Are you looking for ways to make your social studies classroom a more dynamic and engaging place? Do you want to move beyond rote memorization and inspire a genuine love of learning in your students? As authors of the book The Social Studies FIELD Guide, we’ve spent a lot of time thinking about these sorts of questions while developing a practical framework that can help you create powerful learning experiences.
To foster high levels of student engagement, research tells us that students need to experience learning that is grounded in foundational evidence and inquiry-based compelling questions. These experiences are bundled with quality learning design structures and edtech tools for maximum impact. Added together, these four ideas of evidence, inquiry, edtech, and learning designs form an easy-to-remember FIELD acronym:
- Dive into Foundational Evidence:
It’s time to move beyond the textbook as the sole source of information. Instead, we want students to dive into primary sources, first-person accounts, and other authentic resources. Think about using documents, artifacts, guest speakers, community connections, current event news, and even relevant social media videos. These varied sources can bring social studies to life and provide students with a deeper understanding of the human stories that are part of the past and present.The use of modified and accessible primary sources and other evidence in your instruction also helps students develop essential and critical skills such as sourcing, contextualizing, close reading, and corroborating information. - Integrate Inquiry:
Instead of relying only on lecturing and other direct instruction methods, we can spark student curiosity and engagement by asking compelling questions. These questions should be open-ended, relevant, and thought-provoking, encouraging students to investigate and construct their own understanding of the topic.
This involves moving away from simple questions that have one correct answer and toward an inquiry-based model that encourages students to explore historical events and contemporary issues through a variety of perspectives and disciplinary lenses.
- Harness EdTech:
In today’s digital age, it’s critical to harness the power of technology to enhance the learning experience. This isn’t just about using the latest fancy gadget; it’s about thoughtfully integrating technology to increase access to information, foster collaboration, and deepen engagement.
The goal is to intentionally integrate technology seamlessly into instruction, rather than using it as a standalone activity. When selecting technology, it’s important to focus on how the technology will support student learning.
- Prioritize Learning Design:
This is the part where all the FIELD pieces come together. It’s the structure that connects foundational evidence, inquiry, and edtech to create a cohesive and powerful learning experience.
This means moving away from a haphazard approach, where the different instructional activities are not connected, to an intentional design that is focused on specific learning goals. This sort of intentional design involves ensuring that the curriculum is responsive to the students’ cultures and backgrounds while also addressing the needs of special needs learners.
Teaching social studies can feel overwhelming, but the FIELD framework provides a practical path to create a more engaging classroom. By focusing on Foundational Evidence, Inquiry, EdTech, and Learning Design, you can transform your instruction over time. Start small and gradually expand your use of the framework. Imagine a classroom where students are actively involved, asking their own questions, and connecting learning to the real world. This is achievable with the FIELD framework.
In our new book, we arrange these big ideas into instructional design “Hikes” ranked by easy, moderate, and difficult levels. To learn more about the FIELD structure and get our classroom-tested Hikes to level up your social studies instruction, check out The Social Studies FIELD Guide.
