Social Studies in Elementary Education

15e
Walter C. Parker & Terence A. Beck

Chapter 9

Five Great Teaching Strategies

By: Terence A. Beck, University of Puget Sound

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 Chapter Outline

Strategy 1. Teaching Concepts

Strategy 2. Teaching with Inquiry

Strategy 3. Teaching Social Studies Skills

Strategy 4. Asking Good Questions

Strategy 5. Teaching with Cooperative Learning Groups

Copyright 2017, 2012, 2009 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Social Studies in Elementary Education, 15e, by Parker and Beck.
All Rights Reserved
 Key Concepts

Teaching strategy
Concept, example, and non-example
Classifying
Facts
Inquiry
Hypotheses
Skills
Cooperative Learning
Copyright 2017, 2012, 2009 by Pearson Education, Inc.
Social Studies in Elementary Education, 15e, by Parker and Beck.
All Rights Reserved
 Picture This
The central theme of Dylan Coulters third-grade integrated
curriculum is the concept community. He uses the concept-formation
strategy to teach this concept. The examples they study are their own
community, its sister cities in Canada and Mexico, and three
communities that are detailed in the social studies textbook: Mesa
Verde, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles. After students have
formed the concept, Mr. Coulter uses the inquiry strategy to help them
determine their communitys most pressing controversial issue. After
hypothesizing, they gather data by taking a poll of parents, and then
they draw conclusions based on this evidence.
Copyright 2017, 2012, 2009 by Pearson Education, Inc.
Social Studies in Elementary Education, 15e, by Parker and Beck.
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 Matching Teaching Strategies to Subject Matter
Subject Matter Teaching Strategy
Concepts Provide examples and help students grasp the attributes common to each.

Inquiry Have students test hypotheses with data and draw conclusions.

Skills Break the skill into its parts, explain and model each part; provide plenty of
practice and application opportunities.

Any Ask good questions

Any Use cooperative learning groups

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9-5
Social Studies in Elementary Education, 15e, by Parker and Beck.
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 Strategy 1. Teaching Concepts

Concepts Are Ideas

Concept Formation

Variations on Concept Formation:

List, Group, and Label

Concept Attainment

Copyright 2017, 2012, 2009 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Social Studies in Elementary Education, 15e, by Parker and Beck.
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 Four Types of Classifying
1. Deciding whether a new item is an example
(The teacher asks, Is this an example?)
2. Distinguishing examples from non-examples
(The teacher asks, Which of these are examples?)
3. Producing examples
(The teacher directs, Find or make an example.)
4. Correcting non-examples
(The teacher asks, What changes are needed to make this an
example?)
Copyright 2017, 2012, 2009 by Pearson Education, Inc.
Social Studies in Elementary Education, 15e, by Parker and Beck.
All Rights Reserved
 Facts, Examples, and Concepts

Concept: Island Reflect and Discuss 9.1

Look carefully at Figure 9.2.

Kauai Singapore
Facts about: Facts About: What does this figure suggest
Shape, etc. Shape, etc.
about why it is more powerful for
teachers to concentrate on
Cuba concepts rather than facts in
Facts About:
Shape, etc. social studies?

Copyright 2017, 2012, 2009 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Social Studies in Elementary Education, 15e, by Parker and Beck.
All Rights Reserved
 Strategy 2. Teaching With Inquiry

1. Engage students in a problem related to a curriculum objective.

2. Elicit hypotheses.

3. Gather information.

4. Organize and interpret the information and draw conclusions.

5. Publish conclusions.

Copyright 2017, 2012, 2009 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Social Studies in Elementary Education, 15e, by Parker and Beck.
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 Titanic Tragedy

Copyright 2017, 2012, 2009 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Social Studies in Elementary Education, 15e, by Parker and Beck.
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 Reflect and Discuss 9.2

Even the youngest children already engage in inquiry

A persistent myth is that young children are not ready

for higher-order thinking, such as concept formation,
classifying, or inquiry. It is a popular myth, but still a
myth. How convincing do you find our argument that
young children already engage in this type of thinking?

Copyright 2017, 2012, 2009 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Social Studies in Elementary Education, 15e, by Parker and Beck.
All Rights Reserved
 Strategy 3. Teaching Social Studies Skills--

Concept Formation Inquiry

Gathering data on each example Hypothesizing
Organizing information on data- Gathering and interpreting data
retrieval charts Judging the credibility of data
Noting differences and Evaluating hypotheses in light of
similarities across examples data
Summarizing similarities Drawing conclusions
Classifying

Copyright 2017, 2012, 2009 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Social Studies in Elementary Education, 15e, by Parker and Beck.
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 Reflect and Discuss 9.3

Look again at the intellectual skills weve listed for concept

formation and inquiry. How are these skills intellectual? One way
of considering this question is to think about how intellectual
skills are different from what we typically think of as basic
skills. Consider: have you ever struggled with basic speaking or
reading skills that made it seem to others that you werent very
smart (for example when you travel or when you first arrived in
this country)?

Copyright 2017, 2012, 2009 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Social Studies in Elementary Education, 15e, by Parker and Beck.
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 Strategy 4: Asking Good Questions

Asking good questions is not a separate teaching strategy

so much as it is a component of any good strategy.

Copyright 2017, 2012, 2009 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Social Studies in Elementary Education, 15e, by Parker and Beck.
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 Five Purposes of Asking Questions

1. Assessment
2. Focus Attention
3. Promote Thinking
4. Follow Up
5. Participation and Inclusion

Copyright 2017, 2012, 2009 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Social Studies in Elementary Education, 15e, by Parker and Beck.
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Use a clipboard to
improve your
questions

Copyright 2017, 2012, 2009 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Social Studies in Elementary Education, 15e, by Parker and Beck.
All Rights Reserved
 Helping Students Ask Productive Questions

Knowledge and understanding start with questions.

The teachers task is to welcome, shape and use

students questions so that students can experience
the nature and power of asking questions to shape
inquiry.

Copyright 2017, 2012, 2009 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Social Studies in Elementary Education, 15e, by Parker and Beck.
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 Compelling and Supportive Questions

Compelling Questions Supportive Questions

What makes rules fair or unfair? What is our classroom rule about taking
turns?
How does clean water get in our faucets? Where does the water go when we flush
the toilet?

Where does our schools water come from?

Copyright 2017, 2012, 2009 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Social Studies in Elementary Education, 15e, by Parker and Beck.
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 Reflect and Discuss 9.4

Learning to recognize compelling and supportive

questions is an art that takes plenty of practice. Why not
start now? Looking over Table 9.3, why are the non-
examples at the end of the figure listed as non-examples?
Create your own compelling and supportive questions.
Write some down and compare yours to a classmates.

Copyright 2017, 2012, 2009 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Social Studies in Elementary Education, 15e, by Parker and Beck.
All Rights Reserved
Strategy 5. Teaching With Cooperative Learning Groups

Cooperative Learning can motivate:

Face-to-face interaction helps children pay attention because it
requires a response.
Children care deeply about the judgment of their peers.
Children get assistance from one another in their groups.

Copyright 2017, 2012, 2009 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Social Studies in Elementary Education, 15e, by Parker and Beck.
All Rights Reserved
Methods for Forming Heterogeneous Student Groups

1. Work, not play

2. Random assignment
3. Purposeful mixing
4. Special helper
5. Index cards
6. Duration

Copyright 2017, 2012, 2009 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Social Studies in Elementary Education, 15e, by Parker and Beck.
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 Reflect and Discuss 9.5

Think about the groups youve been in (inside or outside

of school) that work(ed) especially well. How did time
together as a group contribute to your success? In other
words, would you have been able to function as
effectively if you didnt have time to know and appreciate
each other?

Copyright 2017, 2012, 2009 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Social Studies in Elementary Education, 15e, by Parker and Beck.
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 Identifying and Teaching Group Work Skills

Identify Required Skills

Teach Cooperative Skills

Debrief Group Work

Copyright 2017, 2012, 2009 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Social Studies in Elementary Education, 15e, by Parker and Beck.
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 Discussion Question

Teachers bring their own experiences to their teaching.

Have you had negative experiences with any of the five
strategies discussed in this chapter? If so, what in this
chapter will you need to remember in order to provide
your own students with more positive experiences?

Copyright 2017, 2012, 2009 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Social Studies in Elementary Education, 15e, by Parker and Beck.
All Rights Reserved