Page 183 - Powerful Social Studies for Elementary Students 4th Edition

CHAPTER 7 How Can I Teach the Other Social Sciences Powerfully? 155
How will you scaffold students’ learning about the ways groups and institutions experience conflict as well as work to meet individual needs and promote the common good? How will you have students draw upon their own life experiences in these discussions?
Economics
If you have never taken a course in economics, you may think that the subject is simply about money—personal savings and bank accounts, budgeting, and making decisions about purchases. However, economists define their discipline much more broadly, as the study of the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. It addresses decision making about obtaining and using all kinds of resources, not just money but others such as time, energy, or raw materials. Also, the scope extends from the micro-level of personal economics to the macro-level of national budgets, gross national products, and international markets and banking systems.
Elementary students are not ready for most aspects of macro-economics, but they can and should learn micro-economics and most of the basic concepts and principles of the field. Many of these (e.g., needs and wants, scarcity, supply and demand, opportunity cost) lend themselves to experiential learning through activities calling for students to make decisions about how to spend their time or money. Economics lessons teach impor- tant skills involved in making good decisions. They also dispose students toward becoming well informed about relevant issues and considering the likely consequences of their choices before committing themselves to action. Economic literacy is vital for all indivi- duals and possesses at least four characteristics, including the value of economics in the various roles people play in society (e.g. consumers, savers, investors; the benefits of eco- nomic literacy to citizenship and decision making on public issues; the importance of the application of economic reasoning, not merely knowledge of economic facts or concepts; and the ubiquitous nature of economic phenomena) (Miller & VanFossen, 2008).
In the elementary grades, instruction rarely focuses directly on economics except for a few lessons on personal economics and very basic economic concepts. However, eco- nomic themes and content pervade the curriculum even in the early years. Developments in the technologies used to exploit natural resources and produce goods and services can be the focus of much of history instruction, and economic goals and motives are emphasized as reasons for many, if not most, major historical events (e.g., the develop- ment and expansion of trade, voyages of discovery, colonization, and wars of acquisi- tion). Similarly, studies of communities, states, nations, or geographical regions typically include a strand focused on natural resources, industries, occupations, and the goods and services produced by the people who live there.
Children’s Knowledge and Thinking about Economics
Research on developments in children’s economic understanding has shown that young children tend to believe in a benevolent world in which people get whatever money they need from banks simply by asking for it and shopkeepers sell items for the same price at which they were bought (Berti & Bombi, 1988; Byrnes, 1996; Furnham, 1996). Yet they also recognize that entrepreneurs do not have to be honest to be profitable (Siegler & Thompson, 1998). Even when economic understandings are valid, they often are limited: Children may
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