Will They Know Enough?: Pre-Service Primary Teachers’ Knowledge Base For Teaching Integrated Social Sciences

A significant issue in primary teacher education is developing a knowledge base which prepares teachers to teach in a range of subject areas. In Australia, the problem in primary social science education is compounded by the integrated nature of the key learning area of Studies of Society and Environment (SOSE). Recent debates on teaching integrated social sciences omit discussions on the knowledge base for teaching. In this paper, a case study approach is used to investigate primary pre-service teachers’ approaches to developing a knowledge base in designing a SOSE curriculum unit. Data from five teacher-educators who taught primary SOSE curriculum indicates that novice teachers’ subject content knowledge, as revealed through their curriculum planning, lacked a disciplinary basis. However, understanding of inquiry learning, which is fundamental to social science education, was much stronger. This paper identifies a gap in the scholarship on teaching integrated social science and illustrates the need to support and develop primary teachers’ disciplinary knowledge in teacher education

Teaching for ‘Historical Understanding’: What Knowledge(s) do Teachers Need to Teach History?

Recent curriculum reform in history in Australia promotes ‘historical understanding’ through discipline-based teaching practice. However, many middle school teachers are new to the scope of historical knowledge and skills required. This paper reports on a case study of five Queensland teachers in one secondary school who undertook a school-based trial of the Year 8 Australian Curriculum: History in 2012 - 2013. Drawing on notions of historical consciousness and frameworks for curriculum alignment, the case study indicates that the intent of the stated curriculum to develop concepts of ‘historical understanding’ is undermined by two factors – first, teachers\u27 inadequate knowledge of the scope of the curriculum and second, a patchy understanding of how key substantive and procedural historical concepts contribute to ‘historical understanding’. The research identified significant gaps in the disciplinary knowledge of history teachers and makes recommendations for pre-service and in-service history teacher education

Blackboard As An Online Learning Environment: What Do Teacher Education Students And Staff Think?

As online learning environments now have an established presence in higher education we need to ask the question: How effective are these environments for student learning? Online environments can provide a different type of learning experience than traditional face-to-face contexts (for on-campus students) or print-based materials (for distance learners). This article identifies teacher education student and staff perceptions of teaching and learning using the online learning management system, Blackboard. Perceptions of staff and students are compared and implications for teacher education staff interested in providing high quality learning environments within an online space are discussed

Integrated Curriculum Approaches to Teaching in Initial Teacher Education for Secondary Schooling: A Systematic Review

Demands that Initial Teacher Education (ITE) prepare teachers who can equip students to be agile real-world problem solvers are frequent. Guidance about ITE integrated curriculum approaches to achieve this aim is harder to find, a significant gap given increasing time and policy pressures for ITE educators. Drawing from an Australian context, this systematic review investigates how integrated curriculum is conceptualised and enacted in secondary schooling ITE courses. Three conceptions of integrated curriculum for ITE are highlighted – Interdisciplinary, Disciplinary Literacy, and Transdisciplinary approaches – alongside benefits and barriers to enacting integrated curriculum. Recommendations for further research and practice around integrated curriculum are proposed

Teachers' knowledge for social education: Perspectives from the middle years of schooling

Social education in Australia is a divisive educational issue. The last decade has been marked by the controversial integrated social studies curriculum, Studies of Society and Environment (SOSE) where history, geography and environmental studies were integrated with civics and citizenship. The introduction of a compulsory K-10 Australian Curriculum from 2011, however, marks the return to history and geography and the abandonment of SOSE. Curriculum reform aside, what do teachers think is essential knowledge for middle years social education? The paper reports on a phenomenographical exploration of thirty-one middle school teachers’ conceptions of essential knowledge for SOSE. Framed by Shulman’s (1986, 1987) theoretical framework of the knowledge base for teaching, the research identified seven qualitatively different ways of understanding essential knowledge for social education. The study indicates a professional practice-based theorisation of social education that justifies attention to discipline-based knowledge and teacher identity in the middle years

Teaching Geographical Issues in Context and Developing a Professional Identity: The Challenge Facing Primary School Teachers

Teacher threshold knowledge in geography is an area of concern for many primary pre-service Studies of Society and Environment (SOSE) teachers. Primary pre-service teachers enter their tertiary teacher education with fixed intentions of providing students in the early childhood and middle years of schooling with a good general education. Primary teachers’ professional identity is often based on notions of caring, nurturing and trust, rather than on specific curriculum knowledge. While such a child-centred approach is valued, the Queensland Studies of Society and Environment syllabus demands that primary educators have mastery of important geographical concepts, particular skills and wide content knowledge such as the management of resources and cultural significance of place. The geographical concepts and skills that underpin many of the outcomes of the Place and Space strand of the Queensland SOSE syllabus are particularly challenging to primary pre-service teachers. This is especially the case when called upon to deliver these outcomes within the context of a unit of work that is both topical and relevant to primary school students. Pre-service teacher education programs that explicitly teach the geographical processes of inquiry and specific geographical concepts and skills will advantage primary teachers. A model for pre-service teacher education is presented which challenges this cohort to widen the scope and depth of their geographical knowledge beyond purely descriptive or comparative attempts to incorporate geography into SOSE units of work. This paper proposes that explicit teaching of the process of geographical inquiry through pre-service SOSE teacher-education courses increases teacher threshold knowledge. Moreover, it has the potential to provide primary teachers with an avenue for developing a professional identity as educators rather than an identity essentially based on nurture and care

''I am a secondary teacher and I teach history and SOSE'': negotiating pre-service teacher identities in times of curriculum change

Secondary social education in Australia is set to change with the new national history curriculum but integrated social education will continue in the middle years of schooling. Competing discourses of disciplinary and integrated social education approaches create new challenges for pre-service teachers as identification with a teaching area is an important aspect of developing a broader teacher identity. Feedback on a compulsory, final year curriculum studies unit revealed the majority of secondary pre-service teachers identified with at least one social science discipline. However, only a small number listed the integrated social education curriculum of Studies of Society and Environment (SOSE), even though SOSE was an essential part of their brief. More complex identities were revealed in post-teaching practice interviews. In times of curriculum change, attention to pre-service teachers’ disciplinary knowledge is critical in developing a stable subject identity

'More tick-the-box': the challenge of promoting interdisciplinary learning in the middle years through the Australian history curriculum

The Australian Curriculum marks national reforms in social science education, first with the return to the disciplines of history and geography and second, through a new approach to interdisciplinary learning. This paper raises the question of whether the promise of interdisciplinary learning can be realised in the middle years of schooling if teachers have to teach history as a discipline rather than within an over-arching integrated curriculum framework. The paper explores the national blueprints and considers the national history curriculum in light of theories of teachers’ knowledge and middle school education. Evidence from teacher interviews indicates that historical understanding can be achieved through integrated frameworks to meet the goals of middle schooling

Content vs process : reflections on pre-service primary teachers’ approach to integrated social education

The essential knowledge base of teaching centres on subject content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge and curricular knowledge. This paper investigates, from the perspective of teacher educators, what levels of subject content knowledge are needed by primary teachers in order to teach an integrated social education curriculum effectively. During their university studies, pre-service primary teachers need the opportunity to engage with the curriculum, the theory and practice of social education and develop viable classroom units. Drawing on the reflective practitioner model of teaching, this paper examines the views of five teacher educators involved in the teaching of an undergraduate university subject in integrated social education (SOSE) curriculum. Data gathered from teacher educators’ personal reflections and follow-up structured group discussion indicate that subject content knowledge, as revealed in SOSE units was often superficial, while understanding of concepts and skills was also sometimes limited. However, understanding of the inquiry learning process, which is fundamental to social education, was much stronger. This preliminary study adds to an on-going debate on where the focus of pre-service teacher education should be regarding essential knowledge for teachers

What do SOSE teachers know? The significance of subject content knowledge among middle school teachers and teachers’ professional identity

The middle years of schooling are an emerging area of interest to teachers, academics, teacher-educators and curriculum developers. It is argued that the middle school curriculum should be both integrated and discipline-based. In Queensland, the Studies of Society and Environment (SOSE) curriculum uses an outcomes approach which draws from a range of social science disciplines including history, geography, economics, politics, sociology, law, and ethics and studies, such as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander studies, Asian studies, environmental education and civics and citizenship. As such, SOSE fits preferred models of curriculum in the middle school. However, given the wide scope of the Queensland SOSE curriculum, teachers’ knowledge of subject content knowledge is critical. One potential area for research is SOSE teachers’ conceptions of the significance of content knowledge in their teaching. As part of a wider phenomenographic study of conceptions of subject content knowledge among middle school SOSE teachers, this paper will examine the literature on subject content knowledge among social science teachers. It is argued that particularly among early-career teachers, confidence in subject content knowledge increases competence and innovation in the classroom, thus laying the foundation for teacher professionalism based on content as well as pedagogical and curricular knowledge