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A rationale for interdisciplinary elementary social studies materials produced and field tested by the Project Social Studies Curriculum Center is presented in this document. World change is taken into account in courses which focus on understanding culture, valuing human dignity, freedom of choice, and the individual. This emphasis leads to the broad program goal of citizenship education in the social studies and in the school. Inquiry teaching strategies encourage pupils to learn through the discovery process and to set up hypotheses by recalling concepts and generalizations learned by experiences and previous classes. Nine sections included in the booklet are: 1) the need for curricular change; 2) curriculum tasks undertaken by the staff in developing its program; 3) the social sciences or sources for the curriculum; 4) the philosophical considerations of the curriculum developers; 5) the role of the school in a democratic society; 6) teaching strategies; 7) eight criteria for selecting topics of study; 8) a brief framework of the elementary school program; and, 9) three general principles of curriculum organization used in grades 1 through 4. See 1971 Research in Education for some related documents. Other related documents are SO 003 146 through SO 003 153. (Author/SJM)

The Minnesota Social Studies Curriculum Center has developed a social studies curriculum for grades K-12. Recommendations for grades 13-14 have not been made yet. The curricular framework provides continuity and sequence for those key concepts, generalizations, skills, and attitudinal behaviors identified as goals for the program. The curriculum provides increased emphasis upon the non-western world, behavioral sciences, structure in disciplines, the study of value conflicts, teaching pupils inquiry methods, and inquiry teaching-strategies. The program is designed for pupils of different ability levels. The Center has prepared resource units and a general guide at each grade level and has written some pupil materials to supplement those available commercially. Courses and units have been field-tested and revised in the light of teacher feedback. The Center has experimented with an inservice training program which employs teachers who have taught the new courses to train other teachers. Questionnaire studies have been used to obtain reactions of teachers to materials and to inservice programs. Two careful evaluation studies have been conducted: one of the seventh-grade sociology course and one of the primary-grade materials. (Author/SW)

Seven background papers, along with the discipline papers described in SO 003 100, provided significant ideas, concepts, and important topics for organization and development of the project social studies curriculum. The seven papers are: 1) "Developing Skills in the Social Studies Program", which discusses objectives of teaching skills and behavioral goals related to skills; 2) "The Role of the Social Studies in Developing Values"; 3) "Concepts, Generalizations, and Theories"; 4) "Learning Principles", which suggest factors associated with the learning process; 5) "The Social Science Disciplines", which places the discipline papers into the perspective of the social sciences as a broad division of study; 6) "Curricular Framework", which outlines and summarizes k-12 units of Project Social Studies; and 7) "Implications for Terminology", which offers a framework for examining terminology in the social sciences. (SJM)