ECE 116 Social Studies in Early Childhood Education 1

Chapter 1 Lesson 2 Standards and Goals for Social Studies

Learning Objective
LO1 Discuss the Standards and Goals for Social studies
Introduction
Educational reforms are often undertaken by national agencies to update and adapt to the various social,
cultural, political, and technological contexts of the global world. The Philippines is not an exemption to
educational reforms such that in 2002, the national government, through the Department of Education (DepEd),
undertook a grand reform effort to change the curriculum. This reform effort resulted to the 2002 Basic
Education Curriculum (BEC) and was implemented through DepEd order No. 25 on the school year 2002-2003
(a school year starts on the month of June). The rationale behind the reform was to raise the quality of Filipino
graduates by empowering them to become lifelong learners, which can only be achieved by being functionally
literate [1]. It is to be noted, however, that the BEC was only implemented from 2002 to 2012 and was replaced
by another curriculum starting school year 2012-2013 called the K to 12 Basic Education Curriculum

ELABORATE/ EXPLAIN
Why are social studies important in early childhood education?
Social studies learning offers many valuable components in supporting early learners as they identify real
world problems and participate in creating an inclusive and caring democratic society. ... Teachers serve a direct
role in how young children are exposed to social studies, both the systems and concepts

What are the goals of social studies education?

The primary purpose of social studies is to help young people make informed and reasoned decisions for the
public good as citizens of a culturally diverse, democratic society in an interdependent world

What is the role of social studies in the Philippine education?

SOCIAL studies is taught because they build social understanding, encourage civic efficacy, teach critical
thinking, instill character and provide students with an understanding of their role as a citizen in a
democracy. ... Social studies also helps students learn from the mistakes of their country and other countries

Social studies education develops right from kindergarten and into high school to help students understand their
place in the world. Social Studies teaches children their roles and responsibilities particularly in relation to
social and civic affairs. It helps students develop critical thinking abilities, prepares them to participate
competently and productively as concerned citizens and teaches them to address societal and global concerns
using literature, technology and other identifiable community resources. Social studies include history,
geography, political science, sociology, economics and civics and it is an integral part in ensuring well-rounded
education in the K-12 curriculum.
Civic Competence
The National Council for the Social Studies defines the subject as the integrated study of the social sciences and
humanities to promote civic competence. Social studies educate students on citizenship, providing them with
the knowledge, skills and attitudes that will help them to become competent and responsible citizens who are
informed, thoughtful, participate in their community and exhibit moral and civic virtues. For example, students
learn about voting as a form of political participation, and how they can exercise their right to vote in elections
to choose the leaders that they want.
Critical Thinking
Social studies education teaches students about history and enables them to understand how society has
evolved. It places a strong emphasis on important and enduring ideas, events and personalities that affect
peoples’ lives. From these lessons, students are able to learn about their place in the living history of the United
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States and to establish a foundation for their future ideas. The subject not only offers students a strong
knowledge content base, but it also helps them develop an ability to think critically about societal issues and
learn how to address them based on their understanding of social values.
A. Social Understanding
The subject also includes the study of the interrelationship among people, as well as the relationship between
them and their environment. This allows students to develop an understanding of society and the human
condition. Social studies education creates awareness in students of the diversity and interdependence of the
world and helps them to recognize the challenges and benefits of living in a world with multiple cultures and
ideologies. For example, learning about the multi-cultural American society helps students understand
democracy, rights and freedoms and the need to balance the various values, cultures and ideologies to have a
balanced and peaceful co-existence.
Integrating Ideas
Social studies involve a number of subjects including history, geography and economics. Students learn how to
integrate ideas from different disciplines to come up with reasoned decisions, and to make the connections
between related concepts and ideas so that they are better able to identify problems affecting society. For
example, investigating poverty in society requires knowledge in history, economics and politics. Students have
to make the connection between ideas such as discrimination, resource allocation and political priorities to make
sense of how poverty affects certain populations in the country.
B. Taking an integrated approach
Progressive educators such as John Dewey in the 1930s encouraged teachers to use social studies as the
foundation for activity-based learning built on children’s interests. Dewey maintained that learning involves
firsthand experience and draws upon many instructional resources beyond the textbook. He advocated child
learning and teaching activities that begin with the familiar experiences of daily life (Dewey [1916] 1966). In
farming communities, this might mean growing wheat in the classroom, observing the process, and
documenting the progress of plant growth; in the city, children might study the work of the milk-wagon driver
and the chimney sweep. Accordingly, from the inception of the field, social studies teaching used an integrated,
project-oriented approach that continues today.
Preschool investigations now might consider such child questions as why, in December, people in
Florida wear different clothes than people in New York. In following up, teacher and children may look at the
role climate plays in determining what clothes people wear. They could collect data—look at weather maps;
make weather charts; read stories about weather and clothes; consult the weather channel on TV or on the
Internet; and draw, cut, and paste pictures—to explore climatic differences. At the primary level, a project
might more directly align with state standards but still follow child interest and a project orientation. For
example, children may consider what to do when there are not enough silver crayons for everyone in the class.
Besides evincing the obvious answer of sharing resources, the question triggers an investigation of a basic
economics unit on supply and demand. The silver crayon discussion evolves into data collection about
economic decisions at classroom, school, and community levels, fostering eight-year-olds’ burgeoning
understanding of issues like resources and scarcity. Another powerful influence on the child-centered curricular
and instructional approach for social studies came in the 1960s with the work of Jerome Bruner.
In The Process of Education (1960), Bruner explained spiraling curriculum, in which a topic, such as
democracy, is introduced to children at an age-appropriate level. Activities with young children might focus on
classroom rules to keep order and be fair to all. In the later grades, children would study government operations
and subtleties of democracy. With Bruner’s influence, inquiry-based teaching became a central instructional
strategy for social studies. He stressed the doing of social science in the learning process. For example, in
considering What is a family? children would gather information to elaborate their understandings of family,
appropriate to their ages and stages of development. They answer complex questions through investigation of
the big ideas and questions that require critical thinking (see Zarrillo 2004).

In the preschool–primary years, the big ideas derive from topics related to self, family, and community.
They might include immigration (How did/do people come to the United States?), transportation (How do we
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move around in our community?), banking (What does the bank do with money?), and heritage (How did our
ancestors live?). The tradition of holistic instruction, using the content and processes of the social sciences,
continues. It is evident in the scope of and sequence for social studies in the primary grades, as defined by the
National Council for Social Studies (NCSS):
• Kindergarten—awareness of self in the social setting
• First grade—the individual in school and family life
• Second grade—the neighborhood
• Third grade—sharing the earth with others in the community
(NCSS 1984, 376–85) More recently, while preserving the developmental sequence, the NCSS
organized social studies content around 10 large themes:
• culture;
• time continuity and change;
• people, places, and environments;
• individual development and identity;
• individuals, groups, and institutions;
• power, authority, and governance;
• production, distribution, and consumption;
• science, technology, and society;
• global connections; and
• civic ideals and practices
(NCSS 1994). Each theme guides teachers in selecting content or in deriving content based on child
interest. Obviously, theme evolution and development depend on children’s previous experiences,
developmental stages, and skills. For example, time continuity and change for four-year-olds might mean a
study of grandparents; global connections for third-graders might include e-mail correspondence with children
in Australia.

C. Choosing the content for social studies

For the youngest citizens—infants and toddlers—the content is self-development in a social world.
Adults enhance this self-development by providing safe, colorful, intriguing toys and materials to foster
curiosity. Infants and toddlers play alone, by the side of others, and with others to elaborate their social
understandings of themselves and others. But they also need nurturance and respect from teachers and families.
In these early years, teachers encourage respect for others and provide opportunities to learn about various
cultures by singing songs and reading stories from various viewpoints and cultures, displaying pictures that
reflect families in the community, and modeling an appreciation for all cultures and backgrounds. In the
preschool and primary years, social studies offer a structure for broad, theme-based content—content organized
around a topic and offering multiple entry points and significant opportunities for investigation.
For children, such content serves as a training ground for acquiring problem solving skills as well as a
laboratory for the development and elaboration of interpersonal coping skills and strategies: “The primary
purpose of social studies is to help young people develop the ability to make informed and reasoned decisions
for the public good as citizens of a culturally diverse, democratic society in an interdependent world” (NCSS
1993, 3). Preschool and primary-age children can develop a sense of civic responsibility through the exploration
of rich thematic units such as a study of food, clothing, shelter, childhood, money, government, communication,
family living, or transportation (Alleman & Brophy 2001, 2002, 2003). Using these themes as starting points,
children and teachers form hypotheses, gather data, summarize, and make conclusions. Finally, children
organize and present the data in pictures, with maps and charts, in dioramas, in PowerPoint presentations, and in
other ways appropriate to child understanding. Not only do they use the skills of social scientists in these
investigations and learn about civic engagement, but they also read, manage, and display data.

D. Choosing the processes for social studies

Teaching strategies in preschool and primary social studies include individual investigations in the
library, in the field, and on the Internet; interviews; small-group collaboration; and large-group discussions. The
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scale of these investigations varies depending upon the age and development of the child. For example, in
interviews with a grandparent or older adult, three-year-olds might ask, “What was your favorite fruit when you
were little?” The class could then collect the names of the fruits and, with the teacher’s help, make a chart to
show the grandparents’ answers (oranges, bananas, and so on). For kindergartners, small-group collaboration
might involve making a map of the classroom, with different groups assigned a portion of the room. Second-
graders might go online to collect information about garbage collection and recycling in their community. The
classroom environment must support children’s use of these approaches to learning. In thinking about the space,
teachers should consider not only the room arrangement but also schedules and how the contents of bulletin
boards, learning centers, and resource areas may be arrayed to encourage child discovery
• Room arrangement—Traffic patterns match the activities planned. Learning centers are clearly set up
and defined by topic, with appropriate space for the activities. Equipment and materials are accessible and
grouped to encourage child management of them.
• Schedule—There is balance between individual, small-group, and large-group activities. A well-
developed schedule includes large blocks of time during the week to support theme-based curricular endeavors
(Berry & Mindes 1993).
The way teachers allocate space clearly shows the values and culture of the community (Gandini 1998).
A classroom that welcomes and encourages social studies has posters displaying child questions, results of data
gathered, child created pictures, and structures that document learning, along with comfortable spaces for
individual and small-group work. The classroom may include materials passed from one group of children to
another—for example, a book on the previous group’s trip to the forest preserve becomes a part of cultural
history and a resource for the class. The room also displays materials that families contribute to the ongoing
projects and contains references to field trips made as part of the social studies investigations. Seeing social
studies as both content (organized around important child questions) and process (action-oriented strategies)
prevents educators from considering social studies as an adjunct to other subject areas. An adjunct approach
toward social studies is haphazard. Thoughtful teachers avoid stereotypical poems about Thanksgiving and
occasional and inconsistent lessons on character traits like courtesy. Rather than posting their own classroom
rules, good teachers collaborate on rules with young children, encouraging them to think about how to achieve
respect and order.
Effective teachers know, as they teach children to read, write, compute, and problem solve, that they
also must
• assist children in social/emotional growth,
• emphasize holidays that have community meaning,
• seek an antibias approach to values,
• collaborate with families, and
• foster the development of integrity in individuals and groups of children (Mindes & Donovan 2001).

Through use of social studies themes, teachers can integrate seemingly distinct goals into meaningful
investigations. Using a developmentally appropriate practice model (Bredekamp & Copple 1997), teachers can
develop the natural social studies curriculum. Here are some ideas for thematic curriculum, with examples:
Build on what children already know. For instance, after studying neighborhood and community,
move on to the home state.
Develop concepts and processes of social studies rather than focusing on isolated facts. For
example, create maps visually showing the classroom, the school, or community.
Provide hands-on activities. Have children draw a timeline showing when each child was born or make
a chart to show how many brothers and sisters each child in the class has.
Use relevant social studies throughout the year. Conduct child discussions about class problems,
revising class rules accordingly, or consider the concept of scarcity related to choices.
Capitalize on child interest (Katz & Chard 2000). Consider why, say, the lake is closed to swimmers or
what makes an airplane stay in the sky. Developed in this way, the curricula of social studies use big ideas to
connect with children and deepen their understanding of their relevant social world.
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Self-Check
1.What do you think is the importance of teaching Social studies to Early Childhood? (10 points)
__________________________________________________________________________________
2. Enumerate 10 ways on how can you integrate Social Studies in the children’s daily routine inside the
classroom. (20 points)

3. Write your Most Important Lessons Learned in Module 4.(10 points)

__________________________________________________________________________________________
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References:
Bredekamp, S. and Copple, C. (1997). Developmentally appropriate practice in early childhood programs. (Rev.
ed.). Washington, DC: NAEYC.
Cadiz,Maria O. What Are the Major Goals & Objectives of Social Studies Education?
https://www.theclassroom.com/major-goals-objectives-social-studies-education-5436.html

NEA (National Education Association). 1916. The social studies in secondary education. Report
of the Committee on Social Studies, Bulletin 28. Washington, DC: Bureau of Education.

Read, K., & J. Patterson. 1980. The nursery school and kindergarten: Human relationships and
learning. 7th ed. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.

Zarrillo, J.J. 2004. Teaching elementary social studies: Principles and applications. 2nd ed.
Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.