The Role of a Teacher in Social Studies Instruction - Essay Example

The Role of a Teacher in Social Studies Instruction A teacher is a remarkable person. He or she has a very noble profession of nurturing and guiding them in their quest for knowledge and skills. Teachers are tasked with important responsibilities—that is to demonstrate knowledge of subject matter and to promote student learning through effective communication. (Solmon, 2002) Social studies deal with knowledge based on social sciences, humanities, and civic action. (Smelser, 2001). Teaching social studies is a challenge, for nobody by himself or herself can study and teach efficiently the needs, demands, and problems of an ever-changing society.

A perfect society such as Utopia does not exist, and studying and teaching the constituents of an imperfect society often appears biased. How then, is a Social Science teacher able to combat these limitations and teach effectively the subject matter without placing bias and prejudice on it? The Social Science Teacher I am tasked upon to interview a Social Science teacher in this regard. Miss X is a likely prospect for me. Miss X is an unmarried woman in her early 30s who has a bachelor’s degree in education majoring in social sciences.

She has been teaching elementary school children in our school for the past 5 years. She teaches her lessons based on the school curriculum, is diligent on her daily lesson plan, and admits that although history is mostly based on textbooks she adds her further insights on some subject matters. Her daily classes consist of 1 hour for each section, and she teaches for 4 hours on the maximum. When asked about her views regarding social studies teaching, she admits that most of the students nowadays are taking the subject for granted, Included in her social sciences curriculum are subjects such as economics, geography, governments, civics, and anthropology.

She feels that the diminished interest is due to the political situations nowadays and the economical instability that the world faces today. When asked about the standards for social studies as featured in the Department of Arizona’s website she said that she agrees with the concepts being featured. Each history strand speaks about a certain genre in our civilization starting from the settlement of the natives to the United States developing as a nation. The way in which history was organized is remarkable because grade by grade, the student understands our rich cultural heritage.

The human brain cannot assimilate and process a large chunk of knowledge at the same time and that explains why studying history has been divided into smaller chunks for the student to digest well and to assimilate its true meaning. These same reasons are embedded in the introduction of the standard itself. To understand what we are at present means that we must examine our past. Miss X also seems to share this thought. She also added that useful citizens of the country arise from an effort to make them understand the political, cultural, and economic interactions that have shaped our cultural heritage.

The standards were created in an effort to maximize quality learning and to create an integration of concepts and skills. The Civics and governments strand, according to Miss X was also effective in providing knowledge to students about our constitution and our government. The economic strand made the students understand the present situation of the economy and how it has evolved through time. The Social Studies Standard Grade I: History and Heritage For the grade levels, I chose Grade I in the Social Studies Standard.

The strands were primarily presented using a table that described them in terms of concepts and scholarly skills. Because of this, the website appeared user-friendly for the teachers. These strands dealt with the concept of settlement and the various cultures and civilizations which shaped it. ( Arizona Department of Education, 2006) After the table, the various strands were each presented one by one. Strand 1 talked about American History and its importance to students as to how they will be able to interpret patterns, times, ideas, beliefs, and experiences.

After the brief description, research skills are featured. In terms of organization, the website is organized chronologically in a significant way; however, they failed to elaborate on specific objectives and aims and how teachers are going to carry out these aims. The website should describe what type of activities the students are being engaged in so that they will surely learn from the experience. The same is true with the subsequent threads in government, economy, and geography. (Arizona Department of Education, 2006)Conclusion In conclusion, the Social Studies Standards were an organized way of thoroughly teaching students the social sciences and humanities and they are effective in their own right.

However, Arizona should be open to changes also so that more students will benefit from the learning process and in that way, our rich cultural heritage will always be remembered forever.