Two-Column Notes

Date:

Page #

Name: Tod Emerson

MR Title(s): Why Kids dont like Social Studies

MR Source(s): Schug, M., Todd, R., & Beery. R. (1984). Why kids don't like social
studies. Social Education, 48(5), 382-387.
The Text Says
I Say
Notes (key concepts, direct quotes, etc.)
My notes, commentary

47
There have been a variety of studies
which have found that social studies is not
perceived by student as being among their
favorite or most interesting subjects
48
We felt that doing interviews with both
elementary and secondary students would
yield a more complete picture of what
students think about social studies

49

Class/Subject: EDTL 2760

English, mathematics, and reading were

ranked ahead of social studies and
science (most important)

This is a struggle for social studies teachers. It

would be much easier to teach a subject that a
large amount of students found fun or
interesting. This just confirms the importance of
social studies majors knowing the content but
also knowing how to teach it to students in an
interesting way.
I am glad that this study also focused on
elementary students as well as secondary
students. I think it is important to get students
interested in a subject as a young age and then
it will hopefully carry over into later grades.
Also, interviews hope the people understand
what students thing personally. I think it is
important to have the students explain the
issues and not give them a list of reasons we
would think it got be.
This is interesting to see the rank of different
subjects in the order that students considered
most important. Students see the important of
subjects that they believe that they use every
day. So it is critical for social studies majors to
make the connection to how they would use
social studies in their everyday life.

50

Nearly two-fifth of the students felt their

subject choice was important because
provided them with skills that would be
important in their future lives.

52

Typical responses about routine methods

were, "'we just take notes, take tests; and
watch the news," or it was just read the
chapter, do a worksheet' take the test"

This shows that we need to stress the

importance that understanding social studies is
a critical part of someones future.
Understanding issues of the past and social
movements, governmental functions, and
geographical boarders are all used in
someones future.
I can see why students would get bored with
this type of learning. Learning different
methods to teach the material and keep it
interesting for students.

Connections to previous MR:

Overall, I think I had some great social studies teachers but I also think that I had some social studies
teachers that were not so great. One of the social studies teachers that I thought was great was my
American History teacher in tenth grade. He would provide great visuals for students through the use of
videos, but he also had an activity where students would have to bring in a historical object (an object
that dated from before 1950) and then he would describe some historical information about what it was
and how it was used. On the other hand, I had a teacher that did not do a great job of making social
studies interesting. He would put up notes on the smart board and have students copy them. The notes
were in outline form and the notes were taken every day the entire class. I remember my hand would
hurt from taking notes every day. This did not make social studies a fun and interesting class to go to.
I can believe the authors findings for a few different reasons. First, because I had teachers that taught
similar to the ones that the authors describes in the article. When I first started reading this, I was a
little skeptical because the article is dated over 30 years ago. I think it is fair to say that a lot has
changed in education in the last 32 years but after reading the article, I think the findings are still
relevant to education today. I think today we have better resources to keep social studies interesting
but it is still an issue.