I have always thought of history as a huge story. Sometimes it is a tragedy, other times a comedy, but regardless of the genre, we all have a role to play, and we can also learn from the lives of others. You may be wondering what that has to do with choosing a research topic. It may be a stretch, but I would like to study different meaningful learning opportunities in social studies. Students often do not make the connection between themselves and the lives of others who lived hundreds of years ago or more recently in history. Meaningful learning opportunities, as I think of them, would do just that.
From what I am thinking, this may take the form of service-learning opportunities and in-depth projects connecting academic knowledge to the real world. My main experience with service-learning opportunities has been in college, which may contribute to the impracticality of choosing it as a topic. However, at different times in high school and junior high my classmates and I were required to perform a certain number of service hours and turn them in to our social studies teachers. Our teachers, however, never explained why the two were connected. I am not sure if any of the local schools have such requirements or any service-learning projects, so the meaningful learning opportunities I would like to study may need to take another form. In-depth projects might include any sort of long (a month or more) project that incorporates technology, current events, and historical events--the type of projects from which you can recall information years down the road.
Also under the umbrella of finding meaning in social studies, I have thought about researching students' and teachers' perceptions as to why history matters. Friends, relatives, and children that I have tutored often doubt that knowing anything about Ancient Rome applies to their lives today. Such a study would serve as a great tool for teaching and inspiring kids to love history. This topic may be my most feasible one thus far.
My problem in choosing topics for papers or projects has always been narrowing down my ideas. It looks as if this process has just begun again!
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Sarah, you have several good ideas here. I think most of them would fit under meaningful learning. I am not aware of any high schools with service learning requirements, so if you did that one you would have to rely on projects. Or perhaps interview or survey students and ask them to recall what might have influenced them. I also think it would be very interesting to study student perceptions of why history matters.
Sarah,
Great ideas...but in terms of this project, my initial hunch would be to go with questioning students why history matters.
This could be done in different ways. One way would be to ask teachers why they thought history matters and why specific topics were important, and then observe how they teach them. Another would be to ask students the same (but then follow with how it impacts their learning).
Sarah,
I LOVE your idea about the “Why history matters” issue. This is a constant struggle that I have faced in my past two years of teaching history in Virginia. It would be interesting to question students at the beginning of the year and then again at the end of a year to see if their opinions of history changed. There are a variety of factors as to why people question the relevance of history. One major factor that I have discovered is that students have difficulty connecting to history material. They are unable to feel/understand things that happened in the past. This makes sense as the generations we will teach do not even know a life without internet (and most history we teach takes place in 1800/1900s) . One way that I have combated this is by doing simulations so that students are "experiencing" the history. If they can some how become or experience a situation from the past then they start to see the relevance to their own lives. As a teacher, you learn that making connections to previous knowledge is essential for learning. With history it should not be any different. Successful history teachers that I know are constantly relating things of the past to today. It would be interesting to interview teachers/students to see what teaching strategies effective teachers use to help students understand the importance history. Overall, I love your topic idea!
Sarah,
My suggestions are pretty specific, but should you go the route of asking students "why history matters?", maybe they will be of some use.
If I were conducting this study, I think one thing I would be interested in is how much of a sense of family or local history does the student have and how does this affect their view of history? Are students who come from families with a strong and proud heritage more concerned with other historical issues. I say this because my family history was my first love in history. Maybe that was just me, but it might be something interesting to consider.
Also, for me personally, something that fostered a greater appreciation of history was visiting historical sites on family vacations. I know my excitement for history grew tremendously after the first time I visited DC. So are students who have had the opportunity to visit historical sites (on school or family trips) more likely to get why history matters?
Let me know what you find out!
I think the idea of studying projects and outside connections is great. I agree with previous posts about how difficult it might be to find teachers that require service learning. However, one teacher at my school (Davie) did require service learning this year for her Bible History class. I’m sure she would be willing to help you if this topic is the one you stick with. I also require my AP students to visit historical sites (on their own) every quarter in an attempt to help them see the history all around them. Students are surprised to learn the history of places like Tanglewood Park and Ft. Dobbs (I’ve even had students do reports on their own houses!). For my regular students I have them bring back postcards of places they go during the semester that have historical meaning. It’s great to see them talking about history! Of course it is my hope that this increases their historical understanding, but I have no research to back that up!
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