Do As I SayandDo As I Do: Using the Professor-in-Residence Model in Teaching Social Studies Methods

Abstract

Concerned with combining theory with practice, the author, a teacher educator, wrote a grant to combine teaching university social studies methods and teaching sixth-grade social studies in an urban professional development site (PDS). By combining both roles, she created a recursive process of theory, observation, analysis, coteaching, and reflection. Preservice teachers learned new methods, observed the professor-in-residence (PIR) using those methods with sixth-grade students, and discussed how the lessons were structured and taught at the PDS. The results of this qualitative study show that preservice teachers benefit from observing and practicing methods of the PIR. The author provides a description of this model. In addition, she discusses recommendations and limitations of a combined teaching load.

Are Prospective Elementary School Teachers’ Social Studies Teaching Efficacy Beliefs Related to Their Learning Approaches in a Social Studies Teaching Methods Course?

“…Moreover, instructors in social studies teaching methods courses should be aware that because teacher-centered methods such as lecturing and question-answer sessions are mostly used in elementary social studies classrooms (Akgül, 2006;Bailey et al, 2006;Bolinger & Warren, 2007;Burstein et al, 2006;Lintner, 2006;Taşkaya & Bal, 2009), teacher candidates frequently arrive at the social studies teaching methods course with negative experiences that hinder the effectiveness of the social studies teaching methods course (Burstein, 2009;McCall, Janssen, & Riederer, 2008;Owens, 1997;Slekar, 2005Slekar, , 2006. Instructors thus have the opportunity to eliminate pre-service elementary teachers' beliefs formed by negative experiences they have had (Angell, 1998;McCall et al, 2008;Owens, 1997).…”

“…However, though pre-service teachers often hear about student-centered social studies instruction in the social studies teaching methods course, they are unable to "internalize this idea" by simply learning it superficially (Johnson, 2007, p. 197). Therefore, to increase elementary school teacher candidates' self-efficacy beliefs in social studies teaching, instructors should provoke deep learning by requiring pre-service teachers to practise creating opportunities for discussion, and role modelling/practising social studies teaching strategies that they aim pre-service elementary school teachers to gain in the social studies teaching methods course (Burstein, 2009;Leaman & Kistler, 2009). A study by Slekar (2005) found that the use of role playing, primary and secondary documents, empathy, historical imagination, and document interpretation in the elementary social studies methods course helped elementary teacher candidates inquire and develop their own social studies teaching.…”

“…A study by Slekar (2005) found that the use of role playing, primary and secondary documents, empathy, historical imagination, and document interpretation in the elementary social studies methods course helped elementary teacher candidates inquire and develop their own social studies teaching. Burstein (2009) took the social studies methods course to the real classrooms using a "professor-in-residence" method, which afforded pre-service teachers the opportunity to experience how primary sources and questioning strategies were used in real social studies classrooms. In doing so, pre-service teachers developed social studies planning and teaching skills (Burstein, 2009).…”

“…Some research (Akgül, 2006) has demonstrated that most rarely utilised historical empathy and social empathy methods in their social studies classes; the main reason for not using these methods, which are particular to social studies, was found to be their lack of knowledge regarding them (Akgül, 2006). As elementary school teacher candidates rely upon the social studies teaching methods course to learn social studies teaching skills, the design and implementation of these courses are critical, especially for imparting instructional methods that are particular to social studies (Burstein, 2009;Leaman & Kistler, 2009;Tay, 2013).…”

The Effect of Reciprocal Mapping on High-Risk Sixth-Grade Students' Social Studies Achievement

“…"Many preservice teachers report observing mainly textbook lessons in their student teaching placements. This notion is reinforced with the mental models these students bring with them from their own years in elementary classrooms" (Burstein, 2009). This phenomenon, attributed to Dan C. Lortie, is called apprenticeship of observation because the practices, practices that are in opposition to what they have been taught as effective teaching strategies, are "so ingrained due to students' past experiences in their own schooling make it difficult to change their thinking."…”