Susan Adler (University of Missouri-Kansas City)
Kho Ee Moi (National Institute of Education, Singapore)

Keywords
Primary Social Studies
Primary School
Primary Social Studies

Abstract
This paper explores the question of the nature and purpose of social studies with the aim of showing the relevance and importance of teaching the subject well. The authors argue that social studies is about citizenship education and as such, is an important subject in the school curriculum. Teachers’ orientations towards the subject, that is, the beliefs about the goals of the subject and perspectives that teachers may hold about what constitute critical knowledge, skills and values to be taught are also discussed. Some key knowledge, skills and values essential to developing young people to become informed, concerned and participative citizens are highlighted with some examples of what lessons may look like.

Introduction
The start of a new school year is approaching and Ms Tan, who teaches Primary 4 is busy preparing for the new students with whom she will be working.  Although she is starting her fifth year in the classroom, she is still excited, and a little apprehensive, when the school year begins.  Today she is rethinking some of the social studies activities she and her Primary 4 colleagues had developed in the past.  Tomorrow they will all be at the meeting, and she wants to be ready with some new ideas.  She wants the teachers, and most importantly the children, to understand how meaningful social studies can be.  Ms Tan worries that too often the other teachers will put aside social studies lessons in order to concentrate on the “more important” subjects such as Maths and English Language. “What could be more important than the study of people, how they live together and how we got to where we are today?” Ms Tan wonders.  Ms Tan believes that if our children do not understand themselves and the social and physical world in which they live, it will not really matter, in the long run, that they excel in Maths, understand scientific method or can write good essays.  She knows all these things are important, but if children do not learn how to knowledgeably participate in their communities, their nation and the world, all the rest will have no meaning.

Ms Tan is facing a dilemma familiar to many teachers – making sure there is time in the primary school curriculum to teach social studies and to teach it well.  Ms Tan’s students are very lucky.  Not only does she believe that social studies is important, but she has a clear sense of why it is important and what students ought to learn from their social studies classes in primary school.  Think back to your own experience as a student in social studies.  Do you remember the class as dull?  Did it seem to be a lot of information that really never held together or did it seem interesting?  Did your teachers sometimes drop social studies altogether in order to teach subjects considered by some to be “more important”?  Or was it exciting and engaging?  Whether social studies is exciting, interesting and challenging or dull and boring, or even ignored, depends greatly on the teacher.  Teachers who understand and appreciate the purposes and goals of social studies are more likely to find ways to make its teaching meaningful to the learners.  Understanding the goals of social studies will help you to ensure that the knowledge, skills and values that are so vital to social studies will be a part of the actual curriculum you teach, not just words in the syllabus and the textbook.  This paper will explore various ideas about the goals and purposes of teaching social studies. As you read through this paper, consider where you stand and what you believe should be the reasons for children to learn social studies.

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H Doreen Tan (Singapore International School (Hong Kong))

Keywords
Primary Social Studies
Primary School
Primary Social Studies

Abstract
This article looks at the nature of history and how we can teach history as a discipline. It suggests several steps that teachers may want to use to teach history as an investigation as well as how to do history in the field.

Introduction
What are your memories of how you were taught history? I was born in the era, when we had history as a subject at primary level. My experience of history at the primary level was that of a story told. Sometimes the stories were interesting, if I had a teacher who was a good storyteller, sometimes not. At the lower secondary level, we underlined ‘important’ points in our textbook and at the upper secondary level, we took notes, which the teacher dictated from her notebook. For the ‘A’ levels, we referred to our textbooks, as our teachers lectured. My experience as a student of history for the first 12 years of my education is that history is a story told, of some events in the past which had nothing to do with me as all I was required to do was memorise the information taught and regurgitate it during examinations. Up to this point, History to me equaled the past as that was what I was told and I could read about the past from the textbooks which we did not question. However, the past will remain in the past unless someone records it or someone attempts to recreate it by looking at the records left behind. It was only at the university level that my experience of history changed as we examined different perspectives through different readings or sources and wrote our own accounts based on these readings. So what is history and how do we teach history?

Many of us were taught history as a body of knowledge to be memorised and forgotten after our examinations. Did you have the same experience? Or were you a product of the syllabus change in 2000 whereby you were taught content followed by source-based questions but without seeing the relationship between the two? Many history teachers when interviewed could not tell me whether history was a discipline as they were never taught the processes of historical investigation. However, they were able to articulate that science is a discipline as they had to do laboratory work when they were in school. Thus, our belief or understanding about a subject is also formed by how we were taught it in school.

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Sim Hwee Hwang (National Institute of Education, Singapore)

Keywords
Primary Social Studies
Primary School
Primary Social Studies

Abstract
Geography is a subject that helps children understand and appreciate the world they live in. The subject enables them to make thoughtful decisions and take responsible actions towards sustainable living. This article focuses on the teaching of geographical concepts and skills in the primary social studies curriculum. Questions on what is geography, why teach geography, what are the key geographical concepts and skills in the primary social studies curriculum and how can these concepts and skills be taught will be elaborated.

What is Geography?
Geography is one of the several subjects that make up the primary social studies curriculum in Singapore. Like history, economics, sociology and political science, geography is not taught as a separate subject but is integrated with these subjects under the umbrella subject called social studies. The word “geo” means “Earth” and “graphy” means “writing” so geography is about the study of the Earth. Geography asks questions about places in order to understand where these places are as well as what makes them distinct from one another and gives them their unique place identities. It also asks questions about the interactions and relationships between places and the people living there, the impacts of these interactions and what can be done to ensure sustainable living for future generations. Such questions about places, ranging from local to global in scale, can be raised (Smeaton, 1998).

Why Teach Geography?
The purposes of studying geography (Catling & Willy, 2009) in primary social studies are many and they can contribute towards the development of children to be informed, concerned and participative citizens (MOE, 2012).

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Sim Hwee Hwang (National Institute of Education, Singapore)

Keywords
Primary Social Studies
Primary School
Primary Social Studies

Abstract
Stories are often used by teachers to transmit knowledge, values and dispositions, deepen understanding and develop critical thinking in children. The power of stories and storytelling is highlighted in this article which focuses on why and how stories can be used for teaching primary social studies concepts and generalisations, how to choose suitable story books for children, and how to use some of them in the classroom. Three teaching approaches, namely, the shared book approach, the integrated biographical inquiry and storytelling are featured along with ideas of how these may be applied during lessons.

Introduction
Since the beginning of time, stories have been handed down from one generation to another in various societies. Stories help to transmit knowledge, culture, traditions, beliefs, morals and values of a community.  They can make us laugh at ourselves, hold our breath, feel excited and be encouraged and uplifted in our spirit when we are down. Through stories, we can learn more about ourselves, the humanity and the world we live in (Sim, 2004). As stories are rich resources, they can be used for teaching and learning.

Why Use Stories for Primary Social Studies Teaching and Learning?
Generally, researchers have found that young students are able to recall and describe things that are crucial to them because of their familiarity with using narrative thinking modes (Bruner, 1990; Downey & Levstik, 1991; Egan, 1988, 1990). Stories are usually organized in a format that comprises a person/group of people with certain goal/s and who use/s particular strategies to achieve these goal/s which can lead them to certain outcomes. This goal-strategy-outcome format enables students to remember story details and bridge from the known to the unknown. When narratives about the past are used, students are able to see the time, place and situation through the eyes of the people in the stories. Such narratives can develop students’ empathy and combat their tendencies towards presentism when thinking about the past, and chauvinism when thinking about other cultures. They can be powerful tools to help them learn about different places and environments.

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Sim Hwee Hwang (National Institute of Education, Singapore)
P. Ananthi (Woodgrove Primary School (Singapore))

Keywords
Primary Social Studies
Primary School
Primary Social Studies

Abstract
One cannot assume that learning will necessarily take place just because children are doing group work. To ensure that productive learning takes place, there is a need to infuse elements of cooperative learning into the group activities. In this article, the key principles and structures of cooperative learning as well as the benefits of using cooperative learning are discussed. Some suggestions on the use of cooperative learning, together with classroom examples are also presented.

What is Cooperative Learning?
As a teacher, you might have observed that your students can get into groups naturally for interactive play during recess. They can display a high level of engagement and this may prompt you to think of introducing group work in your primary social studies lessons to maximise your students’ interest and learning. However, just by having students in groups and expecting them to work together do not mean that learning will necessarily take place. To ensure learning is productive, you need to integrate elements of cooperative learning into group activities. Cooperative learning is an umbrella term for a set of instructional models that requires students to work and interact together in small groups for the promotion of individual and group members’ learning (Kagan, 1994; Morton 2008; Slavin, 2011). Although such instructional models can vary in how cooperative learning is structured, all of them have common essential elements that make them cooperative in nature. According to Johnson and Johnson (1988, 1989, 1999a), these elements are positive interdependence, individual accountability, face-to-face promotive interaction, social skills and group processing.

a. Establishing Positive Interdependence
For cooperative learning to work, teachers need to structure positive interdependence. Students need to learn that group success depends on the efforts and success of all group members. Teachers can foster positive interdependence through goal interdependence (“Make sure you and the rest learn the materials”), reward interdependence (“Each group member will get a reward if all the group members attain 90 plus for their test”), resource interdependence (“Each one of you will receive a part of the materials”) and role interdependence (“Take on the role of either a reader, a checker, an encourager or a elaborator in your group”).

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Sim Hwee Hwang (National Institute of Education, Singapore)
P. Ananthi (Woodgrove Primary School (Singapore))

Keywords
Primary Social Studies
Primary School
Primary Social Studies

Abstract
This article is a continuation of the previous article entitled, “Let’s have Cooperative Learning for Lessons!” In this article, how to plan, organize and conduct productive cooperative learning in the primary social studies classroom will be featured. Suggestions on managing challenging student behaviours for successful cooperative learning and the assessment and reflection of such lessons are also highlighted.

Planning Cooperative Learning Lessons
Cooperative learning refers to a set of instructional modes that requires students to work and interact together in small groups for the promotion of individual and group members’ learning. It is useful in the promotion of academic achievement and the development of thinking and interpersonal skills and dispositions such as appreciation of individual differences.  When planning a cooperative learning lesson, we need to take into consideration the content, lesson objectives, concepts and generalizations, unit questions, students’ prior knowledge or experience with the topic, task(s), cooperative learning models to adopt or adapt, and resources, time and space available. These considerations are generally no different from the planning considerations for other non-cooperative learning lessons. But the big difference is that for cooperative learning lessons, cooperative learning structures or models are integrated into the lessons.

For primary social studies teachers attempting to incorporate cooperative learning into their lessons for the first time, it is best to select a familiar lesson or topic so that they can focus on mastering the cooperative learning model and process and not the lesson content (Abrami, Chambers, Poulsen, De Simone, D’ Appolonia & Howden, 1995). Before choosing the cooperative learning model, it would serve them well to ask the question, “Would group work help my students achieve the academic goals and develop particular social skills?” If the answer is yes, then consider the appropriate type of structure or model to use. Alternatively, they can modify an existing structure or model. Refer to Strategy Example 1 in the article entitled, “Let’s Have Cooperative Learning for Lessons!” They should start with simple informal cooperative learning structures such as think-pair share, round robin or numbered-heads-together before moving to more complex models like the Jigsaw, Group Investigation and Structured Academic Controversy which require more planning, are more demanding and are more suited for upper primary students. When complex models are adopted, it is important to ensure that the content chosen is substantial and challenging to offer students scope for self-directed, independent and constructive learning with their peers.

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