Exploring Guild Participation in MMORPGs and Civic Leadership

This chapter reports the results of a survey study of the civic engagement and participation of guild members in the massively multi-player online role play game (MMORPG) World of Warcraft (WoW). Further, the authors explore the implications of the results of the study for K-12 social studies education. Specifically, the authors focus on the potential of MMORPGs such as WoW for meeting content standards in the social studies—in this case, the National Standards for Civics and Government--and for impacting on pre-service social studies teacher education.

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Teacher perceptions of the effectiveness of the Social Studies Teacher Training Program at Tabouk Teachers' College in Saudi Arabia

10.33915/etd.2775 ◽

2007 ◽

Author(s):

Awad Hamad Alhwiti

Keyword(s):

Saudi Arabia ◽

Teacher Training ◽

Social Studies ◽

Teacher Perceptions ◽

Training Program ◽

Teachers College ◽

Teacher Training Program ◽

The Social ◽

Social Studies Teacher

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Participatory Literacy and Taking Informed Action in the Social Studies

10.4018/978-1-6684-3706-3.ch061 ◽

2022 ◽

pp. 1125-1141

Author(s):

Casey Holmes ◽

Meghan McGlinn Manfra

Keyword(s):

Social Studies ◽

Civic Engagement ◽

School Setting ◽

Democratic Participation ◽

Civic Life ◽

College Career ◽

The Social ◽

Participatory Technologies ◽

Participatory Literacy ◽

K 12

The purpose of the social studies is to prepare students for life as citizens in a democratic society, and this requires attention to the variety of digital spaces inhabited by our K-12 students in today's increasingly digitized world. Incorporating participatory technologies into structured inquiries in the social studies may help develop students' skills and abilities in critically sourcing, evaluating, sharing, and creating media, and provides the opportunity for increasingly democratic participation and civic engagement both in and out of the school setting. In this chapter, the authors suggest the integration of participatory literacy with the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) framework as a means of supporting students in taking informed action.

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Elementary classroom libraries and social studies trade books

Social Studies Research and Practice ◽

10.1108/ssrp-11-2018-0041 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 14 (1) ◽

pp. 14-27

Author(s):

Tracey S. Hodges ◽

Katherine Landau Wright ◽

Julianne M. Coleman ◽

Holly Hilboldt Swain ◽

Claire Schweiker ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Social Studies ◽

Elementary Classroom ◽

Easy Access ◽

National Council ◽

Trade Books ◽

High Quality ◽

Content Type ◽

The Social ◽

Classroom Libraries ◽

K 12

Purpose Standards and policy changes in K-12 education have created the unintended consequence of reducing instructional time spent on social studies content. This limited time devoted to social studies presumably has led to more integrated social studies and literacy instruction. The purpose of this paper is to document the types of high-quality social studies children’s books found in classroom libraries across five states. Design/methodology/approach In the present mixed methods study, the researchers utilized a database of 60 classroom libraries across five states to identify which high-quality trade books, defined by the National Council for the Social Studies, were present. The researchers document trends in both frequencies of books and social studies content across decades, classrooms, grade levels and states from 1972 to 2015. Findings The findings indicate that National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) Notable Trade Books for Young People texts are largely missing from the elementary classroom libraries the researchers sampled. Of the 5,544 unique titles included on the NCSS lists from 1972 to 2015, 453 were located in the US classroom libraries database, representing 8.17 percent of books found on the notable lists. Originality/value Before teachers can take steps toward integrating social studies and literacy, they need easy access to high-quality social studies texts. Many high-quality trade books are recommended each year for exposing students to social studies content; however, the researchers found limited numbers of these books in classroom libraries. The researchers recommend the lists be circulated to a wider audience to inform more teachers about these texts.

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Economics and the civic mission of social studies education: Two critiques of neoclassicism

Citizenship Social and Economics Education ◽

10.1177/2047173419841915 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 18 (1) ◽

pp. 16-32 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Erin C Adams

Keyword(s):

Social Studies ◽

Citizenship Education ◽

Social Studies Education ◽

State Standards ◽

Democratic Society ◽

Content Standards ◽

Neoclassical Theory ◽

Good Citizenship ◽

Theoretical Assumptions ◽

K 12

This article examines the theoretical assumptions underlying K-12 economic curriculum and the consequences of this curriculum for citizenship education and democracy. Specifically, the article discusses scholarship related to the critique of neoclassic economic theory’s role in influencing the Voluntary National Content Standards in Economics and the trickle-down effects into state standards and textbooks. From the literature, the author uncovers two main critiques of neoclassicism: that neoclassic theory is unrealistic and impersonal. Neoclassic theory has enormous consequences for the civic mission of social studies. The author investigates the extent to which neoclassical theory makes for good citizenship and is desirable for a democratic society.

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The Effectiveness of Interactive Maps in Secondary Historical Geography Education

Cartographic Perspectives ◽

10.14714/cp55.325 ◽

2006 ◽

pp. 16-33 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Whitney Taylor ◽

Brandon Plewe

Keyword(s):

Social Sciences ◽

Social Studies ◽

Historical Geography ◽

Geography Education ◽

Test Results ◽

Interactive Maps ◽

Interactive Mapping ◽

The Social ◽

K 12 ◽

Core Part

Social Studies, including history and geography, is a core part of most state curriculum standards for K-12 education, and for the most part is in need of improvement. Among the technological solutions that have been developed, interactive maps show promise in making the complexities of the social sciences (especially historical geography) more interesting to students, and easier to visualize and understand, without demanding significant investments by schools. A two-group experiment examined this potential for the 7th Grade Utah Studies curriculum. After completing an exercise to analyze possible historical and geographical causes of settlement patterns in Utah, students using interactive maps showed significantly better improvement between a pretest and posttest than students using paper maps. Although some of the test results were inconclusive and highlighted technological and resource obstacles to the widespread adoption of interactive mapping in the classroom, it has been shown to help students learn social studies in a deeper, more engaging manner.

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