Page 178 - Powerful Social Studies for Elementary Students 4th Edition

150 Powerful Social Studies for Elementary Students
Fourth, we and many other social studies educators emphasize the importance of teaching content not only for understanding but for appreciation and life application. This implies helping students see connections between the content and their personal identities and agendas as well as developing the content using examples and activities that support students’ self-efficacy perceptions with respect to their ability to apply what they are learning in their personal, social, and civic decision making and behavior. Thus, if you have not already done so, you should become familiar with basic principles of child development, motivation, and other relevant aspects of psychology.
NCSS Standards Relating to Psychology
The National Council for the Social Studies (2010) Curriculum Standards include a theme, Individual Development and Identity. In the early grades, it calls for experiences that allow students to describe personal changes over time, such as those related to physical development and personal interests; describe personal connections to place—especially place as associated with immediate surroundings; describe the unique features of one’s nuclear and extended families; show how learning and physical development affect behavior; identify and describe ways family, groups, and community influence the individual’s daily life and personal choices; explore factors that contribute to one’s personal identity such as interests, capabilities, and perceptions; analyze a particular event to identify reasons individuals might respond to it in different ways; and work independently and cooperatively to accomplish goals. The middle grades should include experiences that allow students to relate personal changes to social, cultural, and historical contexts; describe personal connections to place—as associated with community, nation, and world; describe the ways family, gender, ethnicity, nationality, and institutional affilia- tions contribute to personal identity; relate such factors as physical endowment and capabilities, learning, motivation, personality, perception, and behavior to individual development; identify and describe ways regional, ethnic, and national cultures influence individuals’ daily lives; identify and describe the influence of perception, attitudes, values, and beliefs on personal identity; identify and interpret examples of stereotyping, conformity, and altruism; and work independently and cooperatively to accomplish goals.
Guidelines for Teaching Psychology
Much teaching of psychology in the early grades focuses on developing concepts and attitudes relating to self and personal identity. Children’s ideas about themselves tend to focus on their physical characteristics (e.g., size, hair color) and behavior (e.g., skills, hobbies, interests), not their personal, social, or moral traits. To the extent that they draw comparisons, it is with siblings or frequent playmates. They do not yet have much knowledge about the range of individual differences that exists among age peers in their own community, let alone the world at large. The majority of most children’s opportunities to think about themselves within larger contexts (e.g., our society, the world, and the human condition through time and across locations) occur at school.
Supporting students’ personal development is part of the informal curriculum that is embedded in the socializing that teachers do in the process of explaining rules and behavioral expectations and molding their classes into learning communities. These interactions with students provide many opportunities not just to teach rules but also to develop positive social self-concepts—to encourage students to think of themselves as pro-social individuals who are caring and helpful toward others and good citizens of
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