Three of the significant methodologies in social studies are inquiry, problem-solving, and decision-making. How these are implemented in the classroom will depend upon how they are conceptualized by teachers. If inquiry is conceived of as the answering by students of specific empirical questions, then this is what will be carried out in the name of inquiry. As social studies methods textbooks are one of the sources from which pre-service elementary teachers derive their conceptions of inquiry, problem-solving, and decision-making, twenty-one elementary textbooks were analyzed to determine how these terms were ‘defined.’ On the basis of the analysis it was concluded that these terms were used in vague and ambiguous ways, thus creating potential instructional problems.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AdlerS. (1991). The education of social studies teachers. In ShaverJ. (Ed.)Handbook of Research on Social Studies Teaching and Learning. New York: Macmillan.
2.
BanksJ. (1990). Teaching strategies for the social studies (4th ed.). New York: Longman.
3.
BarrR.BarthJ.ShermisS, (1977). Defining the social studies. Arlington, Virginia: National Council for the Social Studies.
4.
BeyerB. (1979). Teaching thinking in the social studies: Using inquiry in the classroom. Columbus, Ohio: Merrill.
5.
BrunerJ. (1968). Man: A course of study. Cambridge, MA.: Education Development Center.
6.
ChapinJ.MessickR. (1989). Elementary social studies: A practical guide. New York: Longman.
7.
DeweyJ. (1933). How we think. Lexington, MA: Health.
8.
EllisA. (1991). Teaching and learning elementary social studies (4th ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1986.
9.
EngleS. (1960). Decision making: The heart of social studies. Social Education, 24(1), 301-309.
10.
EvansJ.BruecknerM, (1990). Elementary social studies teaching for today and tomorrow. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
11.
FentonE. (1966). Teaching the new social sciences in secondary schools: An inductive approach. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
12.
FraenkelJ. (1980). Helping students think and value: Strategies for leaching the social studies (2nd ed.). Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.
13.
HenningsD.HenningsG.BanichS, (1989). Today's elementary social studies (2nd ed.). New York: Harper and Row.
14.
HullfishG.SmithP, (1961). Reflective thinking: The method of education. New York: Dodd, Mead and Company.
15.
HunkinsF. (1982). Social studies in the elementary school. Columbus, OH: Merrill.
16.
HuntM.MetcalfL. (1955). Teaching high school social studies. New York: Harper and Row.
17.
JarolimekJ. (1986). Social studies in elementary education. (7th ed.). New York: Macmillan.
18.
KaltsounisT. (1989). Teaching social studies in the elementary school: The basics for citizenship. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall.
19.
KirmanJ. (1991). Elementary social studies. Scarborough, Ont.: Prentice-Hall.
20.
MartorellaP. (1985). Elementary social studies. Developing reflective, competent and concerned citizens. Boston: Little, Brown.
21.
MassialasB. (Ed.), (1963). The Indiana experiments in inquiry. The Social Studies, Bulletin of the School of Education, Indiana University, Bloomington, 39(3).
22.
MassialasB.CoxC, (1966). Inquiry in social studies. San Francisco: McGraw-Hill.
23.
MaximG. (1987). Social studies and the elementary school child (3rd ed.). Columbia, OH: Merrill.
24.
MichaelisJ. (1988). Social studies for children (9th ed.). Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.
25.
National Council for the Social Studies (1979). National Council for the Social Studies guidelines. Social Eduction, 43(4), 261-273.
26.
National Commission on Social Studies in the Schools (1989) Charting a course: Social studies for the 21st century. Washington, D.C.: National Commission in Social Studies in the Schools.
27.
NaylorD.DiemR, (1987). Elementary and middle school social studies. New York: Random House.
28.
NelsonM. (1992). Children and social studies: Creative teaching in the elementary classroom. (2nd ed.). Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
29.
PrestonR.HermanW, (1981). Teaching social studies in the elementary school (5th ed.). New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
30.
SavageT.ArmstrongP, (1987). Effective teaching in elementary social studies. New York: MacMillan.
31.
ServeyR. (1981). Elementary social studies: A skills emphasis. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
32.
ShaverJ.LarkinsA, (1973). The analysis of public issues program. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
33.
SimonF. (1971). A reconstructive approach to problem solving. Calgary: Author.
34.
SunalC. (1990). Early childhood social studies. Columbus, OH: Merrill.
35.
Van CleafD. (1991). Action in elementary social studies. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.
36.
WalshH. (1980). Introducing the young child to the social world. New York: Macmillan.
37.
WeltonD.MalianJ, (1988). Children and their world (3rd ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
38.
WrightI. (1991). Elementary social studies: A practical approach to teaching and learning (3rd ed.). Scarborough, Ont.: Nelson.
39.
WrightI.La BarC. (Eds.). (1987). Critical thinking and social studies. Toronto: Grolier.
