Deck 1: What Is Powerful and Meaningful Social Studies

Question 1

The role elementary and middle school social studies plays in our lives:

A) is one of helping youths to memorize important events in the history of our country and the world.
B) is to help students become familiar with a large set of readings that will be useful to them later in life.
C) is to help students learn to make the same sorts of judgments their family and community members made when faced with an issue.
D) is to help youths understand how and why people act as they do and whether particular behaviors are worthy of adopting.

Answer 1

D

Question 2

Which is NOT a sound procedure for teaching social studies?

A) Assess students' performance throughout the lesson.
B) Present students with a problem and then teach about the knowledge and skills related to the problem.
C) Teach students an interesting social studies fact about the United States every day.
D) As the year progresses, withdraw your help in learning and encourage students to independently approach their social studies learning.

Answer 2

C

Question 3

Which of the following is a "tool" that assists in an investigation of a social studies question?

A) reading
B) mathematics
C) language
D) all of the above
E) none of the above

Answer 3

D

Question 4

Teachers must carefully plan and assess lessons in order to provide the experiences that result in meaningful learning.

Question 5

National standards in social studies were described in 1994 under a set of ten themes that:

A) are addressed each year from kindergarten through twelfth grade.
B) focus on the basic theme of culture and adding a new theme each year as students progress through the grade levels.
C) are very specific sets of important individuals and events that students must study to be knowledgeable citizens.
D) are mostly appropriate when taught in the middle school and not very appropriate for the elementary the grades.

Question 6

Perhaps the most used curriculum pattern in social studies in the last 50 years has been:

A) a focus on inquiry into history and the social sciences.
B) the expanding environments approach.
C) a focus on civic values and participation.
D) a focus on character education.

Question 7

Which of the following is NOT a way in which technology can change the social studies class?

A) Students expand control over their own learning.
B) Students become highly involved in separating opinion from knowledge.
C) Students see teachers as having great knowledge about topics being studied.
D) Teachers aid students in becoming seekers of information.

Question 8

The content of a powerful social studies lesson is:

A) based in history or the social sciences.
B) challenging, integrative, and value-based.
C) obtained from local resources.
D) a set of major concepts everyone in a democracy needs to know.

Question 9

PCK is a product of:

A) knowledge of social studies content.
B) classroom management techniques.
C) knowledge of what and how students understand social studies.
D) all of the above.
E) none of the above.

Question 10

Among the implications for helping students to construct their own knowledge is:

A) students' collection of evidence through interacting with people, objectives, and educational materials.
B) the need for students to memorize lots of facts about the topic under study.
C) discussion of the pictures and diagrams in the textbook.
D) a match between the reading level of the textbook and the students.

Question 11

Reports on the kinds of instructional strategies students want to see used in social studies have indicated that students prefer:

A) reading with an opportunity to individually answer questions about that reading.
B) frequent research assignments where they can write papers about famous people such as Martin Luther King, Jr. or Jane Adams.
C) contests where individual students compete against each other such as a geography bee and a "Who Is This Famous Person?" game.
D) group projects and discussions.

Question 12

Citizenship is a basic concept in social studies. Citizenship is viewed as:

A) voting regularly and showing support for the political party of your choice.
B) attending political debates and contributing money to political organizations.
C) actively participating in the community and in local and national decision making.
D) making one's community decisions by finding an authority with whom you agree and supporting the statements proposed by that authority figure.

Question 13

Social studies has been called "the great connection" by Goodman and Alder (1985) because they see social studies functioning as:

A) the major subject in the curriculum to which all other subjects are a subsidiary.
B) providing a foundation that is required before studying and learning other subjects.
C) the core to which all parts of the elementary and middle school curriculum can be tied.
D) a pathway that moves between separate disciplines.

Question 14

Pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) is:

A) increased through continuous efforts to learn social studies content.
B) increased through learning how students learn and respond to social studies content.
C) increased through advanced study.
D) increased through membership in professional organizations.
E) that all of the above increase PCK.

Question 15

Which of the following are most likely NOT used by teachers to assist them in establishing their year's instructional units?

A) A favorite topic they know a lot about
B) Important celebrations or events that happen in the state or nation
C) The scores on student achievement test from last year's class
D) Suggestions from students on what they would like to study

Question 16

The National Council for the Social Studies has defined powerful social studies as:

A) rooted in the factual knowledge of our nation's history.
B) meaningful, integrative, value based, challenging, and active.
C) designed to create citizens who support the decisions of their government.
D) factual, chronological, and focused on the roles of government leaders.

Question 17

Social studies is:

A) an interdisciplinary approach to learning.
B) a subject that connects with language arts but not with science or mathematics.
C) the study of geography and history.
D) a discipline focused on current problems.

Question 18

Which activity described below gives students the greatest control of a lesson?

A) Students answer questions the author of the textbook thinks are important to know about England.
B) Students decide which colors and symbols to use when making a map of their state.
C) Students make a map of their neighborhood showing the places they think are most important to include on the map.
D) Students look at a group of pictures of England and tell their teacher ten things they observed.

Question 19

Researchers report that students want social studies instruction to use:

A) more reading.
B) more group projects.
C) fewer simulations.
D) less discussion.

Question 20

Which of the following social studies areas does NCLB legislation identify as social studies knowledge important to teach?

A) Eeconomics, careers, history, and global studies
B) History, government, geography, and economics
C) Government, civics, history, and geography
D) Civics, government, personal development, and history

Question 21

Meaningful social studies learning require a cooperative and supportive classroom climate rather than a restrictive atmosphere based on a fear of failure.

Question 22

A major goal of social studies instruction is to prepare students for success in history and the social sciences when they go to college.

Question 23

It is through encountering problems that are not easily answered from existing knowledge that students come to understand new ideas.

Question 24

Social studies is a personal construction of the meaning of information interpreted through the student's prior knowledge of the social world.

Question 25

As students gather more information through their life experiences, they construct and redefine the patterns they see in the social world.

Question 26

Social studies questions arise from a child's natural exploration of the world that begins at birth.

Question 27

Content from the humanities, the arts, and biological and physical sciences contribute to the knowledge base of social studies.

Question 28

The NCSS Standards clearly state that social studies is not rooted in a single discipline, but is multidisciplinary in its content.

Question 29

The problems of the real world in which citizens live and work require thinking about information in separate categories or subjects just as the school curriculum does.

Question 30

Students prefer teaching strategies where they listen and review what they have heard in written exercises and tests.

Question 31

Being active, participatory citizens requires students to ask questions, determine answers based upon information, and act to bring about changes in their everyday world.

Question 32

The primary purpose of social studies is to help young people develop the ability to make informed and reasoned decisions for the public good as citizens of a culturally diverse, democratic society in an interdependent world.

Question 33

Students' conclusions about the world are interpretations based upon their values and those of their families and the communities in which they live.