Teaching and learning with morning meeting in elementary social studies methods courses

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ariel Cornett ◽  
Alexa M. Quinn
Keyword(s):  
Social Studies ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Methods Course ◽  
National Council ◽  
Methods Courses ◽  
Social Studies Methods ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Elementary Social Studies ◽  
Morning Meeting

PurposeUsing morning meeting, an evidence-based practice that is part of the responsive classroom (RC) approach, the authors (two teacher educators [TEs]) created opportunities for teacher candidates (TCs) to experience representations, decompositions and approximations of practice in multiple iterations of an elementary social studies methods course.Design/methodology/approachThe authors detail how TEs can expose TCs to social studies content (e.g. the National Council for the Social Studies themes) that can be incorporated into structured, daily classroom routines, such as morning meeting.FindingsThe authors include TE-created morning meeting facilitation guides with components such as a morning message, greeting, share, group activity and theme justification. Furthermore, the authors outline TCs' reflections on planning and implementing a morning meeting with a partner in addition to their own reflections on the TCs' feedback.Originality/valueThis work has implications related to TEs and TCs in elementary social studies methods courses as well as current and future students in elementary classrooms.

Meeting the demands of the C3 framework in elementary social studies methods

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 358-371 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Alan Neel ◽  
Amy Palmeri
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Social Studies ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Social Studies Education ◽  
Methods Course ◽  
Social Studies Methods ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Elementary Social Studies ◽  
Social Studies Teacher ◽  
Social Studies Teacher Education

Purpose In both elementary schools and elementary teacher education programs, social studies is marginalized while standards require increasingly more ambitious reasoning, reading, and writing in social studies than has historically been documented in American elementary schools. The purpose of this paper is to explain the challenges that elementary social studies teacher educators face in preparing elementary school teachers to facilitate the kind of ambitious social studies envisioned in the NCSS’s C3 Framework and advocate an approach to successfully address these challenges. Design/methodology/approach This paper articulates a targeted and ambitious approach to elementary social studies teacher education. The authors describe five recommendations from the teacher education literature for supporting preservice teachers in learning disciplinary-oriented social studies teaching, recommendations that guided the redesign of the social studies methods course. The authors then highlight key aspects of the redesigned methods course and demonstrate how the authors engaged the challenges inherent in the work of elementary social studies teacher education. Findings Although this paper is not arranged in such a way as to substantiate empirical findings, the purpose of the paper is to demonstrate an approach to elementary social studies education aligned with extant literature on preparing teachers to engage in reform teaching practices, specifically those disciplinary oriented practices suggested in NCSS’s C3 Framework. As such, the paper should be read as a perspective on practice. Research limitations/implications The type of disciplinary-oriented approach described here is increasingly under investigation in secondary teacher education research and similar approaches are under investigation in elementary math and science education research. To the authors’ knowledge, the approach is novel in elementary social studies education. Furthermore, the authors believe it offers a direction for researchers interested in gaps in the literature related to practice based teacher education and disciplinary-oriented social studies teacher education. Practical implications The approach described here offers specific guidance and resources for teacher educators who are struggling with the challenges of the contemporary social studies education landscape and/or who wish to focus methods courses in disciplinary ways. Social implications Research in social studied education has demonstrated that when students are exposed to disciplinary practices in social studies, their literacy skills improve and they learn analytical skills that support their development as citizens (consumption of media, participation in public discourse, ability to discern arguments). Originality/value As noted above, the approach described here is novel in elementary social studies education. Combining a disciplinary approach with a practice-based frame in elementary social studies represents an opportunity for empirical research and offers new approaches to the practice of teacher education and early career professional development.

Social studies teacher educators who do race work

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 330-344 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara B. Demoiny
Keyword(s):  
Social Studies ◽  
Pedagogical Content Knowledge ◽  
Content Knowledge ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Methods Course ◽  
Methods Courses ◽  
Social Studies Methods ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Pedagogical Content ◽  
Social Studies Teacher

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore how 11 social studies teacher educators (SSTEs) incorporated race into their social studies methods courses. It examines the instructional practices of the SSTEs using racial-pedagogical-content-knowledge (RPCK) as an analytical framework. Design/methodology/approach The paper is a qualitative interview study. The data sources included two 40–90 min semi-structured interviews per participant, methods course syllabi and reading lists, and university documents such as departmental mission statements and program course requirements. Data were analyzed using three cycles of coding: descriptive coding, focused coding and analytic generalizations. Findings The paper illustrates how the SSTEs incorporated race into their social studies methods courses through developing counter-narrative content knowledge, modeling the application of critical race theory tenets through pedagogical content knowledge, and cultivating a working racial knowledge among pre-service teachers. Originality/value This paper extends the literature of the RPCK framework through illustrating many ways each component of RPCK can be applied within a social studies methods course.

The three R’s: reading, (W)Riting, and researching through multi-genre project

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathryn Roberts ◽  
Kristy Brugar
Keyword(s):  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Peer Interactions ◽  
Student Response ◽  
Methods Course ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Historical Inquiry ◽  
Social Studies Methods ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Action Research Approach

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how the authors, two teacher educators, planned for and guided 23 students (teacher candidates) through a multi-genre historical inquiry experience, integrating instruction on the Inquiry Arc and writing process, during a co-taught literacy and social studies methods course. The authors describe the ways in which the students demonstrated both active and passive participation and resistance to this process/project, and the related implications. Design/methodology/approach Using an action research approach, this paper reports analysis and interpretation of lesson plans, course materials, debriefing notes, field notes, student response notebooks and intermediate and final inquiry project artifacts. Findings All students demonstrated gains in content knowledge through their products, oral presentations, group discussions, or conferences with the authors; and all gained experience with the Inquiry Arc and process writing. Many students saw the benefits of collaboration and social construction of knowledge as they moved toward more central participation. Practical implications Instructors cannot mandate full participation in any task, but can influence the conditions (i.e. pedagogy, task, scaffolding) to increase the possibility of positive peer interactions and learning. Originality/value This paper contributes to the knowledge of teaching and learning innovation in teacher preparation coursework.

Multimodality in the Preparation of Teachers of the Social Studies

2016 ◽  
pp. 1501-1536
Author(s):  
Margaret E. Bérci
Keyword(s):  
Social Studies ◽  
Teacher Candidates ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Methods Course ◽  
Social Studies Methods ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Education Practice ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
The Social ◽  
Study Process

The chapter outlines a project designed to address the challenges in developing and delivering the Social Studies methods course. The knowledge base represents a symbiotic integration of selected philosophical, theoretical, and methodological ideas. Specifically, it reports on two pilot courses that integrate online, traditional face-to-face, and Web-based formats. The project scaffolds the resulting weave with the Case Study process for Problem-Based Learning. This integration advances teacher education practice and facilitates the development of teacher candidates' democratic understanding of the issues surrounding the teaching and learning of Social Studies. It demonstrates the usefulness of multimodality in Education.

Multimodality in the Preparation of Teachers of the Social Studies

2014 ◽  
pp. 128-163
Author(s):  
Margaret E. Bérci
Keyword(s):  
Social Studies ◽  
Teacher Candidates ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Methods Course ◽  
Social Studies Methods ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Education Practice ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
The Social ◽  
Study Process

The chapter outlines a project designed to address the challenges in developing and delivering the Social Studies methods course. The knowledge base represents a symbiotic integration of selected philosophical, theoretical, and methodological ideas. Specifically, it reports on two pilot courses that integrate online, traditional face-to-face, and Web-based formats. The project scaffolds the resulting weave with the Case Study process for Problem-Based Learning. This integration advances teacher education practice and facilitates the development of teacher candidates' democratic understanding of the issues surrounding the teaching and learning of Social Studies. It demonstrates the usefulness of multimodality in Education.

scholarly journals Building community using experiential education with elementary preservice teachers in a social studies methodology course

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 111-120
Author(s):  
Stephanie Speicher
Keyword(s):  
Preservice Teachers ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Social Studies ◽  
Learning Community ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Methods Course ◽  
Social Studies Methods ◽  
Collegial Support ◽  
Teaching For Social Justice ◽  
Teaching Competence

There is urgency for teacher educators to instruct preservice teachers in the tenants of social justice education. This urgency is based upon the American demographic landscape and the responsibility of educators to teach for social justice. Preservice teachers report feeling inadequately prepared to educate for social justice when entering the classroom setting (citations from below). Feelings of incompetence in social justice teaching expressed among preservice teachers coupled with minimal examination in the literature of the effects of teacher education practices that aid in the readiness to teach for social justice provided the foundation for this study. This study examined experiential methodologies that can prepare preservice teachers to teach for social justice, particularly within a social studies context. The study focused on two research questions: (a) How do preservice elementary teachers in a social studies methods course conceptualize teaching for social justice within an experiential framework? (b) In what ways did preservice teachers operationalize teaching for social justice in the practicum classroom? Also examined was how the development of community in a social studies methodology course fostered the understanding of teaching for social justice. The findings highlight how preservice teachers were able to conceptualize building communities with experiential methods to teach for social justice and how doing so created an effective learning community. Although the preservice teachers valued the implementation of experiential methods to foster the teaching of social justice, difficulties were expressed in their incorporation of experiential methods in the practicum environment due to a lack of confidence, teaching competence, or collegial support.

Teaching race through AsianCrit-informed counterstories of school segregation

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 210-231 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sohyun An
Keyword(s):  
Preservice Teachers ◽  
Elementary Teachers ◽  
Social Studies ◽  
Elementary Classrooms ◽  
School Segregation ◽  
Critical Race ◽  
Race And Racism ◽  
Social Studies Methods ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Elementary Social Studies

Purpose How can the author, as social studies methods instructors, assist future elementary teachers develop the knowledge and skills to engage young students in critical examinations of race and racism, and feel empowered to take action against racial oppression? The purpose of this paper is to share one of many possible ways of “doing race” in elementary social studies teacher education. Design/methodology/approach First, the author proposes the topic of school segregation as a relevant and engaging inroad for elementary students to learn about race and racism. Then, the author outlines and problematizes a dominant approach to teaching about school segregation in elementary classrooms and suggests an alternative approach informed by critical race theories. Next, the author provides counterstories to dispel the dominant narrative of school segregation from an Asian critical race theory perspective. This is followed by an explanation of the lesson the author teaches in the author’s elementary social studies methods course that utilizes these perspectives and counterstories. Findings By using Asian-American counterstories of school segregation, the lesson seeks to assist preservice elementary teachers in disrupting the dominant teaching practices and discourses around school segregation and helps preservice teachers develop the critical understandings and competencies needed to successfully teach about race and racism in elementary classrooms. Originality/value The author concludes by discussing the possibilities and implications of the lesson.

Thinking with theory in a civil rights center

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 167-182
Author(s):  
Erin C. Adams ◽  
Sohyun An
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Preservice Teachers ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Social Studies ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Methods Courses ◽  
Social Studies Methods ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Education Theory ◽  
Theoretical Paper

PurposeThe purpose of this theoretical paper is to propose that museums can be useful sites in intervening the theory–practice divide in teacher education. The authors draw from their visit to the Center for Civil and Human Rights (CCHR or Center hereafter) to explore the potential of a local museum as a powerful intervention in the preservice teacher education theory/practice divide.Design/methodology/approachThe authors’ theoretical framework draws off of “thinking with theory,” a method of using concepts to make sense of data by “plugging” a concept “into” data (Jackson and Mazzei, 2011). The authors believe that everyone, even their preservice teachers think with theories in an attempt to make sense of information and events. In their social studies methods courses, the authors offer readings, texts, videos and experiences that present ideas and concepts that are new to their preservice teachers in order to expose underlying theories that frame worldviews.FindingsThe authors provide four “snapshots” or findings. These include: heroification and villainification, White–Black binary and messianic meta-narratives, empathy and simulation and critical Black patriotism. Each of these snapshots is grounded in theories from scholars in the field of social studies, demonstrating one way to put theory to work.Originality/valueAs the aforementioned snapshots show, the authors found a place like CCHR that can serve as important space to think with theory and deconstruct presented narratives. The authors “plugged” concepts from social studies scholarship “into” the narratives presented at the CCHR. Specifically, the authors used villainification (van Kessel and Crowley, 2017), AsianCrit (Chang, 1993), Black Patriotism (Busey and Walker, 2017) and messianic narratives and martyrdom (Alridge, 2006).

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