Education Commons^™

K-5 Social Studies Content Standards: Investigating Critical Thinking For Informed Action, Oluseyi Matthew Odebiyi

Teacher Development Faculty Publications

Reform efforts in social studies education such as the College Career, and Civic Life (C3) framework encourage students to consider civic engagement and action based on the understanding of real-life social issues. Few studies have, however, systematically examined the foundational documents representing the official state stance on content selection. Fewer studies have sought to understand the affordances and constraints in the depth of reasoning expected from young students in social studies elementary education. This study explored the dynamics of context-based critical thinking within the frame of states’ Kindergarten-5 social studies content standards in the U.S.A. Employing a quantitative content analysis …