Illustrates a method to introduce students to foreign countries and cultures by having students choose a country in which they would like to live and give a class presentation about it. As a result, students become resource persons, research skills are refined, cross-cultural information reservoir is created, and history and geography become real.…

Philography, or autograph collecting, is a good way to liven up social studies classes. For example, after watching the TV miniseries "Winds of War," students wrote to famous real life participants in the war asking them a variety of questions. The response rate was nearly 100 percent. (RM)

Illustrates an innovative approach to teaching the 1932 Veterans' Bonus March on Washington DC. The teacher used instructional packets with 1930 nostalgia, the Pete Seeger album, "American Industrial Ballads," and film clips. An instructional guide is included. (GG)

Teachers today are being held accountable and being judged inadequate as a result of factors--curriculum requirements and school organization--over which they have little control. In spite of this, many teachers are making extraordinary contributions to education. Examples of educational innovations being used by secondary history teachers are…

Replicates a 1989 study on the instructional effectiveness of social studies teachers who also are athletic coaches. Results indicate that coaching teachers are more innovative in teaching methods than noncoaching teachers. Calls for additional replication studies on this issue. (CFR)

Reviews a study of coaching and noncoaching social studies teachers that replicates one conducted by Fouts in 1989. Contends that the different results are primarily the result of different samples used in the studies. Questions whether people who want to be social studies teachers first and foremost are entering the social studies teaching field.…

Describes six alternatives to the one-year chronological survey course on world history in secondary grades. The alternatives are topical or thematic courses, conceptual or generalization-centered courses, world regions or world cultures courses, problems approach courses, case study courses, and depth studies or patch-work courses. (RM)

Reviews cooperative learning theory, listing areas of improvement for both disabled and regular students. Explains how cooperative learning can be used to help mainstream students into social studies classes and gives guidelines for implementation. Points out that success depends on teachers' planning, implementation, and correct evaluation. (GG)

Teaching activities used in secondary women's studies courses in several of the San Diego Schools are presented. A bibliography of 40 materials focusing on women's courses in history and literature is included. (JR)

Part of the value of history, particularly in school teaching, consists of its function in communicating shared values, myths, and data between generations. However, the discipline of history is also a producer of new knowledge. Teaching frameworks that make some coherent sense of both old and new historical emphases are needed. (RM)

Describes an innovative geographic location activity in which students trace and correct a mimeographed map of the United States two times. The first time, the state names are given. The second time, the student must fill in and correctly spell the name of each state. (Author/DB)

Presents activities, techniques, and processes developed by classroom teachers to evaluate student learning. The authors included those evaluative techniques which assisted student growth along informational, cognitive, social and affective dimensions. (Author/DB)

Illustrates a fifth grade teaching unit on international economics. Gives suggestions for use at the lower elementary and primary grades and points out that incorporation of economics into the elementary education curriculum can produce economically literate citizens in a cost-effective way. (GG)

Field trips can increase student interest in science and social studies topics. Presents a report of a sixth grade's week-long field trip to Nantacket to study the technology of whaling. (Author/DB)

Discusses sex stereotypes and presents innovative ideas for dealing with them in a social studies course. Techniques suggested include collecting sexist cartoons and articles for display on the class bulletin board, photographing sexist signs on community business, and discussing sexist artifacts such as U.S. commemorative postage stamps and…