ABSTRACT
Context: TE Elementary, TE Secondary, 7-12 NCSS Standards: II (Time, Continuity, and Change), IV (Individual Development and Identity),
V (Individuals, Groups, and Institutions) INTASC Standards: 1 (Subject Matter), 2 (Student Learning), 4 (Instructional Strategies), 7
(Planning Instruction) Topics: inquiry, instructional strategies, critical thinking, primary sources, historical think-
ing, curriculum planning, pictures/photographs, citizenship, current events, integrated curriculum, graphic organizers
Like many of the authors in section 1 of this book, my social studies methods course begins with an examination of various approaches to teaching and learning social studies, including the citizenship/cultural transmission, social science (Barr, Barth, & Shermis, 1977), social issues (Evans, Newmann, & Saxe, 1996), and transformative multicultural (Banks, 1995) approaches. Th roughout the course, I expose my students to each of these social studies traditions and off er them experiences with lessons derived from each. In this chapter, I present a particular form of the inquiry method1 that I use to immerse my methods students in the social science tradition. According to Barr, Barth, and Shermis, “…the purpose of the Social Science Tradition is the acquisition of the knowledge-gathering skills of social scientists, the ultimate end of which is enhanced citizenship” (1977, p. 62). By engaging in inquiry and developing an extensive inquiry lesson, my students learn how to actively engage their high school or middle school students in the disciplinary process (e.g., the historical method), inherent to whatever social science discipline they might teach.
