School-based collaborations: Buildign an authentic model for problem-based instructin

Journal of Social Studies Research, Winter 1999 by Saye, John W

ABSTRACT

This paper describes a high school-university partnership that experiments with problem-based instruction in high school classrooms. The paper presents the project rationale, describes the organization of the collaboration, outlines our problem-based model, and proposes several hypotheses emerging from the responses of project participants. Our experiences suggest that an authentic context for experimentation and dialogue about reform may lead to innovation models that hold some legitimacy for all parties. Novices may gain a deeper, more grounded understanding of reform ideas. Testing and tinkering with reform models in actual classrooms may encourage more authentic dialogue that facilitates workable change. Finally, such collaborations may help address the professional needs of veteran teachers for interaction, recognition, and reflection.

Reform proposals swirl everywhere in education today. Recently published standards by the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS, 1994) and separate standards for history, civics, and geography demonstrate the social studies' involvement in reform initiatives. Past attempts at school reform have had little lasting success (Cuban, 1984). Social studies reform is no exception (Hertzburg, 1981; Jenness, 1990). To improve the prospects for educational reform, we must learn from past failures. This paper describes an on-going effort to develop thoughtful civic competencies (NCSS, 1994) among high school students. Attending to the history of unsuccessful reform efforts, we seek to improve the chances of our initiative through more genuine collaborations among veteran teachers, preservice novices, and teacher educators. We hope that such collaborations nurture a more authentic and robust model for problem-based social studies instruction that will flourish in real classrooms.

In this paper, I will (a) present the rationale behind the project, ( b) describe the organization of our collaboration, and (c) outline the model we use for problem-based social studies units. Finally, I will share some hypotheses that are suggested by participants' responses to our collaboration.

Problem Overview and Project Rationale

Our social studies instructional model is grounded in four assumptions:

1. Thoughtful social studies focuses on powerful ideas.

2. Students should not learn about ideas. Students should learn how to use ideas.

3. Ideas should be presented as problems to be investigated. 4. Authentic, rich problem contexts engage curiosity.

Our experiment refocuses the curriculum away from topics to be presented and toward problematic ideas to be investigated. Big ideas serve as lenses for focusing our attention on what is important (cough, 1989). A focus on central ideas and problems may not only aid student learning; big ideas serve as lenses for focusing out attention on what is important (cough, 1989). A focus on central ideas and problems may not only aid student learning; big ideas may serve as landmarks that help teachers build powerful curricular roadmaps.

None of this is new. Theorists have persistently advocated problem-centered instruction for most of this century (Dewey, 1938; Engle, 1960; Evans & Saxe, 1996; Hunt & Metcalf, 1968; Newmann & Oliver 1970; Oliver & Shaver, 1966; Rugg, 1936; Shaver & Larkins, 1973). Recent work in how we learn and in how we might encourage student engagement with subject matter supports the assumptions of problems-centered instruction (e.g., Brooks & Brooks, 1991; Brown, Collins, & Duguid, 1989; Cognition & Technology Group at Vanderbilt, 1990; cough, 1989; Newmann, 1991; Parker, Mueller, and Wendling, 1989; Resnick, 1987, Rossi, 1994; Stevenson, 1990).

Though extolled by theorists, reports from the field consistently tell us social studies is rarely taught in this manner (Goodlad, 1984; Kagan, 1993; Shaver, Davis, & Helburn, 1980; Sizer, 1984; Thornton, 1991). Neither novice nor veteran teachers are likely to have seen models of such practices in classrooms. As one of our preservice teachers observed: "In order to change the way social studies is taught, we must go out on our own and try new things because we do not have many examples to follow." The lack of real examples of problem-centered classrooms makes their appearance in the future unlikely. Teachers focus on the practical, on ideas that have worked for other practitioners (Doyle and Ponder, 1977-78). Encountering only theoretical arguments for problems-based instruction, veteran teachers reject the approach as unrealistic. The skepticism of veterans may influence beginning teachers to drop a problemsbased strategy for their repertoires as they are socialized into their local school cultures (Lortie, 1975). Without established classroom models to examine, critique, and adapt, few teachers are likely to entertain so different a vision of teaching. The first hurdle in reform may be to get examples of problem-centered instruction in front of high school students so that the testing and tinkering process can begin.