Abstract
This manuscript reports the findings from a web-based, issues-centered project created by teacher education students for high school seniors in a government class. The university students compiled web pages that formulated an issue facing the Kansas Legislature and authored questions to be evaluated by the high school government students. The study was intended to research the impact of a project-based model of instruction on the university students’ understanding of conceptualizing a controversial issue, selecting appropriate resources, and authoring challenging questions as an introduction to issues-centered instruction. Our study suggests the creation of the web site assisted students in conceptualizing the issue driving a bill and breaking it down into points of view by researching and evaluating resource material. The high school students’ responses to their questions gave the pre-service teachers meaningful feedback on their questions, teaching them valuable lessons about this important component of issues-centered instruction. While this project did not fully implement issues-centered teaching, it did create a meaningful introduction to one of the most complex components, which is the ability of teachers to conceptualize complex issues and then generate materials and activities to engage students in the exploration of that issue. Our students became more aware of the challenges and promises of this style of teaching and may now be more receptive to a full example of issues-centered instruction.
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