Authentic Intellectual Work in Social Studies: Putting Performance before Pedagogy.

Abstract

Some critics of social studies education argue that U.S. students spend too much time in unfocused discussions and unproductive group work—and not enough time learning the facts of history, geography, or government. Other critics contend that students spend too much time absorbing and reproducing trivial information conveyed by textbooks or teachers—and not enough time interpreting documents, evaluating perspectives, and thinking for themselves. Teachers who agree with the first critique tend to adhere to a “transmission” approach to instruction. They expect students in their classrooms to memorize a preordained canon of information and to master a set of discrete intellectual skills. Unfortunately, such mastery offers little assurance that students have achieved a deep level of conceptual understanding, or that they will be able to transfer knowledge and skills to situations outside of school. Teachers who accept the second critique often adopt “constructivist” approaches to instruction. While varying, these approaches share the basic assumption that students learn best when they analyze and interpret the meaning of new information in relation to past experience. These teachers may design discovery projects, cooperative group activities, or lessons where students spend many hours on the Internet in the name of “active learning.” Although students exposed to these “student-centered” techniques often display greater enthusiasm than those in more conventional “teacher-centered” classrooms, this is no guarantee that quality learning is taking place. Rather than assume that either response—“transmission teaching” or “doing constructivism”—will achieve the goals of social education, we believe it is necessary first to articulate criteria for authentic intellectual achievement, and then to see what practices tend to result in student performances that meet these criteria. Researchers at the Center on Organization and Restructuring of Schools (CORS) have established three criteria for authentic intellectual achievement in social studies. They have also described standards within each criterion to guide teachers in evaluating their own and students’ work (see Table 1). The purpose is not to prescribe general methods of instruction, such as the portfolio assessment often associated with the push for constructivism, or techniques for helping students retain information that supporters of the transmission approach might seek. Indeed, CORS research indicates that any teaching methods can be employed and still result in weak intellectual achievement.