John Saye

Scaffolding Critical Reasoning about History and Social Issues in Multimedia-Supported Learning Environments

This article advances a continuing line of research that investigates the potential of hypermedia resources and scaffolding for supporting problem-based social studies and developing critical reasoning. Our line of inquiry consists of a series of generative design experiments that informs problem-based curriculum development. Our findings suggest that expert guidance may be embedded into the learning environment to give students conceptual and strategic road maps that assist them in understanding the process of disciplined inquiry. However, our results also emphasize the difficulties in managing the cognitive challenges posed by ill-structured social problems and suggest limits to the embedded support that can be provided for complex thinking. Complex conceptual tasks may require spontaneous support that can only be provided by a skilled teacher. We suggest that embedded scaffolds may be used to support teachers by reducing the amount of spontaneous scaffolding they must do in an ill-structured environment and discuss other steps that might be taken to encourage problem-based inquiry.

Implementation and evaluation of a student-centered learning unit: A case study

The purpose of this case study was to explore the issues involved in implementing a technology-enhanced student-centered unit in order to provide recommendations to improve and enhance these types of learning activities. Specifically, the study examined problems students encountered in completing the unit activities, problems the teacher encountered in facilitating the delivery of the unit to her students, and strategies to improve and enhance these types of learning activities. One teacher and the 21 students in her intact United States history class participated in the study. The central unit problem required students to determine the strategies that should be pursued in 1968 to continue the struggle for a more just, equal United States society. Students worked in teams to gather data from an electronic database of primary- and secondary-source materials, and use the data to develop solutions to the unit problem. Results of this study suggest that a variety of factors impact the success or failure of student-centered activities, including student orientation to the unit problem, student collaboration, teacher management strategies, and student accountability mechanisms. These results also provide insight into how the design of these types of activities can be improved. Perhaps the most important considerations that need additional attention are the additional aids required by teachers as they struggle to implement these types of activities in their classrooms.

Authentic Pedagogy: Its Presence in Social Studies Classrooms and Relationship to Student Performance on State-Mandated Tests

Abstract Social studies researchers across a wide geographical area assessed the degree of authentic intellectual challenge present in a diverse sample of U.S. classrooms, investigated whether students from different social and academic contexts were more likely to encounter authentic pedagogy than others, and examined how the level of authentic pedagogy experienced related to student performance on high-stakes tests. We found that high levels of authentic pedagogy were rare, with only 21% of students in the sample attending classes that met the standards for even moderately challenging teaching. Smaller class sizes were positively correlated with higher levels of authentic pedagogy. Females were significantly more likely to encounter higher levels of authentic pedagogy than males. Neither ethnicity nor socioeconomic status was found to have a statistically significant relationship to authentic pedagogy. Higher levels of authentic instruction were generally associated with higher student achievement, and students in classes featuring moderate levels of authentic pedagogy had significantly higher success rates on state-mandated tests than their school averages.

Using Technology-Enhanced Learning Environments to Support Problem-based Historical Inquiry in Secondary School Classrooms

Abstract This article summarizes findings from a nine-year research program investigating how technological affordances might be used as a part of holistic learning environments to support teachers and learners in disciplined inquiry about persistent social issues. We discuss what our findings suggest about the potential and the limitations of technology-supported learning environments for improving learner engagement, empathy, complex reasoning, and decision-making. Finally, we highlight areas for continued research.

Technology and Educational Empowerment: Students' Perspectives.

As part of a two-year investigation of technological innovation in one secondary school, nine senior students participated in one-hour interviews that explored their perceptions of the proper role of technology in their schooling. Student responses were analyzed and compared to those of their teachers for similarities and differences in perceptions about desirable uses and goals for technology. Like their teachers, a majority preferred to adapt technology to support traditional, teacher-centered instruction. A minority valued technology as a facilitator of student-centered inquiry and appeared to differ from the majority in beliefs about schooling and in dispositional tolerances for uncertainty.

Scaffolding Problem-Based Teaching in a Traditional Social Studies Classroom

Abstract This paper explores whether a scaffolded, multimedia learning environment might mitigate obstacles that dissuade teachers from implementing problem-based practices. We present a longitudinal analysis of one expository-oriented teachers experience with such an environment and examine underlying belief, knowledge, and dispositional factors that may affect a teachers openness to inquiry. We hypothesize that work with such an environment may encourage reconsideration of some elements of teaching practice. However, those elements most closely related to dispositional influences may be more resistant to change than other features.

Using an Information Problem-Solving Model as a Metacognitive Scaffold for Multimedia-Supported Information-Based Problems

Abstract The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of a specific problem-solving model on achievement and attitudes when students solve an information-based problem. Thirty-five eighth-grade students in two intact classes were asked to write newspaper articles that summarized the events surrounding the Selma March during the African-American Civil Rights Movement. One class of students followed the procedures of the Eisenberg and Berkowitz Information Problem Solving (EBIPS) model, while the other followed a standard set of guidelines for writing newspaper articles. Both groups of students used a multimedia database of information dealing with the African-American Civil Rights Movement for the activity. Achievement and attitudinal data were collected at the end of the treatment period, and observational data were collected throughout the treatment period. Results suggested that students who were supported by the EBIPS model created articles that were more accurate, utilized a wider variety of information resources, and contained richer details than students who did not have this support.

Justice or Care? Ethical Reasoning of Preservice Social Studies Teachers.

Abstract The authors explored the ethical reasoning of 27 preservice teachers in the first course of a 4-course social studies education program. The students discussed 2 historically analogous cases that focused on 1 of 4 value problem areas: consent of the governed, general welfare, property, and morality. The authors were interested in exploring whether the students used an ethic of justice or care in their reasoning, particularly if gender was a factor in the ethic used. The results indicated that it was the nature of the case, rather than student gender, that influenced the ethic used and that students of both genders were able to use both ethics. However, the most prevalent ethic was the ethic of justice.

Supporting learners in technology-enhanced student-centred learning environments

Technology-enhanced student-centred learning environments (TESCLEs) provide learners with computer-based tools and resources to facilitate the completion of problem-based tasks. However, with TESCLEs, technology serves as a support and resource for students in their efforts to solve overarching authentic problems. Student success in these environments may be attributed to the types and amount of support they receive both from the environment and from the teacher. This paper will discuss different methods for providing students with support defined as hard and soft scaffolding and will provide examples of how these support structures are embedded into Decision Point! a TESCLE focusing on the African-American civil rights movement that occurred in the USA in the 1960s.

Ethical Reasoning of U.S. High School Seniors Exploring Just Versus Unjust Laws

Abstract Because a pluralistic democracy is inherently conflictual, public deliberation of issues holds the potential to expand the thinking of participants by revealing new insights, perspectives, information, or logics into the participants’ consideration. These are ethical questions that ask citizens to decide whether policies, actions, and decisions are “right” or “wrong.” The Persistent Issues in History (PIH) Network (www.pihnet.org) is a decade-long professional development community of practice encouraging, modeling, and supporting teachers in increasing inquiry-based social studies teaching. For this qualitative study, we created a professional community of practice including 4 U.S. government teachers, a university researcher, and a political science professor. This team created lessons enabling high school seniors to dissect and apply Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail to 3 specific scenarios to explore the students’ moral reasoning on just versus unjust laws.