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Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Abstract

As Hornstein observed in the beginning of the 1990s, the "enduring pattern" of instruction in social studies lessons is that which revolves around traditional "teacher centred and text-centred" teaching strategies (Hornstein, 1990). However, other research programs which have investigated the status of social studies (Cuban, 1991; Good and Harmon, 1987; Haladyna, Shaughnessy and Redsun, 1982a) have indicated that the core subject rates well with students when teaching strategies are interactive, inductive, and student centred. As Hutchens (1993) found, students became "hooked" on social studies when it involved cooperative learning, and student research strategies. In 1995, Moroz, Baker and McDonald, reported the findings of a large survey of over 3000 Western Australian primary school children (Grades 4 7, ages 9-12yrs) and noted that social studies rated second last to religion out of a list of 13 school subjects. The teachers, however, had a disparate view of the subject from that of their students: they rated the subject third after maths and reading

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Link to publisher version (DOI)

10.14221/ajte.1997v22n1.3