Teaching Social Studies That Matters

by Thornton, Stephen J.; Noddings, Nel

• ISBN13: 9780807745229
• ISBN10: 0807745227
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-11-01
• Publisher: Teachers College Pr

Summary

No plan to increase achievement and enact reform in the social studies classroom will succeed without recognizing the central importance of the teacher as the gatekeeperof instruction. In this book, Thornton details why teachers must develop strong skills in curriculum planning and teaching methods in order for effective instruction to occur. Thornton helps teachers to develop a vision of their practice that will build strong social studies programs and inspire students to learn. This book features replicable examples of the kinds of reflective practice that will enable teachers to animate classroom instruction and create a dynamic social studies curriculum and an analysis of how teachers adapt and shape state and district level curricula and classroom materials to fit the specific needs of their students, and a model of how to develop an instructional program with suggestions for lesson planning.

Author Biography

Stephen J. Thornton is Associate Professor of Social Studies and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University

Table of Contents

Foreword	vii
Nel Noddings
Acknowledgments	xi
Introduction: Making Social Studies Matter	1	(9)
Why Gatekeeping Matters More Than Curriculum Change	10	(17)
Defining Social Studies	11	(6)
Aims Talk	17	(5)
Subject Matter and Methods	22	(2)
Student Interest and Effort	24	(3)
How Has the Social Studies Curriculum Been Organized?	27	(18)
Emergence of Social Studies as a School Subject	27	(3)
Where Should the Curriculum Developer Begin?	30	(2)
Social Studies as Social Science: The Survey of American History	32	(7)
Social Studies as Social Education: Problems of Democracy	39	(6)
Aims Must Matter	45	(12)
Aims Talk Matters	45	(3)
The Student as a Source of Aims	48	(4)
Society as a Source of Aims	52	(2)
Scholarship as a Source of Aims	54	(3)
Toward a Balanced and Flexible Curriculum	57	(16)
Conceptualizing Curriculum Planning	58	(1)
Connections Between Goals and Subject Matter	59	(8)
Teachers and the Curriculum	67	(2)
Curriculum Reconsidered	69	(4)
Methods	73	(15)
Curriculum Reform and the Neglect of Methods	73	(4)
From Curriculum to Method	77	(3)
Principled Selection of Methods	80	(2)
Lesson Types	82	(5)
Conclusion	87	(1)
Educating the Educators	88	(16)
Subject-Matter Preparation	89	(8)
Obstacles to Effective Methods Courses	97	(2)
Toward More Effective Methods	99	(2)
Method and Curriculum Materials	101	(2)
Conclusion	103	(1)
Enactment of Curriculum That Matters	104	(5)
References	109	(14)
Index	123	(6)
About the Author	129