The Social Science Education Consortium proposes to develop, field test, and disseminate a resource book for secondary social studies methods courses that emphasizes the translation of knowledge and methods of the social sciences into content, activities, and materials suitable for secondary social studies classrooms. The document will be written by a collaborating team of social scientists, social science educators, and master teachers. Social science certification requirements vary considerably from state to state, and often a preservice social studies teacher can select a certain number of credits from a diverse list of social science courses to fulfill these requirements. As a result, few prospective social studies teachers have had course work in all the social science disciplines, and in any particular discipline a new teacher's preparation may consist of a single survey course. Such courses, which are seldom organized specifically for teachers, often present a jumble of disconnected bits of information without sufficient conceptual organizers to make them useful or powerful analytic tools. Existing methods courses often emphasize generic matters such as the process of teaching and classroom management. There is a definite need to expand methods instruction to make it more discipline-specific and provide for the content knowledge needs of new social studies teachers and the translation of this content into activities and methods for the classroom. This book will not only address a critical need in preservice methods courses, but in addition, it will be a very useful in- service resource. The early chapters of the resource book will be organized by social studies disciplines, each focusing on the power concepts and organizing themes of that discipline. While an entire discipline certainly cannot be presented in a single chapter and a chapter is not intended to be a substitute for course work in that discipline, these chapters are designed to fill gaps in the preservice teachers' knowledge, make connections between what is learned in college social science courses and what will be taught in the precollegiate classroom, and motivate prospective teachers to delve further into each subject. The later chapters in the book will have an interdisciplinary approach, presenting issues and problems requiring an integration and marshalling of the various social studies disciplines. The history portion of the resource book will be funded from other sources. The resource book will be continually updated with an annual supplement. The SSEC has made preliminary contact with publishers and other sources of funding and has received letters of support. The SSEC has pledged to undertake publication and dissemination from its own resources in the event that no additional outside support or publisher is obtained. The SSEC will cost share with the following contributions: word-processing and resource materials, $9,300 (see page 7 of Dr. Schott's letter of 10/10/89); 10% commitment of Dr. James Giese's time, $7,800, which includes salary, benefits, and indirect costs (see letter from Dr. Schott on 10/18/89); "backstop" position for funding the history component of the project, which could amount to up to $30,000; and "backstop" position for publication of the resource book, which could amount to up to $87,000.
