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Making Learning Relevant

Within his study of U.S. History curriculum throughout the United States, Bruce

VanSledright reveals that curricula typically focus on telling the American story rather than a

story. When adopting standards, states often design a narrative that they believe students must

come to know in order to participate as effective, responsible, and informed citizens. However,

this particular approach does not adequately teach history, but focuses on a nation-building

heritage from the dominant perspective. Thus, immigrants and minority groups are expected to

conform to the norms presented by this heritage, while accepting the preconceived ideas and

conclusions. If American history curriculum continues to focus solely on the underlying ideas of

the Declaration of Independence, actions of our founders, and the exceptional spirit of America,

an entire aspect of how America was built by the actions of various groups of women, African

Americans, and immigrants is marginalized or completely ignored. Furthermore, it lacks a

foundation for allowing students to draw authentic conclusions and solve problems within their

own communities by presenting that history is something that is simply done to them

(VanSeldright, 2008). When developing curricula, policy makers, teacher, and stakeholders must

provide a framework for instruction and assessment where students are guided through exploring

their interests, inquiring about the meaningful questions they ask, and solving problems that are

pertinent in their world.

My purpose here is to recast the theories of John Dewey and Maria Montessori, while

blending them with current assessment practices designed by Sam Wineburg and Robert J.

Marzano. I will discuss how contemporary challenges to social studies education, in regards to

assessment, present concerns of how to best prepare students for solving relevant problems in

their communities, including the unfamiliar future. Throughout I contend that both assessment

and instruction must provide opportunities for students to become spurred by their interests and
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participate in the process of living. I hope that these ideas will raise questions about how to best

meet the demands of the standards based education practices, while discussing the best means for

students to synthesize, rather than memorize, their histories.

Within a social studies classroom, the best means of instructing students is through the

methods framed by John Dewey and Maria Montessori. With John Dewey, education is the

means by which an individual becomes acquainted with the needs of the community while

increasing ones consciousness of the welfare of the group that he or she belongs. This means

that the student uses the school to develop his or her abilities to meet the demands of a particular

community, making school a social institution (Dewey, 1918, pp 33-35). Therefore, harkening

back to VanSledrights discoveries about the story of nation-building and the heritage of the

United States, the traditional means of teaching students about their citizenship and the discipline

of history truly removes them from the genuine reality, leading to a lack of relevancy and the

diverse voices of relatable communities. With this, Maria Montessoris method focuses on

drawing upon a students spirit within the classroom, where the teacher provides a peaceful

environment for the student and guides them through activities that inspire truly human work

(Montessori, 1912.) Therefore, to mend Montessoris and Deweys philosophies, the classroom

must be a place where students are free to explore which invigorates their spirit and allows them

to actively contribute to their communities.

To present a practical example of what this looks like in the classroom, the National

Council for the Social Studies recently developed a framework (College, Career, and Civic Life

(C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards) where teachers guide students through four

dimensions of the Inquiry Arc. Beginning with Dimension 1, students develop questions to plan

for inquiry, work through discipline-specific practices, evaluate evidence, and finalize the
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process by communicating understandings and taking action. For example, I currently weave the

theme of human rights throughout my world history course. With this, students will spend the

year collecting data and analyzing contemporary and historical issue pertaining to human rights,

while developing questions considering the geographic, political, cultural, and historical roots of

contemporary issues. These questions will guide students towards contextualizing their findings,

corroborating evidence, and drawing conclusions about whether or not human rights is a

contemporary concern or an issue of the ages. By the end of the year, this thematic approach will

facilitate a better understanding of human rights, while creating an opportunity for them to take

action toward solving issues that they believe are of the most relevance. Through the use of the

C3 Framework, I truly believe that students will utilize their understanding of discipline-specific

practices, as well as their knowledge of history, to make meaningful connections and draw

authentic conclusions (National Council for the Social Studies, 2013).

With the ubiquity of assessment and standardization of social studies education, schools

may leave students with few opportunities for participation in authentic assessment. This allows

for the use of textbooks and the memorization of facts and figures, thus perpetuating the

understanding of a national heritage rather than a true assessment of our histories (VanSledright,

2008). To mitigate this issue, the best mode for assessing student mastery of skills and content is

through the use of formative assessment. According to research conducted by Robert J. Marzano,

the use of formative assessment improves learning as students are consistently provided feedback

about their growth towards mastery. However, the teacher must be purposeful about the types of

assessments used, as formative simply refers to the function of the assessmentoccurring

during the development of understandings. That being said, the constant use of multiple choice

assessments creates a situation where the process of rote memorization of a loose and unrelated
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set of facts and figures is the norm for measuring student mastery; this runs contrary to the

purpose of social studies educationproviding a space where students are engaged with

questioning and solving real world problems (Marzano, 2010, pp. 8-13).

If importance lies within creating assessments that allow students to employ disciplinary

practices for the purpose of drawing authentic conclusions about events, people, and eras in

history, the use of formative assessments where students continuously practice these skills and

reflect upon their growth is much more appropriate than requiring students to memorize facts and

figures. For example, Sam Wineburgs work with the Stanford History Education Group focuses

on creating and modeling formative assessments for history teachers. These assessments allow

students to examine primary and secondary sources through contextualizing, corroborating, and

sourcing information, while drawing evidence-based claims. Their authentic assessments allow

teachers to monitor student progress with historical thinking by providing a balance between

multiple-choice questions and the daunting format of the Document Based Question. Students

typically craft short-constructed responses to pertinent historical questions that ask them to

consider whether or not African Americans were free during Reconstruction, if Abraham Lincoln

truly freed the slaves, as well as question the validity of photographs for determining the

conditions of slave quarters in Antebellum America. Therefore, if students are provided with

ample opportunity and choice with these types of formative assessments, they will participate in

constructing historical understandings, rather than accepting a particular narrative (Breakstone,

Smith, and Wineburg, 2013; Wineburg, Margin, and Monte-Sano, 2013).

When students are immersed into a social studies classroom, the teacher must facilitate

and environment where exploration is welcomed, and authentic inquiry is the expectation. The

complacency of adhering to the norms of social studies education, especially with the imposition
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of the story of American heritage, creates a condition where students believe that history is done

to them. Even more problematic is that this method of learning history lacks relevancy and real

world applicability for most students. Therefore, it is important for history teachers to adhere to

the practices of John Dewey and Maria Montessori in order to allow students to seek

understandings of issues and ideas that interest them most, while acting to solve problems within

their communities. This is made possible those the use of instructional and assessment practices

that allow students to seek answer to designed questions to ultimately take action towards

solving the issues in which they unveil. This framework of education, especially within social

studies courses, will prepare students for their unfamiliar future, while discovering a thirst for

discovery and designing solutions.

Works Cited

Breakstone, J., Smith, M., & Wineburg, S. (2013). Beyond the bubble: New
history/social studies assessments for the Common Core. Phi Delta
Kappan, 94(5), 53-57.
Dewey, J. My Pedagogic Creed. The Curriculum Studies Reader, pp. 33-40. New
York, NY: Routledge, 2013.
Marzano, R. (2010). Formative Assessment & Standards-Based Grading, pp. 8-13.
Bloomington, IN: Marzano Research Laboratory, 2010.
Montessori, M. (1912). A Critical Consideration of the New Pedagogy in its Relation to
Modern Science. The Curriculum Studies Reader, pp. 19-31. New York, NY:
Routledge, 2013
NCSS (2013). College, Carreer, & Civic Life (C3) Framew0rk for Social Studies State
Standards. National Council for the Social Studies: Silver Spring, MD.
Wineburg, S, Martin, D., and Monte-Sano, C (2013). Reading Like a Historian: Teaching
Literacy in Middle and High School History Classrooms. New York, NY: Teachers
College Press.