Sim, Hwee Hwang

This study examined three cooperating teachers’ understandings of social studies teaching and mentoring, and the influence of those understandings on their mentoring practices and on their student teachers’ learning of teaching. The intention was to extend the knowledge bases of mentoring and learning to teach primary social studies in Singapore.

Qualitative case study method using multiple inquiry modes, namely, interviews, observations and document analysis, were utilised to explore, describe and explain mentoring and student teacher learning processes through an in-depth study of three pairs of cooperating teachers and student teachers. Data were analysed interpretatively using the constant comparative method of coding, categorising and thematising.

Aligned with the conceptual framework which was derived inductively from the literature review, the findings showed that the cooperating teachers’ understandings of social studies teaching and mentoring had a strong impact on the way they mentored their student teachers in learning how to teach primary social studies. In terms of understanding of social studies teaching, all the cooperating teachers considered the purpose of the subject to be citizenship transmission with common emphases on the teaching of values, followed by knowledge and skills acquisition. Although they shared the same purpose, they approached their teaching differently which reflected their personal teaching perspectives. However, some commonalities in teaching were observed. These were reliance on the textbook for teaching, values inculcation, teaching of discrete skills for students’ mastery, a lack of development of students’ critical thinking, and assessment of students’ knowledge through quizzes. There was no discussion of issues and inquiry as a teaching approach was not observed. The cooperating teachers’ understandings of social studies teaching were aligned with their teaching practices. In terms of understanding of mentoring, all of them held varied mentoring perspectives: humanistic, nurturing and apprenticeship. Their perspectives were reflected through their differing mentoring foci and practices. Despite the variations, there were more similarities than differences in their understandings and practices of mentoring. Their common emphases were the teaching of social studies for citizenship transmission, and the development of their student teachers’ teaching competency through an apprenticeship model of mentoring where support was the norm. Common limitations in their mentoring were also observed. The cooperating teachers showed that they mentored their student teachers according to their understandings of social studies teaching and mentoring. The findings also revealed that the cooperating teachers’ understandings of social studies teaching and mentoring influenced the way their student teachers learnt how to teach primary social studies. The findings indicated that all the student teachers identified a range of significant learning, comprising academic, technical, practical and personal knowledge and skills, which they learnt from their cooperating teachers. Critical knowledge and skills were not highlighted as part of their learning. All of them learnt to “act” and “know” like teachers. Their learning was personal and they modelled their teaching after their mentors. They showed different amounts of growth in teacher development which were linked to the different amounts of support and challenge provided by their mentors. Overall, the findings of this study underscore the importance of mentor preparation to ensure a more consistent quality of student teacher learning.

The focus of this dissertation is the creation of an instructional package, which is based on the new Ministry of Education Social Studies syllabus, for the Primary 4 Social Studies teachers of the XYZ school. The purpose is to help the teachers overcome the obstacle of insufficient resources for effective teaching.

The theoretical framework for the design of the instructional package, which comprises the lesson plans, teaching resources and pupil's activity sheets, is based on the instructional design model by Jonassen, Grabinger and Harris (1990). The analysis is central in the model and the various stages of instructional design are constantly checked against the analysis findings. During the analysis, data on the needs of the school, users' characteristics, content, instructional objectives as well as the learning context are collected. The data is obtained from the interviews with the school administrators and teachers; test for the pupils; school visits and the examination of school documents. The analysis data forms the inputs for the design stage, which focuses on the instructional framework adopted and the instructional approaches, activities and media selected. The development stage involves the production of the alpha version of the instructional package and evaluating it formatively by a group of reviewers with the aim of improving it. The reviewers are made up of three teachers from XYZ school and a content and pedagogy expert from an institute of higher education. They are given a questionnaire comprising a checklist and some open-ended questions about the strengths and weaknesses of the instructional package to answer and the package itself to vet. Their comments and feedback are incorporated into the revision of the instructional package. The revised version of the instructional package, known as the beta version, is judged by the reviewers to be effective, efficient, motivating, usable and acceptable.

WebQuest is an approach which uses the Internet as an integral part of teaching any subject at any grade level. Developed by Bernie Dodge at San Diego State University in 1995, it has generated lots of interest. There are now numerous examples of WebQuests available on the World Wide Web. WebQuest has the potential in bringing about more critical thinking and student engagement. This article will (1) explain what WebQuest is all about and explore examples in primary social studies to show its applicability in achieving important instructional goals in social studies teaching and learning, (2) demonstrate how WebQuests were used in a pre-service course for primary social studies teachers at the National Institute of Education, Singapore; and (3) share the responses of pre-service teachers towards the use of WebQuests in learning primary social studies content.

This paper focuses on the rationale for storytelling in Social Studies, the difference between story reading and storytelling, how to choose a story, learn and tell it. The paper also provides a list of stories that are suitable for Primary Social Studies and suggests ways of how to integrate stories into Social Studies lessons.

This article begins with the inquiry teaching approach for primary social studies and the rationale for its inclusion in the 2013 syllabus by the Ministry of Education, Singapore. It compares traditional instruction and inquiry-based teaching and describes the two types of inquiry that can be implemented in the primary classroom – discussion and investigation. Three useful inquiry models for primary children - Colin Marsh’s (2001) investigation model and two discussion models - Diana Hess’ (2009) town meeting model (TMM) and David Johnson and Roger Johnson’s (1999) structured academic model (SAC) - are elaborated. The application of these models is illustrated in two issue-based, inquiry centred packages designed for primary children by student teachers from the National Institute of Education. The article also discusses the challenges teachers may face when implementing such inquiry centred packages and suggests ways of how they can be overcome.

Geography is a subject that helps children understand and appreciate the world they live in. The subject enables them to make thoughtful decisions and take responsible actions towards sustainable living. This article focuses on the teaching of geographical concepts and skills in the primary social studies curriculum. Questions on what is geography, why teach geography, what are the key geographical concepts and skills in the primary social studies curriculum and how can these concepts and skills be taught will be elaborated.

One cannot assume that learning will necessarily take place just because children are doing group work. To ensure that productive learning takes place, there is a need to infuse elements of cooperative learning into the group activities. In this article, the key principles and structures of cooperative learning as well as the benefits of using cooperative learning are discussed. Some suggestions on the use of cooperative learning, together with classroom examples are also presented.

This article is a continuation of the previous article entitled, “Let’s have Cooperative Learning for Lessons!” In this article, how to plan, organize and conduct productive cooperative learning in the primary social studies classroom will be featured. Suggestions on managing challenging student behaviours for successful cooperative learning and the assessment and reflection of such lessons are also highlighted.

This paper looks at what conceptual teaching is about, the differences between conceptual and traditional teaching and the advantages of conceptual teaching. Different deductive and inductive approaches for teaching the big ideas of subject matter, that is, the concepts and generalisations, are described. The paper also focuses on the teaching of the primary three social studies reader entitled, “Making the Little Red Dot Blue and Brown” using some of the conceptual teaching approaches mentioned. The paper concludes with the importance of teacher subject matter knowledge in conceptual teaching.