Causes of Problem Facing Social Studies
CAUSES OF PROBLEM FACING SOCIAL STUDIES
The finding that an unacceptably high percentage of preservice elementary teachers shared a negative perception of their past encounters with social studies presents a serious challenge. The cumulative percentage of participants who described their past social studies courses as being either "very interesting" or "interesting" was 58.5 percent. For those who reported their past social studies courses as being either "very uninteresting" or "uninteresting," the cumulative percentage was 41.5 percent.
The harsh reality is that over two-fifths of the participants described most of their past social studies courses as being more or less boring. That finding substantiates other research that indicated that students often perceived social studies as a boring subject (Schug, Todd, and Berry 1984; Shaughnessy and Haladyna 1985). I believe the finding, which comes from a sample in which 90 percent of the participants were women, adds to the literature by connecting the negative perception to the low status that social studies has among preservice elementary teachers (the second challenge).
The fact that most elementary education programs either offer only one course that concentrates solely on social studies methods or combine it with other content areas raises the question of whether it is expecting too much from professors to have them strive to alter the negative perception that many preservice elementary teachers have of social studies. After all, how much enthusiasm for teaching social studies can professors really be expected to generate, over the course of a semester, among those who have found social studies to be anything but interesting?
A related issue is the temptation for individuals to equate the uninteresting with the unimportant. Too many preservice elementary teachers are likely to have experienced disengagement on a cognitive and affective level with the content of social studies courses. If one of the goals
The finding that an unacceptably high percentage of preservice elementary teachers shared a negative perception of their past encounters with social studies presents a serious challenge. The cumulative percentage of participants who described their past social studies courses as being either "very interesting" or "interesting" was 58.5 percent. For those who reported their past social studies courses as being either "very uninteresting" or "uninteresting," the cumulative percentage was 41.5 percent.
The harsh reality is that over two-fifths of the participants described most of their past social studies courses as being more or less boring. That finding substantiates other research that indicated that students often perceived social studies as a boring subject (Schug, Todd, and Berry 1984; Shaughnessy and Haladyna 1985). I believe the finding, which comes from a sample in which 90 percent of the participants were women, adds to the literature by connecting the negative perception to the low status that social studies has among preservice elementary teachers (the second challenge).
The fact that most elementary education programs either offer only one course that concentrates solely on social studies methods or combine it with other content areas raises the question of whether it is expecting too much from professors to have them strive to alter the negative perception that many preservice elementary teachers have of social studies. After all, how much enthusiasm for teaching social studies can professors really be expected to generate, over the course of a semester, among those who have found social studies to be anything but interesting?
A related issue is the temptation for individuals to equate the uninteresting with the unimportant. Too many preservice elementary teachers are likely to have experienced disengagement on a cognitive and affective level with the content of social studies courses. If one of the goals