Learning to Inquire in Social Studies: An Anthology for Elementary Teachers

Author(s): Penney Clark (Editor)

ISBN: 978-1-9991413-6-3

A favoured choice for post-secondary course instructors and their students for over 25 years.

Now in its fourth edition, Learning to Inquire in Social Studies: An Anthology for Elementary Teachers brings together the work of prominent education scholars and the experiences of highly regarded teachers—the best of the theory and of the practice—in a comprehensive collection.

Format: Print (358 pages)
Alternate Format: e-Book
Subject: Social Studies
Grade: K, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Type of resource: Professional Resources
Language: English
Published: 2021

Overview

This edition reflects an emerging emphasis on inquiry in social studies, as well as an online supplement. The most important changes are in its contents. Although many of the topics addressed in the original collection appear in this edition, the discussion of them has changed significantly and many new topics have emerged.

It is a massive, stunning achievement. ...taking on the whole process of teaching and then breaking it down into packs and pieces that can be relatively easily taken away. … It is simultaneously a primer, a handbook, and a reference work. I am dazzled.

Peter Seixas, professor emeritus, University of British Columbia

Table of Contents

Preface

PART ONE: Directions and Plans
OVERVIEW
1 Finding Your Way in Social Studies

EXPLORE THE LANDSCAPE
2 Embarking on Professional Inquiry
3 Imagining the Social Studies Curriculum

ESTABLISH DIRECTIONS
4 Rethinking Your Goals
   4.0 Pursuing Authentic Goals
   4.1 Deep Understanding
   4.2 Genuine Competency
   4.3 Internalized Values
 5 Determining Your Own Vision for Social Studies
 6 Opening Your Classroom to the World
   6.0 Rising to the Challenges of Our Time
   6.1 Reconciliation
   6.2 Climate Emergency
   6.3 Social Action in Elementary School
   6.4 Identity
   6.5 Well-being
   6.6 Respectful Commemoration
   6.7 Hope

PLOT THE PATH FORWARD
7 Framing Learning and Assessment for Students
   7.0: In Search of Meaning and Coherence
   7.1: Overarching Inquiries
   7.2: Project-based Learning
   7.3: Big Ideas
8 Planning for Instruction and Assessment
   8.0 Four Principles of Planning
   8.1 Creating a Year-long Overview
   8.2 Detailing Unit Plans
   8.3 Designing Individual Lessons

PART TWO: Methods and Approaches
OVERVIEW
9 Facilitating the Learning Journey

CREATE CONDITIONS THAT SUPPORT LEARNING
10 Shaping the Learning Environment
11 Including All Students

PROBLEMATIZE WHAT IS TO BE LEARNED
12 Formulating Critical Inquiry Questions and Tasks
13 Thinking Historically, Geographically, and Beyond
14 Supporting Independent Inquir
y

BUILD CAPACITY FOR LEARNING
15 Teaching the Tools
   15.0 The Difference That Tools Make
   15.1 Relevant Information
   15.2 Key Concepts and Distinctions
   15.3 Criteria for Judgment
   15.4 Self-regulated Strategies
   15.5 Character Traits

ENSURE TIMELY INPUT AND FEEDBACK
16 Promoting Assessment-rich Learning
17 Evaluating Student Achievement

   17.0 Planning for Evaluation
   17.1 Observing and Listening to Students
   17.2 Analyzing Student Products

PART THREE: Learning Resources
OVERVIEW
18 Activating Resource Opportunities

ASSEMBLE DIVERSE RESOURCES
19 Using Text-based Sources
20 Examining Visuals
21 Investigating Artifacts
22 Engaging With Fiction
23 Learning From People and Places

Contributors
Credits
Index
Online Supplement

Features

Defining Features

  • Balances diversity and uniformity: Offers an array of perspectives and a great breadth of expertise through multiple contributors; presents varied but complementary ideas using consistent terminology and common structures.
  • Balances the theoretical and the practical: Illustrates the applications and implications of broad principles in specific classroom contexts by situating teaching practices and strategies within their scholarly traditions and orientations, and by using theoretical considerations to problematize everyday experiences that teachers are likely to face.
  • Balances the innovative and the foundational: Adds new topics without supplanting foundational principles and areas of practice that must remain at the core of teacher preparation; augments the treatment of core ideas with the best of recent thinking and developments.

Editors

Roland Case is the co-founder, former executive director, and senior editor of The Critical Thinking Consortium (TC²). He was a professor of social studies education at Simon Fraser University and prior to that an elementary school teacher. He has edited or authored over 60 published books and teaching resources.

Penney Clark is a professor of social studies education at the University of British Columbia and former director of The History Education Network. She has taught elementary and secondary social studies curriculum and pedagogy courses at three universities. She has published widely in the areas of the history of social studies and history education and the history of educational publishing in Canada.

Authors

Linda Farr Darling, associate professor emerita, University of British Columbia
Ilan Danjoux, lecturer, University of Toronto, Mississauga
Lindsay Gibson, assistant professor, University of British Columbia
Garfield Gini-Newman, associate professor, teaching stream, OISE/University of Toronto
Duane Jackson, Indigenous cultural consultant
Usha James, executive director, The Critical Thinking Consortium
Shannon Moore, assistant professor, University of Manitoba
John Myers, instructor (retired), OISE/University of Toronto
Carla Peck, professor, University of Alberta
Ian Pettigrew, director, Ontario Teachers’ Federation
Alan Sears, professor emeritus, University of New Brunswick
Stefan Stipp, vice-principal, Surrey School District
Tracey Tinley, teacher, Ottawa-Carleton District School Board
Maria Vamvalis, doctoral candidate, OISE/University of Toronto
Andrea Webb, associate professor of teaching, University of British Columbia
Walt Werner, associate professor emeritus, University of British Columbia
Warren Woytuk, director, The Critical Thinking Consortium

What teachers are saying

…comprehensive, well written, and nicely conceptualized… a most useful textbook for teacher education.

Theodore M. Christou, professor and associate dean, Queen’s University

…the most comprehensive, accessible, educative textbook on the subject. My students have consistently called this their favourite text of any course they take.

Kumari Beck, associate professor Simon Fraser University

…has been the backbone of my social studies education course for pre-service teachers, providing the overall theoretical framework for the course while at the same time providing practical tools for the classroom.

Wendy D. Bokhorst-Heng, associate professor, Crandall University

…an invaluable resource with chapter after chapter of essential learning for social studies teacher candidates; this book will continue on as a valued and well-used desktop companion as they embark on their teaching careers.

Joan M. Chambers, assistant professor, Lakehead University

This is the most useful and widely applicable textbook I’ve had at the Faculty of Education. Amazing.

Student, Western University

Regular Price: $69.95
Format: Print