- Google slides on computational thinking (albeit across the curriculum)
I have long been possessed of the notion that there's a way to teach social studies – typically history, but not exclusively – so that it addresses more, that it goes beyond its curricular boundaries. My experience of learning social studies (up to and through majoring in history) taught me that social studies is, as a curricular subject, entirely self-referential: you learn history topics to later reference them...in other history classes. True, in an economics you need some math, and in civics you might need some persuasive writing/speaking skills, but these were always internal transfers – you bring other subjects into social studies; you don't bring social studies into the other subjects. As a result, social studies felt hived off from the rest of the curriculum. I knew that I loved social studies and felt it was vital and necessary...but most of my peers yawned and declaimed that they were merely suffering through it until they could get to study what they felt was useful (math, science) or lovely (English, art, music) or fun (languages, gym). Social studies somehow felt expendable to them, and I didn't know how to argue against it.
...
- It will provide students with an engaging, stimulating, interesting, and fun social studies experience. It will be hard fun, but it will be fun – students will have a chance to argue, to construct counter-interpretations, to re-shape and re-think the past, present, and future.
- It will allow social studies to go beyond – the skills developed in social studies (specifically spatial reasoning and computational thinking) will be novel additions to the K-12 curriculum. Some students experience these already in computer science class or art class...but most don't. Social studies' universality – which I've always felt but haven't been able to bring to light for others – will be visible, established, and accessible.
History Education, Enhanced
| Spatial reasoning | Computational thinking |
|---|---|
Understanding & interpreting spatial data
| Problem-solving strategies that integrate with computational tools
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INTEGRATED WITHIN
| Decision-focused social studies | U.S. History curriculum |
|---|---|
Per Engle, 1960: decision-making is "the heart of social studies"; takes place at "two levels: at the level of deciding what a group of descriptive data means… [and] at the level of policy determination” (p. 301). | ...Partially-worked examples include:
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Elements of the instructional design model:
- Engaging, decision-focused history instruction in alignment with the existing curriculum;
- Explicit instruction on both spatial reasoning and computational thinking;
- Application of these thinking skills in the context of learning a curriculum-aligned history topic;
- Student examination and/or manipulation of accessible data; and
- Guided note sheets and other learning materials that integrate the critical thinking skills, the history education content, and the decision-focused framework.
Theory of change model
The ask from BASD – will pay for time, subs, etc.
- Time to work with a collaborating teacher during Year 1-2-3.
- Develop instructional materials
- Develop assessments
- Feasibility study with 1 teacher in Year 2
- Implement instruction, conduct assessments
- Participate in fidelity of implementation development
- Pilot study with 2 or more teachers at Freedom, 2 or more teachers at Liberty during Year 3
- Professional development with participating teachers; open to others as interested (summer)
- Implement instruction, conduct assessments – note that this include data collection from control classrooms
- Participate in fidelity of implementation measure