Chapter VI: The Social Studies

Abstract

In any discussion of the curriculum, it is important to know what is being taught in the schools. A book by Bruner and others (5) reviewed selected courses of study; one by Giles, McCutchen, and Zechiel (22) analyzed the curriculums of the "thirty schools." Gavian (21) surveyed about nine hundred courses of study for Grades I to VI to determine emphasis placed on education for economic competence. She found that most courses stressed conventional aims but failed to make applications to real life situations. To improve the quality of instruction, Gavian made specific suggestions for teaching major topics in this field. Bases for Determining Curriculum ContentTwo recently published studies call attention to the importance of having lay committees share responsibility with teachers and administrators in planning the curriculum (50, 59).The needs of pupils often are analyzed to determine desirable modifica tions of the school programs. In one of the studies reported by Lazarsfeld and Stanton (33), evidence was cited to show that students depend more on the radio as a news source than on newspapers, movies, or the school. Scott (48) investigated children's understanding of statistical concepts found in social studies texts. She found, for example, that many pupils disregarded the number and extent of deviations from the average and placed greater emphasis on the size of a sample than on its representative ness.Doane (11), believing that maximum learning effectiveness is possible only when pupils are aware of the importance of a subject, sought to de termine the extent of concern of youth over their needs. He found that high-school pupils placed far greater emphasis on vocational choice and getting along with people than on current problems. He also found that girls were more interested in personal problems than boys; boys, more interested in social problems than girls. Hetzel (30) studied the migration of the 1750 persons who had graduated from the Sumner, Iowa, High School between 1892 and 1940. His conclusion was that the course of study should not be planned primarily to meet local needs.