tate pupil investigation and discovery by expandingthe scope of research tools available to the child forindependent use.

Each classroom is equipped with both an automat-ic motion picture projector and an automaticfilmstrip projector. Pupils begin to learn to operatethese in the seco d grade and by grade three all but afew can operate them with facility. Adjacent to theschool's 12,000 volume library is the film center inwhich are housed over 1,000 filmstrips and upwardsof 600 motion picture films. All materials are clearlylabeled and easily accessible to the child user. Thecenter is outfitted with several projectors and head-sets making it possible for several pupils or smallgroups to study motion pictures simultaneously with-out disturbing one another. The center is availableto children before, during, and after school.

An individual with a topic he wishes to investigatemay consult a special card catalog to identify theprojection materials germane to his research area.Once materials are located, the pupil may view them

For further information, contact Behavioral ResearchLaboratories, Ladera Professional Center, Box 577, Palo Alto,California 94302.

Learning Resources 415

either in the film center or in his classroom. He mayelect to check out the films and necessary projectionequipment (with the assistance of parents) for over .night or over the week-end study at home.

Teachers and pupils are enthusiastic about thiseffort to reduce the usability gap by facilitating self-

directed pupil utilizatinn of audiovisuals. Moreover,teachers appreciate having at hand a basic collectionof materials ready for immediate use rather thanhaving to guess at future needs and having to orderitems months in advance of their use.

In addition to Shaker Heights, the project is cur-rently in operation in other cities across the nationin a variety of socio-economic settings. Quite possiblythis effort may herald the coming of learning re-source centers to the elementary school. Such cen-ters would represent an expansion of the convention-al school library into a full-fledged instructional ma-terials center providing a total spectrum of printedand non-printed resources immediately available toboth pupils and teachers.7

Computerized Programing for Individualization. Afuture possibility more than a present-day actuality isthe prospect of using automated data processing toaid teachers in individualizing social studies instruc-tion. For example, given data on what a pupillearned yesterday, on his learning needs for tomor-row, and on his optimum learning pattern, dataanalysis could be used to identify the most promisinglearning activities and resources to be used with thatparticular child. For one, this might indicate an indi-vidualized session with some kind of electronic teach-ing device; for another it might mean a small-groupwork session with the classroom teacher, or perhapsthe beginning of some kind of construction project.For others additional work in textbooks might beprescribed. One type of learning resource would besuggested for the gifted, another for the average, anda different one for the slow reader, and so on, accom-modating each according to his special needs.

Study-Print Packages. A review of new learningresources for individualizing instruction would beincomplete without at least brief mention of the newpackets of study prints becoming available. The typi-cal set contains a coordinated collection of large, full-color photographs centered about a topic or themesuch as "Life in the Heart of the City." Althoughthey are good media to use with all pupils, they areespecially appropriate to the needs of the slowlearner, the retarded reader, and the non-verbalchild. Slow learners, for instance, can use them forindependent research, recording on tape the infor-


For further information, contact Encyclopaedia BritannicaFilms, Inc., 1150 Wilmette Avenue, Wilmette, Illinois 60091.

'44

FTIIP.MY" 0.°,5c7,13r*F,r,15114,7i,s;

Curriculum Provisions forIndividual Di fFerences

by ROBEDi

RT GROESCHELLector of Elementary Education

State of Washington

EDUCATIONAL philosophies usually containsome statement that expresses concern for in-dividual differences in children and a belief in

the value of making allowances for such differencesin curriculum and instruction. Instructional practicesthat effectively consider individual differences arecustomarily conducted within the framework of somesuch stated commitment. The classroom teacher isallowed and even expected to adapt the curriculumand instructional procedures to the nature and abili-ty of the individual child. For many this may seem tobe an obvious and essential instructional procedure,yet its practice shows many degrees of effectiveness.

The overall school curriculum is not usually deter-mined by individual teachers but through coopera-tive efforts of school staffs under administrative lead-ership. In the larger districts the general curriculumis ordinarily developed by representative teachercommittees under the direction of a designated cur-riculum leader. No matter what the practice is ingeneral curriculum development, implementation ofthe curriculum falls on the classroom teacher. It ishis responsibility to provide the appropriate instruc-tional practices, those procedures and materials thathe deems most suitable to the children being in-structed.

How MUCH CAN WE ASSUME?

While a general uniform curriculum is needed, theopportunity for divergence from it is necessary. Thedesirable aspects of this procedure are usuallyconceded. Children differ. Whole schools differ. Av-erage IQ's may differ 25 points in separate schools.Facilities and materials vary. The social and econom-ic backgrounds of children demand diversified con-sideration. It is assumed then that flexibility in cur-riculum and instruction procedures is expected andencouraged, and is a major function of all teachers inthe elementary school.

Can we make a further assumption that if schoolsproceed with a flexible implementation of curricu-lum they will attempt to establish it on a firm andtotal basis? In actual practice our implementation ishaphazard. It is not unusual to observe schools thatdo an excellent job with some individualizationpractices. Many schools individualize reading and the

416

- 1,, KI.1

sub-skills of reading, especially comprehension skills.It is the unusual school that has a total commitmentto all of the major aspects of individual learning andthe subsequent teaching procedures. Such a commit-ment not only involves teaching but it also requiresthe support of administrative policies and practices.

It is assumed that school personnel are well inform-ed on the significance of the vast differences betweenand among pupils. How else can a differentiated cur-riculum plan be implemented? This is no easy task.New dimensions are added almost daily. Only recentlyhave we come to realize that children from "acrossthe tracks" have special learning proThlems, or thatthe economic level of a family can be an educationaldisadvantage. Boys differ significantly from girls inlearning characteristics and response to the schoolenvironment.' Yet for years we have treated them aseducational identical twins.

NEED FOR A FRAME OF REFERENCE

Human beings behave within a frame of referencerelated to the environment in which they function.How the teacher regards himself in the school envi-ronment determines his instructional approach. It isimportant for the teacher to establish a definite ideaof his role in the school setting. Outstanding teachershave accurate perceptions of themselves and theirroles, and this serves as a constant frame of referencefor them.

The author has not been successful in finding briefdefinitions of teaching as practiced in the elementaryschool. Leland Jacobs in his Image of the Teacher,2however, does present an excellent statement on therole of the teacher. To be more precise about theteaching act itself, the following definition might besuggested as one frame of reference:Teaching is the process of modifying human behaviorthrough the creation of exciting learning experiencesfor children.

A second frame of reference that is essential to theeffective functioning of the teacher is his concept of

1 The National Elementary Principal. Sex Differences andthe School, November 1966.

2 Leland Jacobs. The Image of the Teacher. N.E.A. Elemen-tary Instructional Service, August 1964.

the school. It is obvious that schools exist to produceeducated human beings, and many of us are willingto let it go at that. But if we define the job of theteacher as the modification of behavior, then howdoes this relate to the purpose of the school, the col-lective teachers? The author again suggests a

definition as a second frame of reference:

The school is a place for students to think and toquestion, for finding some answers, but in so doing,raising more questions. It is a place where the appetitesfor learning are whetted, the imagination stimulated andreasoning challenged. It is where children can growamazed at the minds of great men, challenged by thecleverness of nature, thrilled by the beauty of art andmusic, and helped to find their real selves in the adventureof creating. It is where learning to jump rope in thefirst grade has as much ego satisfaction for the child asbeing elected to the presidency of Rotary has for dad.It is a place where every day the child's vacuum ofinexperience is filled with new discoveries; that three 3'sare 9, how to finger-paint, how to find the volume of asphere, the fact that the world really isn't round, or thatmore Eskimos live in Seattle than any other place in theworld.

What is a school? Where facts are learned, and skillsmastered, and problems solved; that is for sure. But asa result of the school experience a better person emerges.He speaks in a different voice and with a different pur-pose. He can weigh and measure evidence that he hasgathered. He can debate, challenge and analyze.

He can defend a position or make critical observations.He can tell not just what, but why and how. He has asense of values and a moral conscience. In short, aresponsible, informed citizen has taken shape. He is athinking person, capable of intelligent decisions regard-ing his personal life, his home life, and his communitylife. The function of the school is thereby fulfilled.

CLASSROOM INSTRUCTION

Instruction that is concerned with individualdifferences stresses the very personal nature of successexperiences. This implies that we as teachers will befulfilling our responsibilities if children have a vari-ety of successes, that there are not always uniformachievement expectancies, that one child may havemastered a skill before another is even ready tobegin, and that the roles might be reversed on a sec-ond skill.

Such a position is based on the idea of learningthat security and success are an essential part ofgrowth. The chiid's place on the learning ladder is atthat level where his self esteem is nurtured, notdoubted. Pupil evaluation, then, must be based onthe principle of emphasis on self competition. Childrating systems should give leads to analysis ofdifficulties and should not be used simply to reportfailures.

Grading practices based on single standards ofachievement are often linked with basic instructional

Curriculum Provisions 417

practices. In most cases narrow evaluation accompa-nies limited learning opportunities. The elementaryschool that has flexible reporting procedures basedon individual growth rather than uniform standardsof achievement needs to be encouraged to maintainthis position. Today's emphasis on academic excel-lence makes flexible grading and reporting practicesvery difficult.

Such procedures call for an examination of therole of the textbook in learning. In spite of all thathas been said and written about uninspired textbookuse, a visitor to the middle and upper elementarygrades will have no problem finding teachers whogive uniform assignments from a uniform textbook,followed by uniform tests and examinations. Thepractice can hardly be called an exciting learning ex-perience. Its positive effect on pupil-behavior changeis questionable. It represents over-dependence on asingle teaching tool and should be recognized as amisuse.

This seemingly great dependency upon a singletext in social studies may be difficult to understandin light of the vast amount of other reading materialsavailable. It has been observed that the practice isfollowed, however, not because of a lack of instruc-tional materials but because of the inadequacy ofcurriculum guides. This situation constitutes a na-tional problem. School districts are in desperate needof high-level guidance in preparing curriculumguides. Without guides to help teachers establishbroad purposes, goals, and concepts to be taught,teachers have little choice but to plan instructionaround subject-matter units using the textbook as theprimary learning source. The text becomes both themeans and the end.

Part of the problem is that the flexibility of thetextbook is limited. It is obvious that if it is necessaryto group children in reading because of different in-structional (and therefore different frustration) lev-els, reading experiences in social studies needdifferentiation too. The pupils must have a large va-riety of reading materials of different levels ofdifficulty. The classroom teacher needs the support ofa good school library. In addition, the library mustfunction in such a way that materials are available toteacher and child whenever they are needed. Thesereading materials should include reference books,supplementary books, magazines, pictures, filmstrips,and newspapers.

Theories of learning3 suggest that children learnbest and most when in environments that providegenerous amounts of stimuli. It is through the inter-action of the child with his environment that learn-ing takes place. Since the school setting and its oper-ation are beyond the control of the child, the stimuli

William Vincent and Paul Mort. The Effective Teacher'sHandbook. Institute of Administrative Research.


must be provided by the adults in the school. It is onthis point that curriculum workers and administra-tors must cooperate closely with the classroom teach-er. The teacher can decide what is needed but theother members of the team must see that it is pro-vided. Teachers too often are expected to teach in anenvironment that is barren of significant stimuli. Forexample, some school districts actually have policiesagainst field tripsnot because of cost but because ofthe waste of time! What a sad commentary on ourunderstanding of learning.

Instructional procedures that involve pupils inmore than one kind of learning situation seem desir-able for caring for individual differences. The imagi-native teacher combines multiple resources withhighly challenging and significant learning activities.The child then has the advantage of high motivationas well as many alternatives to help him be successfulas a learner. Note the following examples:. . . A teacher in Camarillo, California, challenged herfourth and fifth grade pupils with a current problemhomework in the elementary school. After extensive indi-vidual and varied research, the class debated the issuefor their parents and community.

. . . A fifth grade teacher in Olympia, Washnigton, usinga tape recorder, interviewed governors and high federalofficials regarding conservation practices. The class for-mulated the questions for the interviews. Batting average?Eleven of the twelve officials respondedwith enthusiasm!. . . A sixth grade teacher in Colorado Springs, Colorado,recently launched "Project Misery," a week-long experi-ment in segregation, prejudice, and discrimination. Theclass ate lunch in isolation, did not speak to others un-less spoken to, stepped off the sidewalk to let others pass,sat in the rear of buses, and so on. The teacher statedthat the children were more considerate of each otherafter the experience. One of the children commented,"It was an exciting experience."4

. . . Not long ago a secondary teacher tried an interestinginnovation. He was concerned about the r2ading abilityof his pupils and their success in school, including thepassing of examinations. He tried a new format for test-ing. Instead of simply mimeographing the test and hand-ing it out, he included one additional dimension. Heread each question orally two times. The result? Bettergrades on tests by poor readers!

* Portland Oregonian, December 7, 1966.

As in any other curriculum area, the tools of socialstudies are unique. The first of these tools is vocabu-lary. Good teachers take time to make certain thatthe vocabulary is understood. As one teacher ob-served, "If the pupils know the vocabulary, theyknow half of what I have to teach." Other tools needto be taught: How to use references. How to use thelibrary. The parts of a newspaper. How to read amap. How to read a globe.

Many elementary schools are inadequatelyequipped with supplementary materials, especiallyglobes. Systematic instruction on map and globeskills is often neglected. In fact, such instruction isfrequently a matter of chance. It is not uncommon tofind classrooms where globes are kept on a high shelf,out of reach of children and therefore not used bythem.

Let's get these tools out, dust them off, and wearthem out before they are outdated. The averagespeed of an air transport passed the 175 m.p.h. markyears ago! Between 50 and 6o new nations haveemerged since 1946. Our tools need to be up-to-dateand children need instruction on how to use them.

The elementary schools of Grosse Point, Michigan,teach globe skills according to a defined curriculum.In each school fifteen uniform globes suitable for theintermediate grades have been purchased. These areused for a short period each day for about two weeks.Two pupils are assigned as a team to each globe andreceive instruction in a systematic sequence of skills.The team learns and practices at an individual rate.At the end of the unit, the globes are sent to the nextclassroom.

The methods for caring for individual differencesin the social studies can be reduced to a few funda-mentals. There is a need for the total school staff toagree on a philosophical position consonant with theconcept of differentiated instruction. Such an orien-tation must be supported by administrative policy.The individual teacher must then exert his profes-sionalism by helping each child understand whatthere is in schooling that will benefit him. This isdone by providing learning experiences that are indi-vidually significant. Is such instructional competencya tough job? There is little doubt that it is the mostdifficult teaching job there is. That is why it requiresa highly skilled professional.

'TM

The Individual and the Social Studies 419

THE INDIVIDUAL AND THE SOCIAL STUDIES(Continued from page 407)

they are not open to unlimited interrelation. To put itanother way, we must concentrate on developing moreand better ways to a structured materials and pro-cedures in a free way, recognizing that all children willnot and need not grasp a given concept or understand-ing at a preconceived level, and accepting the idea thatwithin our broad curricular framework it is both rightand good that children should become more and morethemselves, growing and developing both like and unliketheir classmates.

2. It seems imperative, therefore, that we concentrate ondeveloping far more effective ways to encourage childrento take more responsibility for their own learningtodevelop their abilities to work independently.

3. Similarly, recognizing that the feelings, beliefs, andattitudes of the collective members of a group are also

a significant and potent educational force, we need toexperiment with a far greater variety of grouping pat-terns. For example, we might attempt to assess the ef-fects of family groupings in which younger and olderchildren spend some time learning together, varieties ofsmall groups, pairs of children, and so on. Conversely,we might consider drastically reducing the amount oftime spent on large group, teacher-directed, formal classteaching.

4. Finally, we might make infinitely more use of what wecan broadly label "diagnostic" techniques; that is, weneed to spend considerably more time finding out whatchildren know, how they think and feel, where they arestrong, where they are weak. Beginning a year's socialstudy with a series of diagnostic tests is almost unheardof; not doing so would be almost equally rare amongmodern teachers of reading.

LEARNING RESOURCES(Continued from page 415)

mation discovered from carefully studying the con-tent of the pictures.8

The innovations described are illustrative of newresources becoming available to individualize in-struction in social studies. In the final analysis, how-

'Further information on Study-Print Sets can be obtainedfrom producers such as Silver Burdett Company, Park Ridge,Illinois; and Society for Visual Education, Inc., 1345 DiverseyParkway, Chicago, Illinois 60614.

ever, it is not the addition of more hardware to theclassroom that will, in and of itself, effect greater in-dividualization of instruction any more than the ad-dition of more hardware to the kitchen producesgourmet meals. Indeed, the critical factor is not amechanical but a human one. The key point is howthese media are put to work in individualizing in-struction by the classroom teacher. And so, in a veryreal sense, the most important single resource in in-dividualizing instruction still is the creative teacher.

'

* r ;

VArt.ir,2;A1-.0}4 r


MIDDLE AND UPPER GRADES(Continued from page 412)

make a unique contribution to classwork. Too oftenhe is merely one of a number of competitors havingthe same information that nobody especially caresabout.

In preparing a specialty report, a pupil uses thetools of research available to him, developing in-creased proficiency in research, organization, andpresentation skills. It is rich in opportunities for em-phasizing pupil participation, discussion, planning,critical evaluation, personal contact, and individualinitiative. It allows the pupil to share his findingswith his classmates. Slow learners gain knowledgethrough observation and listening, and through par-ticipation in small group follow-up activities.

We have given considerable emphasis here to smallgroup or pupil-team learning. Durrell says, "Pupil-team learning consists of dividing pupils into pairs,threes, or larger groups for mutual aid in learning.Learning tasks .are set in which pupils work together,sharing, thinking, and planning, exchanging meth-ods of approach, sharing tentative conclusions, cor-recting and evaluating each other's answers, produc-ing either individual products or a single groupproduct."6 We have given emphasis to small groups

6 Durrell, op. cit.

or pupil teams because we believe such pupil deploy-ment offers one of the best ways of actively involvingthe largest number of pupils in the heterogeneousclassroom.

Our discussion has been concerned about pro-viding for the needs of all individuals. Many teachersseek suggestions particularly for the slow learnersand the able or gifted learners. Other references dis-cuss the special instructional problems regardinthese two groups.7

In the final analysis, whatever the setting, the ulti-mate test of school learning is individual growth andperformance. Planning for individual growth andsuccessful performance to the boundaries of a pupil'slimitations in the dynamic area of social studies is aformidable task for any teacher. For optimum resultsit requires teamwork of teachers working at the samegrade level. This is claimed as a built-in feature ofteam-teaching schools. It calls for a cooperative en-terprise, initiated and encouraged by the principalfor schools with self-contained classrooms. Teamworkis productive in planning for the provision for indi-vidual differences and in the developmen of materi-als for soundly based instruction.

7 Chase, op. cit., pp. 28-36; Jarolimek, op. c

This is the fourth and fina', supplement in the first series of articles dealing with socialthe elementary school. The twenty articles of the four supplements are available in onobtained through the National Council for the Social Studies for $1.50. Additional inthis publication is given in the advertisement on page 427 of this issue of Social Educe'

The second series of supplements is now being planned. During the next year the smatters relating to some of the disciplines from which subject matter is selected forprogramsgeography, anthropology, political science, and economics. Readers are enames of potential authors for these articles. There is a special need to identify prawho are willing and able to contribute articles to the supplements. Correspondenauthorship of the elementary education supplement should be directed to John Jtion, University of Washington, Seattle 98105.

Elementary Education Supplement

published four times a year.Financed by the MARY G. KELTY FUND

it., pp. 169-170.

studies education ine volume and can beformation concerningon.

upplements will discusslementary social studies

ncouraged to suggest thecticing classroom teachersce relating to articles and

rolimek, College of Educa-

SELECTED PUBLICATIONSOF THE NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR THE SOCIAL STUDIES

1201 Sixteenth St., N.W., Washington, p.c. 20036

YearbooksThirty-Sixth Yearbook (1966), Political Science in the Social Studies, Donald H. Riddle and Robert E. Cleary,

editors. $4.00; clothbound $5.00.Thirty-Fifth Yearbook (1965), Evaluation in Social Studies, Harry D. Berg, editor. $4.00; clothbound $5.00.Thirty-Fourth Yearbook (1964), New Perspectives in World History, Shirley H. Engle, editor. $5.00; cloth-

bound $6.00.Thirty-Third Yearbook (1963), Skill Development in Social Studies, HOen McCracken Carpenter, editor.

$4.00; clothbound $5.00.Thirty-Second Yearbook (1962), Social Studies in Elementa7y Schools, John U. Michaelis, editor. $4.00; cloth-

bound $5.00.Thirty-First Yearbook (1961), Interpreting and Teaching American History, William H. Cartwright and

Richard L. Watson, Jr., co-editors. $4.00; clothbound $5.00.Thirtieth Yearbook (1960), Citizenship and a Free Society: Education for the Future, Franklin Patterson, ed-

itor. $4.00; clothbound $5.00.Twenty-Ninth Yearbook (1959), New Viewpoints in Geography, Preston E. James, editor. $4.00; clothbound

$5.00.Twenty-Eighth Yearbook (1958), New Viewpoints in. the Social Sciences, Roy A. Price, editor. $4.00; cloth-

bound $5.00.Twenty-Seventh Yearbook (1956-57), Science and the Social Studies, Howard H. Cummings, editor. $4.00;

clothbound $5.00.Twenty-Sixth Yearbook (1955), Improving the Social Studies Curriculum, Ruth Ellsworth and Ole Sand, co-

editors. $3.5o; clothbound $4.00.

BulletinsBulletin No. 39 (1967), Productivity and Automation, J. J. Jehring, editor. $2.50Bulletin No. 38 (1966), Reading Guide in Politics and Government, by Robert H. Connery, Richard H.

Leach, and Joseph Zikmund II. $1.5oBulletin No. 37 (1965), The Study of Totalitarianism: An Inductive Approach (A Guide for Teachers), by

Howard D. Mehlinger. $2.00.Bulletin No. 35 (1964), Improving the Teaching of World Affairs: The Glens Falls Story, by Harold M. Long

and Robert N. King. $2.00.Bulletin No. 34 (1963), Guiding the Social Studies Reading of High School Students, by Ralph C. Preston,

J. Wesley Schneyer, and Franc J. Thyng. $1.50.Bulletin No. 31 (rev. ed. 1962), World History Book List for High Schools: A Selection for Supplementary

Reading, prepared by The World History Bibliography Committee of NCSS, Alice W. Spieseke, Chair-man. $1.50.

Curriculum SeriesNumber Twelve (1965), Social Studies in Transition: Guidelines for Change Dorothy McClure Fraser and

Samuel P. McCutchen, editors. $2.25.Number Ten (1958), The Social Education of the Academically Talented, Ruth Wood Gavian, editor. $2.00.Number Eight (1953), Social Studies in the College: Programs for the First Two Years, William G. Tyrell,

editor. $2.00.Number Seven (rev. ed. 1965), Social Studies in the Senior High School: Programs for Grades Ten, Eleven,

and Twelve, Willis D. Moreland, editor. $2.25.Number Six (rev. ed. 1957), Social Studies for the Junior High School: Programs for Grades Seven, Eight, and

Nine, Julian C. Aidrich, editor. $2.00.Number Five (new ed. 1960), Social Studies for the Middle Grades: Answering Teachers' Questions, C. W.

Hunnicutt, editor. $2.25.Number Four (rev. ed. 1956), Social Education of Young Children: Kindergarten-Primary Grades, Mary Will-

cockson, editor. $2.00.

Orders which amount to ;2.00 or less must be accompanied by cash.

Shipping charges will be prepaid on cash orders, but orders not accompanied by cashwill be billed with shipping charges included.

A complete publications list sent free on request.

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