Tag: teaching

Future-Proofing Civic Literacy: A CAPTIVATE Approach to AI in Social Studies

Future-Proofing Civic Literacy: A CAPTIVATE Approach to AI in Social Studies

Andy Szeto

Students today are navigating an information landscape unlike any generation before them. In an era of fake news, viral misinformation, and convincing deepfakes, they must decide what to believe, who to trust, and how to act as citizens. AI now sits at the center of this challenge. On one hand, it generates tools that make learning faster and more efficient. On the other, it can fabricate images, alter video, or spread misinformation at a scale that tests even the most skilled fact-checker.


For social studies educators, the stakes are high. Will students use AI merely as a shortcut for homework, or will they learn to interrogate it as part of building civic literacy? If AI is framed only as a time-saver, students miss the struggle that cultivates curiosity, stamina, and democratic habits. But if schools position AI as a partner in inquiry and civic reasoning, it can help prepare students for the future
of democracy.

The civic cost of shortcuts

When students turn to AI for quick answers,
they risk losing more than depth of knowledge. In
social studies, this habit undermines the very
practices democracy depends on: questioning
evidence, weighing competing narratives, and
engaging with diverse perspectives.

As Jessica Grose (2025) noted in the New York Times, “A.I. encourages surface perfectionism without developing the tools and stamina necessary for true critical thinking.” If students use AI to bypass the work of analyzing primary sources or
debating policy trade-offs, they lose opportunities to develop civic persistence and deliberation. Research shows that heavy reliance on AI during practice can weaken independent
performance (Vasconcelos et al., 2022). In the civic realm, the danger is greater: shallow engagement leaves students vulnerable to misinformation and less prepared to evaluate claims about history, politics, or public life. These risks highlight why
social studies cannot treat AI as a novelty or a quick fix. Instead, it must be framed as part of a broader effort to prepare students for a civic landscape where information is contested and solutions demand resilience. That preparation is what educational thought leaders call future-proofing.

Future-proofing learning

Future-proofing is not about chasing the newest device but about cultivating higher-order thinking, authentic application, and purposeful use of technology (Sheninger, 2025). Michael Fullan warned long before AI that relying on tools alone would never deliver meaningful outcomes. As he put it, “The notion that having a laptop computer or hand-held device for every student will make her or him smarter, or even more knowledgeable is pedagogically vapid” (2011, p. 15). His later work on deep learning reinforced that the most powerful drivers of growth are collaboration, critical thinking, creativity, and character. In his view, technology only matters when it amplifies these human capacities (Fullan, Quinn, & McEachen, 2018).

For social studies, this means using AI not as a shortcut for facts, but as a catalyst for the habits that sustain democracy. Students need to weigh evidence, test competing claims, and deliberate across differences. These are capacities that technology should support rather than weaken. The OECD’s Learning Compass emphasizes adaptability, agency, and lifelong learning as the keys to thriving in uncertainty. Similarly, the World Economic Forum projects that by 2030 the most valued skills will combine technical and human capacities: AI literacy, analytical and creative thinking, resilience, curiosity, leadership, and systems awareness. These frameworks confirm that the very skills social studies aims to cultivate, such as critical inquiry, civic reasoning, and responsible action, are also those most urgently needed for the
future. They also align closely with design thinking, where empathy, problem definition, prototyping, and iteration guide the search for solutions to complex social and civic problems.

The CAPTIVATE Framework

To translate this vision into practice, social studies classrooms need a structure that emphasizes inquiry and civic readiness. The CAPTIVATE framework offers such a path. It positions AI not as a replacement for judgment but as a partner for
deeper reasoning and action. The framework includes nine elements, grouped into three clusters:
Civic Habits (Collaboration, Accountability, Perspectives), Critical Reasoning Skills (Testing Bias, Iteration, Verification), and Future Orientation (Application, Transformation, Empowerment).


Civic Habits


C- Collaboration: AI should enrich, not replace, human collaboration. In social studies, collaboration builds civic discourse. Case in point: A class uses AI to draft multiple versions of an immigration policy. Students work in groups to compare drafts, critique assumptions, and present a balanced proposal.


A- Accountability: Responsibility cannot be outsourced to machines. Students must consider accountability in historical and civic contexts. Case in point: In a unit on environmental justice, AI generates policy options for pollution reduction. Students debate which groups would bear responsibility if the proposals failed.


P – Perspectives: Social studies thrives on multiple viewpoints. AI can surface them, but students must analyze what is emphasized or excluded. Case in point: In history class, AI provides different accounts of the Civil Rights Movement from politicians, activists, and journalists. Students examine which voices are centered and which are
marginalized.


Critical Reasoning Skills


T- Testing Bias: All AI reflects the data it is trained on, making algorithmic bias inevitable. Students must learn to uncover and question it. Case in point: In civics, AI generates sample campaign ads for fictional candidates. Students analyze tone and
imagery to identify how bias may advantage or disadvantage candidates.


I – Iteration: Democracy itself is iterative, and students benefit from revision and refinement. Case in point: In economics, AI drafts a city budget proposal. Students adjust priorities for education, housing, and healthcare until the budget reflects
real-world trade-offs.


V- Verification: AI can be convincing but wrong. In social studies, where misinformation and deepfakes spread easily, fact-checking is essential. Case in
point: In media literacy, students ask AI to generate a news story about a current conflict. They then verify details with reputable sources and test AI generated images for authenticity.

Future Orientation


A- Application: Learning deepens when applied to civic life. Case in point: In geography, students use AI to generate strategies for addressing food insecurity, then design proposals tailored to their local community.


T- Transformation and Ethics: AI has the power to reshape society. Students must explore its ethical and transformative dimensions. Case in point: In government class, students use AI to examine surveillance policies. They debate trade-offs
between security and civil liberties, linking technology to democratic values.


E- Empowerment: The ultimate goal of social studies is civic empowerment. AI should help students see themselves as capable of change. Case in point: In a capstone civic action project, students combine AI analysis of voting patterns with
community research to propose strategies for increasing youth voter turnout.


From classroom to leadership


CAPTIVATE is also a tool for instructional leaders. It can guide professional learning, coaching, and curriculum planning.
● In professional learning, workshops can be framed around CAPTIVATE to show teachers how AI can deepen inquiry rather than replace it.
● In classroom observations, CAPTIVATE can be used as a lens during walkthroughs to highlight collaboration, perspective-taking, and ethical reflection.
● In curriculum design, CAPTIVATE can be mapped to NCSS C3 standards so AI integration strengthens inquiry-based instruction. Scaling CAPTIVATE across professional practice helps ensure AI strengthens human judgment rather than diminishes it.


The new readiness


Past readiness meant memorizing facts. Future readiness in social studies means using AI to ask critical questions, evaluate evidence, and apply learning to civic life. If students are not taught to go beyond convenience, they risk becoming passive consumers of machine-generated narratives. But when inquiry, reflection, design thinking, and CAPTIVATE skills are emphasized, students are equipped to navigate democracy in a complex world.


A call to instructional leaders


The CAPTIVATE framework aligns with the NCSS C3 Inquiry Arc: developing questions and planning inquiries, applying disciplinary concepts, evaluating sources, communicating conclusions, and taking informed action. AI can either erode these practices if used superficially, or strengthen them when guided by CAPTIVATE. The
challenge is not whether students will encounter AI; they already do. The challenge is whether schools will prepare them to engage it with wisdom, creativity, and civic responsibility. That preparation is the key to future-proofing civic literacy in an age of misinformation and uncertainty.


References


Fullan, M. (2011). Choosing the wrong drivers for whole system reform. Centre for Strategic Education. 13396088160.pdf


Fullan, M., Quinn, J., & McEachen, J. (2018). Deep learning: Engage the world change the world. Corwin Press.

Grose, J. (2025, May 14). A.I. will destroy critical thinking in K–12. The New York
Times. Opinion | A.I. Will Destroy Critical Thinking in K-12 – The New York Times


Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (n.d.). Future of education and skills 2030/2040. Retrieved May 27, 2026, from Future of Education and Skills 2030/2040 | OECD

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2023). AI and the future of skills, volume 2: Methods for evaluating AI capabilities. OECD Publishing. AI and the Future of Skills, Volume 2 | OECD

Sheninger, E. (2025, March 2). Future-proofing learning: Preparing students for an unpredictable world. A Principal’s Reflections. A Principal’s Reflections: Future-Proofing Learning: Preparing Students for an Uncertain Tomorrow


Vasconcelos, H., Jörke, M., Grunde-McLaughlin, M., Gerstenberg, T., Bernstein, M., & Krishna, R. (2022). Explanations can reduce overreliance on AI systems during decision-making (arXiv preprint No.arXiv:2212.06823). arXiv.
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2212.06823


World Economic Forum. (2025). The future of jobs report 2025. World Economic Forum. The Future of Jobs Report 2025 | World Economic Forum

Lessons from the Past Help Shape Civic Minds

Lessons from the Past Help Shape Civic Minds
Carolyn Faggioni
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” – George Santayana, The Life of Reason (1905)


In this era of educational systems dominated by the pursuit of all things STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), this retired social studies teacher would like to buck the trend — stem the tide, if you will — and make the
case for the expansion of social studies education. So, why study social studies? It’s not so you can do well at Trivia Night at the pub or impress your friends with your knowledge of arcane facts. We can Google that stuff.


The Spanish American philosopher George Santayana, in warning of the dire consequence of not knowing history, provided perhaps the strongest argument. We study history to learn from the past, which enables an educated citizenry, the lifeblood of a genuine democracy, to repeat successes while avoiding pitfalls.


Students in social studies classes examine events, movements, ideas and people to uncover lessons that can be applied today and in the future. Studying global history helps one navigate an increasingly interdependent world, and in a diverse nation like the United States, it will help us to understand and appreciate one another, leading to greater peace and harmony and less tension, animosity and turmoil. With greater understanding of other cultures, international relations will improve.


Studying civics provides students the opportunity to become familiar with the basic
features of representative democracy and how to function effectively as citizens. When informed citizens are at the helm, actively participating in our democracy, liberty is safeguarded. Conversely, if citizens are ill-informed, lack the requisite critical thinking skills to analyze information, do not know how to engage with one another in a civil manner, or check out entirely by not bothering to stay informed or participate in the democratic process, the void will be filled by special interests, often
narrowly defined and committed to pursuing policies that may not be for the greater good. As James Madison asserted in 1822, “Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.”


Social studies education not only equips students with essential knowledge of the past, but a skill set that will empower them as citizens of this nation and members of the global community.

Lessons from the Past Help Shape Civic Minds

Lessons from the Past Help Shape Civic Minds

By Carolyn Faggioni

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” – George Santayana, The Life of Reason (1905)

In this era of educational systems dominated by the pursuit of all things STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), this retired social studies teacher would like to buck the trend — stem the tide, if you will — and make the case for the expansion of social studies education.

So, why study social studies? It’s not so you can do well at Trivia Night at the pub or impress your friends with your knowledge of arcane facts. We can Google that stuff.

The Spanish American philosopher George Santayana, in warning of the dire consequence of not knowing history, provided perhaps the strongest argument. We study history to learn from the past, which enables an educated citizenry, the lifeblood of a genuine democracy, to repeat successes while avoiding pitfalls.

Students in social studies classes examine events, movements, ideas and people to uncover lessons that can be applied today and in the future.

Studying global history helps one navigate an increasingly interdependent world, and in a diverse nation like the United States, it will help us to understand and appreciate one another, leading to greater peace and harmony and less tension, animosity and turmoil. With greater understanding of other cultures, international relations will improve.

Studying civics provides students the opportunity to become familiar with the basic features of representative democracy and how to function effectively as citizens. When informed citizens are at the helm, actively participating in our democracy, liberty is safeguarded. Conversely, if citizens are ill-informed, lack the requisite critical thinking skills to analyze information, do not know how to engage with one another in a civil manner, or check out entirely by not bothering to stay informed or participate in the democratic process, the void will be filled by special interests, often narrowly defined and committed to pursuing policies that may not be for the greater good.

As Founding Father James Madison asserted in 1822, “Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.”

Social studies education not only equips students with essential knowledge of the past, but a skill set that will empower them as citizens of this nation and members of the global community.

An Education: How I Changed My Mind About Schools and Almost Everything Else

An Education: How I Changed My Mind About Schools and Almost Everything Else

by Diane Ravitch

Reviewed by Dr. Alan Singer, Hofstra University

According to Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, “Diane Ravitch’s telling of her remarkable journey — from a child of working-class immigrants to one of the most vital national education treasures and leaders — tells us so much about her unwavering support for public education and its role in our society. That would be beautiful enough, but the second thrill is how she brings her curiosity — an essential trait we nurture in students — to question her own views and change her mind. The result is this clarion call to protect and strengthen public schooling in America as the foundation of our young people — and our democracy. If you care about the future, read this book.”

Diane Ravitch has spent five decades analyzing and advocating for national and state education policies designed to reform and reshape public schools. Her work supporting school choice made her the intellectual darling of the right. But when she renounced school choice as a failure, she was abandoned by many old friends and colleagues. Today she is a champion for public schools, a foe of standardized testing, and proclaims herself to be “woke.” Her latest book, An Education: How I Changed My Mind About Schools and Almost Everything Else is published by Columbia University Press

Ravitch was one of eight children from a Jewish family in Houston, Texas, where she grew up with no television, no air conditioning, and, often, no shoes. In college she met and married a man from a wealthy and connected New York City family, where they lived and raised a family. She began working for a socialist magazine, which led to writing about education and, eventually, a PhD in education history.

Ravitch’s writings favored strengthening and expanding school choice and rigorous testing, ideas that aligned well with conservative donors and think tanks who supported her work and led to positions in the George H.W. Bush and Clinton administrations. Meanwhile, a chance encounter at an education conference with a New York City high school social studies teacher, Mary Butz, led to a clandestine romance. Ravitch’s new relationship upended her previous “life of comfort and plenty” and led to her marriage to Mary.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg sought Ravitch’s support and counsel for the changes he and school commissioner Joel Klein instituted during his administration, but it was at this time that Ravitch began to question the results of standardized testing and school choice programs like charter schools. Improved test scores at lauded schools proved illusory and charter schools only seemed to thrive because they were able to weed out the most challenged pupils. Gradually, Ravitch abandoned her long-held views on the power of testing or the promise of choice. She began to write and speak out in favor of saving America’s besieged public schools.

Ravitch’s involvement in education idea and policy have earned her a reputation as education’s best-known living historian and its most controversial figure.  An Education is the story of the making, unmaking, and remaking of a public intellectual and a remarkable testament to the importance of a mind open to truth and possibility in a world, she writes, “of masks and artifice”.

An Interview on Teaching about Controversial Subjects in Today’s Political Climate

An Interview on Teaching about Controversial Subjects in Today’s Political Climate

by Sepideh Yasrebi and Alan Singer

Sepideh Yasrebi: Given your extensive work on curriculum design in social studies education both as a former teacher and an academic, how do you understand the role of narrative—both dominant and counter-narratives—in representing or resisting ideology in the classroom?

Alan Singer: I think your point is that history is very much a story about the past. The difference between history as practiced by historians and cultural indoctrination as championed in Donald Trump’s vision of teaching patriotic history is that historians start with questions about the past and present and examine the past seeking answers to their questions in an effort to understand the present. Historians always have a point of view, but in a scientific approach to understanding the past, you always must be prepared to rethink your views based on data and analysis.

What this means in the social studies classroom is that we don’t want students to just accept what the textbook or curriculum says, but we want them to raise their own questions with the material they are being presented with. We also want to provide them with material from different perspectives so that they learn to weigh the validity of different explanations. Our goal is for them to think like historians to prepare them to be active citizens in a democratic society. At the end of the Constitutional Convention, Benjamin Franklin was asked what type of government the delegates had created. Franklin’s reply reverberates today. Franklin said, “A republic, if you can keep it.” We need to equip students so the United States will remain a democracy, if they can keep it.

Sepideh Yasrebi: Fredric Jameson’s concept of cognitive mapping invites individuals to represent, however incompletely, their relationship to the broader social and ideological totality. How might this idea be translated into meaningful classroom practice? In other words, how can social studies curriculum and pedagogy help students connect their lived experiences to larger historical and structural forces in ways that foster critical historical thinking and agency?

Alan Singer: I used to promise high school students that at one point during the school year, they, their families, and the groups they identified with would be part of the curriculum – and the students held me to it. Sometimes it was difficult to include some of the most recent immigrant groups, but when we came to changes in immigration to the United States in 1965, I invited students from newer immigrant groups to be part of a panel where they explained their families experience leaving their homeland and coming to the United States. The class would then compare the push and pull factors of the newer immigrant groups with groups we had studied in early waves of immigration. Working with teacher in the Hofstra program, we adapted this idea for elementary and middle school students. In those grades we created family artifact museums. Each student brought a material object to class that was important to their family culture. They created a museum card describing the artifact, and students traveled around the room learning about each other’s cultures.

Sepideh Yasrebi: Are national and state social studies standards helpful or a hindrance in achieving social studies learning goals?

There are no national social studies standards in the United States so each state Department of Education develops their own. I am most familiar with New York State and New Jersey social studies standards which both strongly support document-based instruction, promoting critical thinking, and preparing students for full participation as citizens. National organizations like the National Council for the Social Studies, the American Historical Association, and the Organization of American Historians also promote these goals. Unfortunately, even though they are in the standards does not mean that we see them in practice in classrooms. Too much of teaching centers on preparing students for state and national reading skill exams that are used to evaluate school districts, schools, and teachers.

Sepideh Yasrebi: What tensions do you observe between traditional “fact-based” approaches to history education and more interpretive, narrative-driven models—especially in today’s sociopolitical climate? How do you navigate these tensions in teacher preparation program?

Alan Singer: I think the two keys are building respectful classroom communities where students can have open dialogues and creation of document packages with different perspectives on difficult issues for students and teachers to evaluate. I generally will only offer my opinion as part of a community discussion if I believe it opens up the discussion. Generally, I will include documents that express views similar to my own in the package so I never have to express my ideas, they are already there for students to evaluate.

Sepideh Yasrebi: How do you teach preservice teachers to allow their students to be critical thinkers in a society that does not seem to value critical thinking?

Alan Singer: I recognize that the function of schooling in any society is to perpetuate that society by inculcating the hegemonic values of that society. In the United States schools are expected to reinforce dominant beliefs including that the system is fair, people achieve success based on merit, and that anyone can achieve through hard work. Part of this belief system is that if an individual fails it is their own fault or because of their own inadequacy. Too often I have heard teachers say “I didn’t fail you. You failed you. I only entered the grade.” A critical approach to history and social studies includes questioning these beliefs. Martin Luther King Jr. called on people challenging the dominant ideas of society to employ “creative maladjustment,” identify with the expressed values of society, but interpret them in your own way. Herbert Kohl applied the idea of creative maladjustment to the classroom. He recommended that teachers use the language of the standards but interpret them in ways that allow you to connect with your students and engage them in necessary conversations about the past and present.

Sepideh Yasrebi: In this study, I define narrative competence not just as the ability to tell stories, but as the capacity to critically situate those stories within broader historical and ideological contexts. From your perspective, how can curriculum and pedagogy foster this kind of competence in students? Are there particular texts, historical narratives, or teaching practices you’ve found especially effective in supporting this work—or that you help teacher candidates implement in their own classrooms?

Alan Singer: I see reading as a conversation with an author or document. I tell students that they are not just reading to learn information and answer the questions that I ask, but to formulate their own questions, ask the author, see if the answer is in the text, and if they are not satisfied with an answer, develop a strategy to discover what they want to know. Similarly, writing is a form of edited thinking. Write down your ideas. Don’t be afraid of spelling, grammar, or uncertainty. But after you write them down, edit them so they make sense to you. Then edit them again into formal language that will make your ideas accessible to other people. This makes it possible to extend our conversation to a broader audience. To facilitate this approach, I organize teams of writing buddies who read each other’s work, suggest corrections, but also point out points that need greater explanation.

Again, the practices you want to see in classrooms will only happen when there is respectful dialogue. Our goal is to learn together, to share ideas, not to win or to silence others. That type of community can take a while to build, but it is essential if students are to become critical historians and responsible citizens in a democratic society. I never lecture. When I talk to much it means I failed to design an effective lesson plan. My role in the classroom is to introduce material and question students as they evaluate primary and secondary source material. What does the text say? What does the text mean? What are your views of the text? What is the evidence presented to support the author’s view? What is the evidence to support your views?

Sepideh Yasrebi: What does a culturally sustaining approach to social studies education look like to you, particularly in relation to multilingual and racialized students whose identities have often been marginalized in U.S. schools? Do you believe CSP has been meaningfully incorporated into social studies teacher education? What are the shortcomings?

Alan Singer: I discussed this earlier with suggestions for student panels and a family artifact museum. I want to share an anecdote that helped me better understand a culturally sustaining approach to teaching. I grew up in the 1950s in the shadow of the European Holocaust. We were a Jewish family that never discussed the Nazi extermination of Jews. It wasn’t until I was in college that I learned from my grandfather that his father and most of their village were murdered by German troops including my grandfather’s brother’s wife and her two children. Growing up in the shadow of the Holocaust there was family silence and embarrassment at our victimization when we learned about it in high school. It wasn’t until Israel emerged as a significant force in world affairs in the 1960s that my peers and I stopped seeing Jews as just victims. When I was a high school social studies teacher, I always included an extended unit on slavery in the United States. One year an African American young woman challenged me in class and wanted to know why the only time Black people were included in the curriculum was to show how they were slaves. I asked her to talk to me after class to discuss how we could approach this differently. She and some of her friends met with me and I realized their reaction to learning about enslavement was very similar to mine learning about the Holocaust in high school. We decided together that I needed to change the focus of the unit from oppression to include resistance, especially by Black abolitionists.

This was my journey, but in answer to your question, it is not forcefully incorporated into state and national curricula and it is not the experience and understanding that many other teachers bring to the classroom. One group that promotes this approach to teaching is Rethinking Schools which also sponsors the Zinn Education Project.

Sepideh Yasrebi: How do you mentor future teachers to critically reflect on their own ideological positionings? How can teacher education programs support this view?

Alan Singer: Many of the prospective teachers in my teacher education program are very nervous about addressing controversial topics like racism, responses to immigration, or actions by the Trump administration that are constitutionally questionable in the classroom. No one wants to be targeted by Fox News or risk losing their job because of parental complaints. I stress that they have to know their stuff and be prepared to explain why they introduced the topics, questions, and documents they use in their lessons. The first step when they plan a lesson is to ask themselves, what is important to know and why? I also recommend that if they are unsure about a lesson, they should discuss their ideas with their department chair so if there are complaints, the department chair can explain the lesson approach, how it included multiple perspectives on the topic, and addressed state learning standards. I prepared a lesson on the Supreme Court’s 6-3 ruling barring federal district court universal injunctions that opened the way for the Trump administration to ignore the 14th amendment’s granting of citizenship to all people born in the United States. In the lesson, students are provided with excerpts from the majority opinion of the Supreme Court written by Justice Amy Coney Barrett and dissenting opinions by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson. I strongly agree with Sotomayor and Jackson that the Court’s decision, by granting the Trump administration the unchecked power to pursue highly questionable goals, is a threat to the rule of law in the United States, but I don’t plan to add my views to the discussion. The lesson is designed to show prospective teachers how to organize a conversation on a controversial topic like this and how to include multiple perspectives in their document packages.

Book Review: Review of Student Research for Community Change: Tools to Develop Ethical Thinking and Analytic Problem Solving

Review of Student Research for Community Change: Tools to Develop Ethical Thinking and Analytic Problem Solving

by William Tobin and Valerie Feit, 2020.  Teachers College Press, 127 pages. 

Review by: Thomas Hansen, Ph.D.

This new text provides an explanation of a program – and a plan – for getting high school students involved in important hands-on research right in their communities.  The two authors have become experts in encouraging young people to start on research early – not waiting for college.  Despite more traditional approaches of letting students wait to become upperclassmen in college, the authors learned to forge ahead and assume students could do this work.

William Tobin is a research fellow with the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University.  The program explained in this book is an example of the community work Tobin and his students have been doing to help their neighbors.  Valerie Feit is co-director of school counseling for Rye Neck, New York schools.  This program has been used successfully in three different applications at Duke.

The authors talk in terms of “tools” for coming up with research problems and questions, plans for finding out information, and guidance in making recommendations to solve the problems (pp. 23-24).  I think of this book’s content in terms of methods for approaching the work.  This looks like a method, with many parts, with rules, with suggestions, and with potential.

The authors provide tools for this “method” of teaching and learning they hope will be applicable in other settings.  They have already had students complete research projects using this method.  They use a qualitative approach, overall, in their research.  However, they do not stress this fact in the book.  Interviews and protocols to conduct them ground us in qualitative approaches to getting information from people to help students – and the community ultimately — solve problems. 

The method connects clearly (in terms of policy and application) to national standards in the different learning areas, plus Common Core college-ready and work-ready emphases.  The method looks forward to more advanced levels of inquiry than the more traditional benchmarked studies of the past.  It does this by assuming students can do more advanced and challenging work if they can see the purpose for it, the rewards for it, and the connections of it to real-life goals. 

While I will not give away the content and all the goods here, I will say that this appears to be a good “method” for getting students working on purposeful projects earlier than traditionally done.  Aspiring to more is always good, especially if there is a research basis telling us the method can work. 

As an educator (and community member, advocate, and other roles) I have always been interested in the “why” of doing things in education.  Do we respect different learning styles?  Where did we as teachers “learn” to do xyz in classes?  Is  there a good research basis for using certain materials?  Has anyone ever proven it makes sense to do abc this way?  All of these kinds of questions enter my mind when I look at a new approach.  I wonder if this book could work in my neighborhood.  With students who need resources like a place to live?  In a community not very interested in helping others in need?  

The authors emphasize how they have already served communities and how they need partners and cooperation.  They remind us that institutions of higher education are supposed to be helping with such endeavors (p. 111).  Reminding the readers that IHEs have non-profit status because they are supposed to be assisting in important research projects in the community, the authors urge readers to seek faculty who will sign on and become excited to participate.

I would recommend this book for a couple different uses.  First, I would encourage K-12 and college educators read it to see what is possible if we assume students can do more and can meet challenges.  The book is important in that way.  Second, I would encourage educators to attempt to use some of the tools in a mini-project to ascertain the value of the method.  Then, if teachers and college researchers or others can come together to formulate a bigger project, more in-depth labor can be done.  Students do the work and need guidance and advice.  They need to learn about ethics and the role it plays in inquiry (pp. 12-13). 

This method, overall, is another good example of the more mature and advanced kinds of ways of thinking about education for secondary students and underclassmen.  As I said above, there is a clear connection to getting students ready for what comes at more advanced levels.

How to use the book in times of distance-learning?  How would students find neighbors interested in participating?  How would they work with other students to come up with questions?  What about brainstorming?  Planning?

This might be a method that calls for a hybrid approach.  The majority of the discussions could occur online (p. xvii) because of the power of the Internet.  This could be done especially during shared times – online meetings.  Different teams of students and teachers could work on different steps or themes of the research project.  However, it might be necessary to be out in the community to approach potential members and to set up some of the meetings (pp. 112-113) and the interviews.  The teams could conduct the remaining work online, such as the interviews, the discussion of them and other input, the drawing of conclusions from the various input sources, the writing of recommendations for intervention (or similar activities), and the follow-up and assessment stages for the entire project.   

Book Review: Teach, Reflect, Learn: Building Your Capacity for Success in the Classroom

Review of Teach, Reflect, Learn: Building Your Capacity for Success in the Classroom

by Pete Hall & Alisa Simeral.  Alexandria, VA: ASCD.  2015, paper, 178 pages.  

Reviewed by Thomas Hansen, Ph.D.

Hall and Simeral have set forth here three major stages to helping teachers reflect on what they are doing in an effort to improve the instruction in the classroom.  The authors hope to help teachers learn how to reflect on a regular basis as part of the self-assessment process in which teachers should engage.  Included are lots of scenarios of teachers and their comments about why things are working—or not—in their classrooms.

As in most of my reviews, I try to not give away all the content.  Here, I will list the names of the nine main chapters of the book: If You Can Read This, Thank a Teacher; Reflections on Self-Reflection; Reflective Self-Assessment Tool; The Continuum of Self-Reflection; The Unaware Stage: What Does Unaware Mean, Anyway?; The Conscious Stage: Is the Knowing-Doing Gap Real?; The Action Stage: What Happens When Art and Science Collide?; and The Refinement Stage: Smoothing Out the Rough Edges.

Having attended a Jesuit institution for my Ph.D. in Education, I will have to admit I am fully aware of reflection as a major component of the teaching-improvement process.  In most all of my courses, I had to reflect on what I had said, or written, or taught, or done.  It was a very interesting reminder of the reflection process many successful and hard-working good educators already use in one form or another.

Most good teachers will admit they are always trying to improve their skills, whether it is coming up with better ways to explain a phenomenon or inventing better ways to let students come to their understanding of how a process works.  Good teachers probably apply it to their writing and their research and their service, also.  At least that is what the literature says.

Becoming more efficient is important, and this book does have some interesting hints about looking at learning situations with different lenses.  I recommend the book as a sort of self-study book, especially for teachers who want to consider some alternatives to learning about new methods or new materials.  Sometimes it has to do more with looking directly at how we as individuals do our work.  Once we have considered that, we can look outward.

I would recommend this text also in group settings where there are several different short paperbacks and small groups get to choose a book to discuss.  The readings in this and similar shorter texts can be a good starting point for considering what it is we are doing in the classroom.  Enjoyable and fruitful also are the stories of what other teachers use for methods and materials.

In a recent professional development session I worked on, several of the teachers said, “We never have enough time to talk to each other, simply about what we are doing in our classrooms.”  I think this is a good message for principals and others charged with PD and other sessions for teachers.  Helping them to reflect can be facilitated by books like this one by Hall and Simeral. 

Obsolete but Preferable: The Role of Textbooks in the Modern Social Studies Classroom

Obsolete but Preferable: The Role of Textbooks in the Modern Social Studies Classroom

Mitchell Meyer

Introduction

Despite everything we’ve been led to believe over the past two decades, books have not completely disappeared from our society, nor our schools. Indeed, the world has rapidly moved in the direction of technological reliance at a seemingly infinitely higher rate since it entered the 2020s. This is especially true in educational settings, as teachers have begun to use a vast array of online tools, and many students across the country are more and more completing digital assignments. Yet, with all of this progression, texts themselves have not been completely phased out. No analyzation of the American education system can be generalized for every single school, let alone every single teacher. However, it is clear that the majority are still based on or at least reference some form of text. Still, this begs a question regarding the nature of the role that physical textbooks still play in the modern classroom, especially social studies ones considering so much of said subject is based on text interpretation. Ultimately, it is clear that textbooks generally are no longer the sole basis for classes’ entire curricula but are still used as valuable reference points. In addition, there has been a major shift away from traditional physical textbooks, and a move towards more differentiated options. 

Literature Review

To begin my research, I first looked into suggestions on how textbooks could continue to be useful tools. As my research isn’t catered towards one specific grade level, the article “A Content Analysis of Vocabulary Instruction in Social Studies Textbooks for Grades 4-8″ by Janis Harmon, Wanda Hedrick, and Elizabeth Fox from The Elementary School Journal proved a useful starting point. These authors posit that the real issue with the current usage of textbooks is not the book itself, but the way it is used. The primary alternative method of using textbooks regards vocabulary terms. Specifically, the authors claim that “effective practices for promoting vocabulary development stress the importance of instruction that affects comprehension, not just word knowledge alone” (Harmon, Hedrick, and Fox, 254). Thus, textbooks can’t be used to create simple repetition practices, they have to challenge the students in innovative ways which force them to exercise critical thinking skills about the matter at hand. Therefore, vocabulary terms are one of the most essential parts of a textbook, but there must be a dramatic shift away from how this device is being used at present, and how it has been used in the past.

The second article, and perhaps the most important I read, comes from the Georgia Educational Researcher and was written by two professors from Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia, Dr. Amber Reed and Dr. Bailey Brown. Their article “Divergent Representations of Africa: A Qualitative Analysis of Georgia Social Studies Textbooks” explores the complexities of textbook usage in the deep American South, and how inherent biases towards various cultures is manifested in their content. In their research of Georgia’s public schools, they found that these issues are systemic and institutionalized. As such, they claim that “research also finds that educators are often ill-prepared to teach global perspectives in the social studies curriculum and that teachers’ biases and Eurocentric framework for teaching material can reproduce misconceptions about other countries” (Brown and Reed, 26). Thus, the biased nature of textbooks, at least in Georgia, is almost guaranteed for renewal as such misconceptions are carried down from one generation to the next. Therefore, there is likely little malicious intent in textbook bias, but failing to recognize it plays into the Eurocentric attitude that the American education system has long subscribed to. As such, this article doesn’t necessarily argue for doing away with textbooks altogether, but it does explain the need for a serious overhaul of the “traditional” methods they inspire.

The final article I referenced comes from the Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy. Written by Professors Sarah Matthew and Craig McGill, “Honestly, I Had a Very Strong Reaction to This Reading” contrasts to the aforementioned pieces by actually arguing in favor of moving away from traditional textbooks. They explore what the term “graphic” means in a literary context and how it can often be misconstrued. On the one hand, it can immediately act as a scare tactic many use to support banning certain titles as it assumes such content is either violent or pornographic. But in reality, “graphic” doesn’t have to imply any extreme at all, and at its most basic level just refers to the use of imagery or illustrations (Matthew and McGill, 433). As such, Matthew and McGill heavily advocate for the increased use of graphic novels as alternatives for traditional textbooks, arguing that they can bring a new perspective and encourage certain critical thinking skills not found otherwise. Not only that, but they also advocate for teaching banned material itself, in order to show students why titles are challenged, and what implications doing so holds. 

Methodology

After doing my preliminary research into contemporary attitudes towards continuing textbook usage, I developed a two-pronged approach for my own research into this topic. The first prong involved transferring my findings from the articles I found into questions for three teachers I interviewed. While only three teachers’ opinions can be difficult to form conclusions upon, they are from different parts of New Jersey, and all teach at different levels. One teaches ninth and eleventh grade social studies at Ewing High School. Another teaches sixth grade ancient civilizations at Community Middle School in West Windsor. The final teaches sixth grade social studies at West Brook Middle School in Paramus. They were each asked the same five questions, three of which pertain to the above articles, and I have decided to retain their names in order to further encourage honesty in their answers. Moreover, they were not shown the data collected or previous teachers’ answers until after the interview was completed thereby ensuring autonomy in their responses. The five questions I asked these teachers were: overall, what do you believe the role of textbooks should be in the contemporary classroom; what kind of textbooks do you use, if any at all; do you believe textbook vocabulary terms can be beneficial if taught the right way; have you found that textbooks are generally more biased or unbiased; and how do you feel about teaching banned books, is it important that students are exposed to such material?

In contrast, the second prong focused on the student perspective. For this part of my research, I created a survey which I used to sample students in the class of the aforementioned teacher from Community Middle School. I was also able to obtain some responses from outside West Windsor from other students I work with, particularly in Byram and Stanhope in Sussex County. However, about 90% of the responses came from Community. As such, again I approached drawing blanket conclusions from this data with caution, but it still provides valuable insight into the direction at least this type of school is moving in. For the students I also asked five questions, inquiring about what type of texts are most appealing to them, which types they have used before, which types they believe would be most beneficial for them going forward, how positive an impact they believe textbooks have been on their education so far, and how strongly they believe textbooks can still play a positive role going forward.

The Results

Surprisingly to me, and with few exceptions, each teacher shared very similar answers to the five questions. The consensus seemed to be that textbooks should only act as complementary material to otherwise well-constructed lessons. Furthermore, you needn’t actively seek out textbooks for the niche purposes of vocabulary terms or just for the sake of teaching banned material. This can be done more organically, which is more beneficial to the fluidity of the unit at large. And textbooks, at least those in use in New Jersey, generally try to present information in unbiased ways, but as with any written material, biases do poke through. Hence why it is again important to not rely upon textbooks, or any one source for that matter, so heavily. Put most straightforwardly, the teachers I interviewed were in general agreement that textbooks can’t be the basis of an entire class but can still serve as one of many important resources for instruction or reference.

Similarly, the data I received from the students was not what I was expecting. In terms of what they found most appealing, graphic novels took about 1/3 of the responses. However, traditional textbooks achieved nearly the same number. Unsurprisingly, traditional textbooks were overwhelmingly the most used type of text, but eBooks fell not far behind, and graphic novels again took about 1/3 of the responses. Most surprising of all, traditional textbooks took the plurality of the responses for what type of text students believed would be most beneficial for them going forward, receiving about 40%. And finally, most of the responses for the final two questions fell somewhere in the middle, with zero responses indicating that they strongly disagreed, and 15% indicating that they strongly agreed. 

Conclusion

            The twenty-first century so far has seen a dramatic increase in reliance on technology and advancements in this field. And yet despite the seemingly resulting trend that physical textbooks have become obsolete, they can still play a role in the modern classroom. In completing my research, I have found that few have argued that such resources should be done away with entirely. In fact, many authors who have written on this subject have simply made suggestions for alternative practices. In addition, the teachers I spoke to were also generally supportive of continuing usage of textbooks so long as they do not dominate an entire class. Even students, who in general as an entire demographic have long been stereotyped as vehemently anti-textbook, seem not only willing, but happy to continue learning from them going forward. Again, it is important to acknowledge the small sample sizes used to conduct this study, and further research would have to be completed in order to make any type of generalization. But the general conclusion I draw from this project is that not only can textbooks still play a role in the modern classroom, but they must continue to be a commonly used resource.

 Implications

The data I received both from the teacher interviews and the student surveys somewhat contradicted the information I found in the articles. First and foremost, it seems that the educators I talked to have few issues with the systematic bias in textbooks. They don’t negate its existence; rather they just see them as any other type of text which has to be approached with caution. They see the bias actually as useful, because any source is going to include it. Thus, it can be beneficial to have their students look for biases and point them out when they find them. The implication of their lack of hesitation in this regard seems to be that the era of fully textbook-based classes is just about over. A simple reliance on one textbook dooms students to a narrow view of the world, especially in social studies settings. Moreover, running your class as such is a dangerous reversal of the current trend which aims to facilitate critical thinking, rather than simple content knowledge.

Furthermore, continued textbook usage is completely acceptable, but it has to be supplemented with abundant material from other sources. And not only do students see continued textbook usage as necessary, but many even see traditional textbooks as having played a significant and even positive role in their education. Thus, while it is important to supplement traditional textbooks with other material, it seems we cannot be so extreme as to throw them out entirely. They serve as a familiar source of knowledge which many might feel lost without. So, to answer the initial question this research was based off of, textbooks can absolutely play an important and expansive role in the modern classroom. We just have to ensure that they are being used the right way and are not the only type of source students are exposed to. 

References

Brown, Bailey, and Reed, Amber. 2023. “Divergent Representations of Africa: A Qualitative Analysis of Georgia Social Studies Textbooks.” Georgia Educational Researcher 20 (2): 26–44. doi:10.20429/ger.2023.200202.  

Harmon, Janis M., Wanda B. Hedrick, and Elizabeth A. Fox. “A Content Analysis of Vocabulary Instruction in Social Studies Textbooks for Grades 4-8.” The Elementary School Journal 100, no. 3 (2000): 253–71. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1002154.

Mathews, Sarah A., and Craig M. McGill. 2022. “‘Honestly, I Had a Very Strong Reaction to This Reading’: Social Studies Pre‐Service Teachers’ Application of Literacy Frameworks While Engaging with a Graphic Textbook.” Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 65 (5): 431–39. doi:10.1002/jaal.1224.

Fairness Counts: Integrating Math and Social Studies in the Elementary Classroom

Fairness Counts: Integrating Math and Social Studies in the Elementary Classroom

Marilyn M. DePietto

“That’s not fair!” Any teacher who has spent time in elementary school classrooms knows the frequency and passion with which this sentence is declared each day.  As early as 3 years of age, children have a developed sense of fairness that concerns not only allocation of materials, but also the distribution process (Englemann & Tomasello, 2019). This desire to regulate games, play, and sharing of resources in early childhood continues to develop through the elementary years, and it provides a remarkable opportunity for teachers to leverage the integration of mathematics and social studies.

Social studies standards in New York explicitly refer to “gathering, interpreting, and using evidence” and “chronological reasoning and causation” (New York State Education Department [NYSED], 2017a).  The Next Generation Standards for Mathematical Practice include “Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others” and “Look for and make use of structure,” which refers to finding patterns over the course of time (NYSED, 2017b). The overlap between these two subjects, particularly in the early grades, is significant and useful in settling disputes of tangible fairness and in the upper elementary grades, in providing support for students to think about more abstract concepts of fairness and equity.

Math and social studies integration for early childhood (PK-2)

Most early childhood classrooms have objects that are in short supply and coveted by many children at once.  Common ones might include the “good” bean bag chair for reading, the block corner, or the newest art supplies. Some teachers generate and implement systems for managing these situations so that students are treated fairly. Other teachers might feel that students ought to learn that sometimes they can’t get what they want and adopt mantras similar to “you get what you get, and you don’t get upset.”

Both teacher-imposed systems of fairness and teacher-imposed systems of control miss a crucial opportunity to allow students ownership of their class rules and also an opportunity to show how social studies and mathematics are integrated and relevant. Consider the example of the bean bag chair that, for some reason undiscernible to adults, students have decided is the “best” one. In the reading corner, despite the fact that there are four seemingly equivalent places to sit, one chair always causes an argument or a dash across the room to get there first. It is important for teachers to know that even if it seems not to make sense, children assign tremendous value to objects. In fact, studies have shown that even very young children view objects as extensions of self (Diesendruck & Perez, 2015). Leveraging this assigned significance into learning opportunities should be at the forefront of teacher’s agendas.

An interdisciplinary solution to the bean bag chair problem might begin by first naming the issue and helping children articulate their feelings and questions about it. Then, the teacher might set up a democratic process for students to share what they think are good solutions. There are many literary resources that would be good starting points for student participation. Fair Shares by Pippa Goodheart, Share and Take Turns by Cheri J. Meiners, and Friends Ask First by Alexandra Cassel are a few popular choices to anchor a discussion.

Once all students have had an opportunity to ask questions and share their ideas for a fair system, the teacher might consolidate all of the ideas into two or three options. It is important to explicitly model thinking critically about ideas of fairness for students to help them broaden their understanding and expose them to different points of view (Bjervås, 2017).  Ideas elicited from early childhood students would likely come under a few different categories: 1) some kind of system where everyone gets the same amount of time 2) a taking turns system, where if someone else wants a turn, the person in the chair has to give it up 3) a Darwinian system that indicates something to the effect of whoever gets there first gets the chair, and 4) other less fair, or more difficult to articulate systems. Through questioning and debate facilitated by the teacher, students would likely come to the conclusion that the time system is fairest.  In PK-2 classrooms, setting up a ballot measure and having students vote would be a clear way of establishing an example of the democratic process.  Age-appropriate social studies concepts met during this process include gathering, interpreting and using evidence, chronological reasoning and causation, and civic participation (NYSED, 2017a).

After everyone has participated in this form of civic engagement, mathematics plays a larger part.  The very process of counting and representing the results of voting is a mathematical concept.  Using a Unifix cube or a similar concrete manipulative to represent each vote, students can stack them to construct a three-dimensional bar graph showing how many votes were cast for each option. This visual and tactile representation of the votes will make it clear to students the option with which more students agree. This representation itself ticks several boxes for mathematical standards and concepts appropriate for PK-2 classrooms. 

Counting objects, sorting them into categories, arranging them in a line to assign ordinal numbers, comparing the quantity in each group by using words like more than or fewer, and representing data in a display and reading said display are all mathematics concepts that students should learn in early childhood grades (NYSED, 2017b). Research has long since established that students not only retain mathematics content more effectively but are also better able to transfer and apply skills they learned through the context of their own social and cultural values rather than word problems with “real world” situations involving carts full of watermelons from a textbook (Boaler, 1993; Lazic & Maričić, 2021; Taylor, 1989). Establishing classroom rules that are fair for everyone is a high priority for young students, and therefore the mathematics and social studies concepts associated with the construction of such a classroom will likely be learned deeply and effectively.

The idea of “fairness” holds within it the essence of “equality,” which is a mathematics concept that is tremendously important but often misunderstood, particularly in early childhood (Sophian, 2022). Furthermore, concepts of equal parts of a whole, equal groups of objects, and showing equal quantities in different ways are found throughout PK-2 math standards (NYSED, 2017b). To keep with the time in the bean bag chair example, this activity can be further developed by facilitating a discussion among students about how much time in the bean bag chair is fair.  If independent reading time is 20 minutes, and there are 20 students in the class, one option that can be shown using concrete or digital manipulatives is for each student to get 1 minute per day in the chair. Most young children have not yet developed understanding of lengths of time, and understanding the duration of a minute is an important concept taught in the early grades.

Discussion and practical testing of this idea might lead students to the realization that a single minute is not enough time for quality reading and relaxing.  Therefore, through discussion and some experimentation with manipulatives representing minutes, the teacher might suggest that only fewer people per day get to sit in the chair, but for a longer time, and ask students to try to come up with a system for keeping track of students and times. 

Including this amount of thinking and discussion about the bean bag chair will likely result in taking several days to create and revise the plan.  The time invested in having students involved with and responsible for making a fair system is easily justified by the lessons and concepts they will learn about mathematics, social studies, literacy, and collaboration. An additional benefit to facilitating a series of lessons like these is the reduction of students wondering “why do we need to know this?” The meaning behind the instruction is already implicit: students will develop the skills and capacity to eliminate fighting over the bean bag chair.

Math and social studies integration for upper elementary (3-6)

As students mature throughout elementary school activities and lessons like the one above might become less relevant; students become more capable of regulating fairness in social situations without adult intervention.  Additionally, items like the bean bag chair or favorite toys might become less significant in upper elementary classrooms.  However, there still exist many opportunities for students to integrate mathematics and social studies concepts to gain a better understanding of fairness in the world.

Gathering and examining evidence, constructing arguments, and critiquing the reasoning of others are skills that both mathematics and social studies standards mention explicitly (NYSED, 2107a, b). Common examples of how to integrate mathematics and social studies include examining percentages, reading and interpreting graphs and charts, and analyzing change over time. One facet that may not be traditionally examined thorough the lens of both mathematics and social studies is a calculation of the amount of voting power that citizens have in an indirect democracy. 

While younger students are quick to point out “that’s not fair!” when tangible resources are inequitably distributed, older students should be encouraged to think critically about the fairness and equity in more abstract terms by systems of which they are a part (Lee et al., 2021). Elementary school students begin learning the structure of the United States government and have some understanding of what government representatives do. They are also beginning to develop understanding of fractions, extremely large and small numbers, and operations with these numbers. These sets of concepts can be integrated to give students real world understanding of the amount of power their votes have by exploring representative democracy.

This activity focuses on U.S. Senate representation. If students are unfamiliar with representative democracy, a teacher might want to demonstrate using a concrete example with students in the class:  If students in a class of 20 are seated 5 to a table, for example, an election for table representative can be held. Students should understand that these representatives will, with the direction of the teacher, help make some of the rules for the classroom and advocate on behalf of their constituents (tablemates). Therefore, they have to think carefully about who they want to represent them. In this example, there are 4 student representatives who will be part of the discussion and vote on rules.  Each of these student representatives, therefore, has of the total voting power in any matter on which they vote. 

The next question is, how much voting power does each person at the table have? By facilitating discussion, the teacher should be able to elicit that each student has  of the voting power, since everyone was able to vote for their own representative.  This can be found two ways; the first one indicated below is the most straightforward, while the second might be less obvious. Nevertheless, students might notice and articulate this strategy if they are given the chance to explore it. This is also the skill students will need to find answers to questions later in this activity.

  • Each student is 1 out of the total 20 in the class, therefore each vote is  of the total.
  • Each table gets  of the vote via their representative.  That  of the vote comprises 5 students, so each student gets  of that .  Students can draw a model of fourths, then divide each of those fourths into 5 sections (Figure 1) to show that every smaller section is then .  Some students might realize that  of  also means , which is also the same as .

Figure 1

The reasoning in the second explanation can be further explored by changing some conditions about the representatives. For example, what if there were still 4 tables, each with 1 representative, but one table had 8 people, and the rest had 4? Would everyone still have the same voting power? The table of 8 would have  of the voting power each.  While the tables of 4 would have  of the voting power each. There are several mathematical questions that can be asked at this point to facilitate exploration with fractions:

  • Who has more voting power? How do you know?
  • Is that fair? Which table would you want to sit at?
  • What does the size of the denominator tell us about the size of the fraction?

This activity can be extended over the course of several days to expand students’ understanding of voting power on a larger scale. They can be asked to find reliable sources of information indicating the population of each state in the U.S. and to calculate the voting power of the citizens of each state in the U.S senate if each state is represented by two senators. These calculations would involve operations with very large numbers, and comparing unit fractions that represent extremely small quantities, both of which are included in upper elementary mathematics standards (NYSED, 2017a). Students might be surprised to learn that in terms of senate votes, U.S. citizens have drastically different voting power. Extension questions might include:

  • Citizens of which state have the most voting power in the senate? The least?
  • How many times as powerful are the votes from the state with the most power per citizen compared with the state with the least?
  • Is this the case in all branches of government? Should it be? How does representation in the other branches work?

Conclusion

Both the activity described for PK-2 students and the one described for upper elementary students integrate mathematics and social studies in an age-appropriate, real-world context. Social studies and mathematics are not always considered easy to integrate smoothly, but many concepts and skills are clearly interdisciplinary between these two subjects. While meeting content standards is important to ensure equity of mathematics and social studies knowledge among students, it is even more important to give students the tools to think critically, advocate for themselves, and engage in civil discourse (Lee, et al. 2021). These skills ought to be taught through relevant applications that demonstrate to students why it is important to have them. For this reason, leveraging students’ deeply developed feelings that some things are unfair (Engelmann & Tomasello, 2019) into motivating lessons about how to quantify fairness and equity is a powerful bit of pedagogy.

References

Boaler, J. (1993). The Role of Contexts in the Mathematics Classroom: Do they Make Mathematics More” Real”? For the learning of mathematics, 13(2), 12-17. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40248079

Bjervås, L. L. (2017). Teaching about fairness in a preschool context. In Values in Early Childhood Education (pp. 55-69). Routledge.

Diesendruck, G., & Perez, R. (2015). Toys are me: Children’s extension of self to objects. Cognition, 134, 11-20. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2014.09.010

Engelmann, J. M., & Tomasello, M. (2019). Children’s sense of fairness as equal respect. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 23(6), 454-463. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2019.03.001

Lazic, B., Knežević, J., & Maričić, S. (2021). The influence of project-based learning on student achievement in elementary mathematics education. South African Journal of Education, 41(3). http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.hofstra.edu/10.15700/saje.v41n3a1909

Lee, C. D., White, G., & Dong, D. (2021). Educating for Civic Reasoning and Discourse. National Academy of Education. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED611951.pdf

New York State Education Department. (2017a). New York State K-8 social studies framework.https://www.nysed.gov/sites/default/files/programs/standards-instruction/ss-framework-k-8a2.pdf

New York State Education Department. (2017b). New York state p-12 learning standards for mathematics. http://www.nysed.gov/new-york-state-revised-mathematics-learning-standards

Sophian, C. (2022). A developmental perspective on children’s counting. The development of mathematical skills (pp. 26-46). Psychology Press.

Taylor, N. (1989). Let them eat cake: desire, cognition and culture in mathematics learning. Mathematics for All, 161-163.