The article presents a historical narrative model designed to encourage analytical thinking. My historical narrative inquiry model (a) teaches procedural knowledge (the process of “doing” history); (b) enhances interpretative skills; (c) cultivates historical perspectives based upon...

This article gives an overview of using global positioning systems (GPS) in a popular activity, geocaching, as a teaching and learning activity. The authors provide background information and an overview of one social studies teacher’s first use of geocaching and share perspectives from the...

History teachers are continually seeking new ways in which they can actively involve their students and allow them to think more creatively. Creating local history projects allows students to look beyond the information on the pages of their text and forces them to look deeper into the history...

This lesson uses On the Town: A Community Adventure, a book that follows a young boy and his mother through their community one afternoon as they take care of errands. Instructional development focuses on the tasks of various community members and the value of their tasks to the community at...

Lucy Sprague Mitchell's belief was that active, experiential learning, in particular human geography, was the core to which all content areas were tied. Given that life is lived in a social context, she believed that early childhood education should mirror the same. At Bank Street, education...

Two elementary teacher educators redesigned a methods course to integrate social studies and science. Using the framework of science-technology-society (STS) literature and the major themes from Paul Hurd, social studies and science content and methodology converge to create an integrated...

With the proliferation of digital maps, teachers and students have an array of new tools for developing civic and global perspectives in the social studies classroom. This article builds the case for the importance of geographic reasoning in civic and global education, explores the interactivity...

This study explores how a group of middle school social studies teachers at a school, whose student population is primarily affluent and white, include multicultural content in their curriculum. Interviews and observations along with an analysis of the textbooks, state standards, and the...

This study examines one social studies teacher’s experience developing and implementing an Experiential Education-based (EE) curriculum and her reflection on the experience of putting theory and research into practice. Using a qualitative case study research strategy, we focused on the single...

In the 1950s, social studies education came under attack from both citizens and the government for the failure to promote citizenship. Events both at home and abroad eventually led to a collective reexamination of the overall purpose and goals of social studies. As a result, over fifty...