APPROACHES IN
TEACHING SOCIAL
STUDIES
Prepared by: Ryn Hart B. Picpican
BSE – SST 3
SST 136
(Teaching Approaches in Secondary Social Studies)

Discovery Approach
• Places the teacher as a facilitator
• Requires mental processes, such as:
• observing
• measuring
• classifying
• guessing
• explaining
• drawing conclusions.

• Puts students in their own learning and
developing creativity in solving problems.
• Encourages the students:
• To learn the facts
• Develop their own skills
• Acquire the knowledge by actively working with
the information gathered.
• The instructor encourages the learners to
generate modules that demonstrate students’
creativity
…Discovery Approach

ADVANTAGES
• Development of meta
cognitive skills
(including some higher
level cognitive
strategies) useful in
lifelong learning.
• Motivation
DISADVANTAGES
• (Sometimes huge) cognitive
overload,
• Potential to confuse the
learner if no initial
framework is available
• Measurable performance is
worse for most learning
situations.
• Creations of
misconceptions Weak
students have a tendency
to "fly under the radar"
(Aleven et al. 2003) and
• Teacher's failure to
detect situations needing

Process Approach
• Focuses on the writing process rather than the
final product
• Indicates an awareness of the linkage between
writing, thinking, and learning.

ADVANTAGES
• Students can also develop
skills, such as drafting and
editing texts, which are
required when writing
• The process approach evolved
out of dissatisfaction with
more traditional product
approaches, which view the end
product as their focus, with
the supporters of the former
rejecting the latter as old
fashioned and ineffective
DISADVANTAGES
• It requires a significant
investment of class time to be
successful.
• It was developed to meet the
needs of the native classroom,
where learners, who were
already verbally fluent, needed
to address the issue of the
writing process and as a
result, it neglects the
linguistic element of written
language.
• Requires an additional
investment of a teacher's time
as every student is likely to
have his own unique mix of
problems and therefore each

Inquiry Approach
• Allows students to be curious, to wonder and
ask questions
• Lows students to pursue questions they have and
topics they find personally relevant or
interesting.
• Aids in differentiation of learning without
stigmatizing students
• They create an active and engaged classroom by
offering a diverse set of learning
opportunities designed to appeal to the varying
learning styles of the students in the
classroom.

ADVANTAGES
• Greater Interest
• Teaches problem-
solving
• Enhances teamwork
skills
• Long-term knowledge
retention
DISADVANTAGES
• Poorer standardized
testing performance
• Student
embarrassment.
• Teacher unpreparedness

Multimedia Approach
• Provide the students chances for interacting with
diverse texts that give them a solid background in the
tasks and content of mainstream college courses.
• One of the important innovations in the field of
educational technology to improve the process and
product of teaching – learning .
• The use of appropriate and carefully selected varieties
of learning experiences which when presented to the
learner through selected teaching strategies, will
reinforce and strengthen one another in such a way that
the learner will achieve predetermined objectives in an
effective way.
• An approach of teaching in which different mediums are
incorporated to make the teaching-learning more
effective, enthusiastic, inspirational, meaningful &
interesting.

ADVANTAGES
• Creativity
• Variety
• Cost-effective
• Evaluation
• Realistic Approach
• Wide Variety of Support
• Trendy
DISADVANTAGES
• Accessibility
• Distracting
• Costly
• Time Consuming
• Requires Mastery
• Limited
Support/Compatibility
Fragile

Value Clarification Approach
• Helps students clarify their goals, priorities and
values, make decisions, and implement changes in their
studies.
• Has to be a rational process
• Important aspect of value clarification in education is
moral development of a child
• Helps an individual to relate their thoughts and their
feelings which results in awareness of their own
values.
• An integral part of our education system helps children
to identify their core personality and it directs them
in right path to choose the type of person they want to
be.
• Value clarification provides a role model for the
students not for outer world but within themselves.
• It provides an insight on one’s own personality

ADVANTAGES
• Values clarification is
an analysis technique
that can often assist
individuals increase
awareness of any values
that may have an attitude
on lifestyle decisions
and actions.
• This technique can
deliver an opportunity
for a person to reflect
on personal moral
problems and allow for
values to be analyzed and
DISADVANTAGES
• One of the disadvantages
of the value clarification
method is that informal
values clarification
instruments do not always
deliver relevant
information.

Mastery Learning
• Instructional method where students are allowed
unlimited opportunities to demonstrate mastery of
content taught
• A involves breaking down the subject matter to be
learned into units of learning, each with its own
objectives
• A teaching strategy that involves a pre-specified
criterion level of performance which students must
master in order to complete the instruction and move on
• Involves frequent assessment of students’ progress, it
provides corrective instruction and emphasizes on all
participation, feedback and reinforcement
• Helps the students to acquire prerequisite skills to
move to the next unit.

ADVANTAGES
• Mastery leaning facilitates
student learning and often
leads to higher achievement
than more traditional classes
• Mastery learning students often
retain the things they have
learned for longer periods of
time
• Enforces better study habits
rather than procrastinating and
cramming for tests
• Mastery learning can break the
cycle of failure
DISADVANTAGES
• Students who learn quickly
receive less instruction than
their classmates
• Teachers must assist and keep
track of multiple students who
are at different levels of
learning
• Extra time may be required in
order to provide slower paced
learners time to learn content
• Potentially takes too much of
the responsibility for learning
away from students creating
students who may not learn how
to learn independently

Eclectic Approach
• Refers to a teaching approach that is not based
on a single method but that draws on several
different method principles that are made use
of in practice
• A fusion of knowledge from all sources
• A peculiar type of educational philosophy which
harmoniously combines all good ideas and
principles from various schools of thought
• This approach is not rigidly confined to a
single paradigm or set of assumptions, but
draws upon multiple theories to gain
complementary insights into a subject, or
applies different theories in particular cases.

ADVANTAGES
• Does not restrict to one
perspective so allows new
ideas to be formed.
• Therapeutic methods treat
the entire disorder and
not just one symptom.
• Humans are complex and it
is not always possible to
identify one precise
cause.
• Combining methods is a
useful way of validating
ideas.
• The strengths of one
method can be used to
offset the weaknesses of
another.
DISADVANTAGES
• It does not lend itself to
prediction and control of
behavior.
• It's difficult to identify
the relative contributions
of each approach.
• Explanation of behavior
may become "watered down"
when combining many
perspectives.
• There are practical
difficulties in
investigating the
integration of the
approaches.
• It does not lend itself to
hypothesis testing.

ADVANTAGES
• Trying to identify causation
precisely risks reinforcing
stereotypes.
• Individuals' needs are
better matched to treatments
when more options are
available.
• Provides a fuller, more
detailed understanding of
human behaviour.
• Research design does not
have to be dictated by the
researcher's paradigmatic
stance.
DISADVANTAGES
• Research methods chosen must
be compatible with the
paradigmatic stance of the
researcher.
• Explanations of behavior are
not parsimonious so may lead
to confusing explanations of
behavior.
• The researcher must have a
solid grounding in combining
methods to ensure that
research is rigorous and
robust.
• There are practical
difficulties when providing
eclectic therapy. It may be
too complex for one
clinician to manage.

Teaching Strategies

What is Teaching? What is
Strategy?
• Can be defined as engagement with learners to
enable their understanding and application of
knowledge, concepts and processes. It includes
design, content selection, delivery, assessment
and reflection.
• Strategy is the intelligent allocation of
resources through a unique system of activities
to achieve a goal. Simply put, strategy is how
you plan to achieve a goal.

How to Select a Strategy?
Regardless of which instructional strategies we
employ, a few general best practices should guide
us. These practices facilitate student learning and
increase engagement and motivation, and they apply
equally well to both online and face-to-face
modalities.
1. Begin with the objectives
2. Align your teaching strategies with the objective
3. Align your assessment strategy with the objective
4. Make modifications to the teaching strategies and
assessments as you get to know your students and
their strengths

Begin with the objectives
Before selecting appropriate teaching strategies,
determine the learning objectives for the course
A learning objective is an outcome statement that
captures specifically what knowledge, skills,
attitudes learners should be able to exhibit following
instruction (Teacher and Educational Development,
2005)
Example:
• The students will be able to incorporate a range
of assessment strategies (formative, summative,
peer, and self) in a unit plan.

Align your teaching strategies with the
objective
Once the objectives are written, you can focus on
selecting teaching strategies and learning activities
that will facilitate students meeting the objectives
through the course.
The teaching strategies we use to teach students about
assessment include:
1. Reflecting on the types of assessment students
experience in the course (detailed in table 1),
2. Reading about a variety of assessment techniques
and actively participating in class discussions
related to the readings,
3. Presenting an assessment technique to the class,
4. Developing assessments in class with their peers
5. Participating in an online environment.

Specific assessment Type of assessment
Blackboard assignments where they interact with each
other
Formative
Concept map Summative
Presentation of an assessment strategy Formative and Peer
Reflection Formative
Develop lesson plans Formative and summative
Peer teaching Summative and Self
Development of a unit plan Summative

Align your assessment strategy with the
objective
• After learning objectives are written and teaching strategies and activities are
chosen, develop assessment strategies that evaluate the learning objective.
The assessments of the objectives included:
• Presentation of an assessment strategy which includes peer assessment
(formative)
• Reflection (formative)
• Develop lesson plans (formative and summative)
• Peer teaching (summative)
• Develop a unit plan (summative)

Make modifications to the teaching strategies
and assessments as you get to know your
students and their strengths
• The first three steps are effective only if the
needs, knowledge, and experiences of the students in
the class are considered throughout the class.
• It is necessary for college instructors to plan a
course before getting to know their students;
however, this is contradictory to effective teaching
literature, which advocates for pretesting and
planning based on the knowledge students bring to
class. Instructors can pre-test and not distribute
the syllabus the first day, but they also need to do
pre-planning before the semester begins.
• It is imperative as the semester proceeds to make
notes and pay attention to what students are
learning and experiencing and make necessary
adjustments to the course schedule, activities, and

Classification of Strategies
Expository Strategies
• It is a kind of method that interprets or explains a
comprehensive topic or subject matter.
• The teacher is completely in charge and guides the
lesson. He/she is also in charge of the discussion
and asks questions by calling on students for
answers.
Conditions for Effective Exposition
1. The teacher’s thorough understanding of the subject
matter to be explained.
2. The teacher’s comprehension of the students’ ability
to understand the explanation.
3. The use of language and illustrations within the
students’ experiences and understanding.

ACTIVITIES THAT CAN BE USED IN EXPOSITORY
TEACHING METHOD
1. Teacher talk (lecturing)
2. Demonstration
3. Assignments and homework
4. Memorizing
5. Reviewing
6. Questioning
7. Discussion

Enabling Strategy
• Unit method
• The teacher divides the subject to be taught into different
units first and then, teaches it one by one.
• Textbooks may come with units to make teaching and learning
easy.
• the teachers prepare their own set of units to give a
personalized instruction of their convenience and by
considering the understanding level of particular students
in the class.
• Fieldtrip
• An organized trip to a place which has a significant
relation with the subjects taught makes learning more
interesting.
• It also helps to improve student-student and student-teacher
interactions.
• It is an opportunity for students to observe, ask questions
and have an out of the regular classroom experience.

• Deductive
• In these methods of teaching, learners are given rules first
followed by examples and after that, they practice the
lesson
• This is a teacher-centered approach which is ideal for
teaching languages. It is really helpful for lower level
learners who require a clear base to start a lesson.
• Inductive method
• In contrast to the deduction method, this is more like a
student centric approach.
• This is a reverse model to teach a new language in which
examples are given first and the learners are then asked to
find the rules.
• They can detect or notice patterns and work out a
personalized rule.
• Lecture method
• He most commonly followed methods in teaching in various
educational institutions
• Considered as the most ideal method for a teacher to address
large classrooms.
• An oral presentation of lessons to a group of students.

• Project method
• Project-based learning lets students to understand and to
remember a subject for a longer period than just reading the
textbook content.
• Working on a project improves their critical thinking,
collaboration, communication and self-management skills.
• Tri-question method
• Used in conducting of current events lessons
• Questions to be asked are:
• What happened?
• Why did it happened?
• What might be the consequences?
• Role playing and socio-drama
• This technique allows students to explore realistic
situations as part of their learning process.
• Students get an opportunity to express themselves through
dialogues and gestures thus improving their imagination and
memory.
• This is one of the meaningful communication activities that
can be tried out in any classroom that promotes teamwork.

• Moral dilemma method
• Moral dilemmas are situations in which the decision-maker
must consider two or more moral values or duties but can
only honor one of them
• Moral dilemma constitute challenges that decision-makers
should prepare for
• Debate
• This method of teaching helps to explore the range of views
on a subject.
• Students will be split into groups and then, they can debate
on the subject provided to them.
• Debate is meant to develop critical thinking.

• Modular
• Modular learning is a form of distance learning that uses
Self-Learning Modules (SLM) based on the most essential
learning competencies (MELCS) developed by the teachers with
the aid of curriculum developers.
• The modules include sections on motivation and assessment
that serve as teachers’ and students’ guides to achieve
desired competencies.
• Feedback mechanisms aid teachers in monitoring student
achievement and identify those who require follow-up
interventions.
• Reporting
• Aims to provide students with information in a direct way
and in uninterrupted manner. The student-reporters act like
an authority of the topics assigned to them.
• It is highly cognitive. The aim of the activity is to be
able to deliver factual information about a topic.
• It is student-centered. When a student is assigned to
report, he or she has to collect, organize and share certain
information.

• Discussion
• One of the best interactive methods in teaching in which
both teachers and students in the classroom exchange ideas
on the topic of discussion.
• When used effectively, it can help students to develop
their thinking, learning, understanding and problem-solving
skills.
• Demonstration
• Instead of just giving an oral explanation of a subject, the
teacher produces enough materials or proofs to make things
clear.
• It can be a demo of a step-by-step process that helps
students to easily connect it to theory.
• Semantic web spider web/ fact storm web/strand web
• The Semantic Web, also known as Web 3.0, is not a separate
Web but an extension of the current one, in which
information is given well-defined meaning, better enabling
computers and people to work in cooperation (Berners-Lee,
Hendler and Lassila, 2001)
• The users can search the Web, retrieve easily meaningful
information and sort out irrelevant data
• Semantic Web tools can give each teacher candidate or
student the ability to process information at their own pace

THANK YOU VERY MUCH

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