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The purpose of this study is to investigate the social studies teaching beliefs and the application of these beliefs into classroom practice of a group of elementary teachers who are part of a New York City alternative certification program. The teachers in this study are working in low performing New York City schools, are typically pursuing teaching as a second career and often have undergraduate majors in the social sciences as well. Initial data for this study is extracted from a survey that the teachers completed in the second year of their two year program. Included in this survey are questions about the teachers' beliefs and practices in inquiry based constructivist teaching methodology. The survey results were compared to individual interviews and focus group discussions with selected teachers and observations of the teachers' classroom social studies teaching by their college supervisors. The authors anticipated an easier transition into teaching for a group of mature work experienced individuals than the typical transition of college graduates in their twenties with no prior full time work experience. Additionally the authors anticipated a greater ability to use the more complex teaching strategies involved in constructivist instruction than less experienced and mature teachers. One unanticipated outcome of this study is the further substantiation of recent research on the marginalization of social studies instruction in the elementary schools (Boyle-Baise et al, 2008; Doppen, Misco & Patterson, 2008: Rock et al, 2006;Vanfossen, 2005). The uniqueness of this study is that the teachers are alternatively certified second career individuals who have selected teaching as a second career. The study further substantiates that teachers are constrained in their ability to use constructivist practices, or teach social studies at all, by the emphasis in elementary school on reading and math instruction and integrated curriculum. This integration minimizes studies concepts and skills in favor of other subjects, typically reading and literacy strategies and skills. (Contains 9 tables.)

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the usefulness for content instruction of the student pages in a group of websites sponsored by the United States government. The sites evaluated in this study can be accessed through the kids.gov portal on the internet. Teachers and students classroom use of computers and the internet has increased considerably in the last decades. With increased access to and use of the internet, how teachers will use computers and especially the internet for content instruction in elementary classrooms is a significant question. Additionally, how teachers will evaluate whether internet sites can be used effectively with young children for content instruction is an equally important question. Two appendices are included: (1) Websites Used in the Study; and (2) Teacher Ratings and Comments on Selected US Government Websites.

In this study a group of elementary teachers use illustrations, rather than written text, to introduce their students to the peoples and places of the ancient silk routes. The illustrations are from two picture books; "Marco Polo," written by Gian Paolo Cesaerani and illustrated by Piero Ventura (1977), and "We're Riding on a Caravan: An Adventure on the Silk Road" (2005), written by Laurie Krebs and illustrated by Helen Cann. The first book describes the journey of Marco Polo from Italy to China in the 13th century. The second is a child's rhyming book describing the journey of a caravan of Chinese merchants from Xi'an, the ancient capital of China, through the trading centers of western China and Central Asia to the ancient market of Kashgar. A photo analysis worksheet (nara.gov) was adapted to assist the students in studying the illustrations The objective of the activity was for students to construct an understanding of the nature of people, objects, places and activities along the ancient silk routes by using visual information from the book illustrations and applying their own prior experiences to what they see in the illustrations.

Internet websites for use in the social studies disciplines are often not easily accessed and used by young children, particularly those in the primary grades, without adult assistance. In this study a group of teachers and students evaluated a set of interactive websites designed specifically for young children on the hyperlinked US Government site Kids.gov. This study in particular emphasizes the need for teachers to evaluate websites before using them either as in class support for lessons or for independent use by students. There is still the need to consider whether the interactive activities actually enhance learning of social studies content and if the sites can be used independently by students or if the assistance of a teacher is needed. Appended are: (1) Websites Used in the Study; and (2) Teacher Ratings and Comments on Selected US Government Websites.

The purpose of this study is to investigate elementary students' explanations of how physical features of the land influence the location of humanly defined structures including trade routes, such as the silk routes. The silk routes were a series of caravan trade routes that extended from Turkey to China and were located as far south as India and as far north as Russia. The trade activity on these routes ebbed and flowed depending on the protection available from the rulers of China. The routes existed from the 2nd century B.C.E. to the 15th century C.E. when they were replaced by maritime trade routes. Four teachers, two sixth grade, one fourth grade and one multi-level bilingual teacher, used a geography lesson on the silk routes with thirty-eight students, eight sixth graders, five fourth graders and twenty-five multi-level bilingual students, who were primarily Spanish speakers. The students were asked first to consider physical maps of China and central Asia and consider several questions based on the area's terrain. The students were then asked to locate western Turkey and Xian, the old capital of China. Working in pairs they determined a route from one place to the other taking into consideration terrain, climate and a lack of mechanized transportation. In completing this assignment the sixth graders had more prior knowledge of China because it is part of their curriculum in the sixth grade. Also they had more knowledge of maps. They had some difficulties with scale and did not at first take into full consideration the topography of the area the silk routes crossed. Several of the fourth graders were able to draw a route from Turkey to China that closely approximated one of the historic trade routes. As the sixth graders did, they had difficulties with scale. Some thought that it would be feasible to walk from Turkey to China. The bilingual students needed reinforcement of the maps with other maps and could have used more visual aids, showing the rued Tianshan and Himalayan mountain ranges and the forbidding climate of the deserts of central Asia. The bilingual teacher supplemented the maps with a map analysis sheet and some of the students were able to approximate the silk routes. All of the students in the study needed to extend their investigation with more visual materials so that their understanding of the silk routes could be extended.

This study furthers the discussion of teachers as public servants who are essential to the maintenance of the democratic state. The study demonstrates how teachers' actions on September 11, 2001 in New York City show the essential qualities of public service, including selflessness and placing the needs of others above their own needs. By focusing on the personal, emotional and professional responses of teachers to the attacks as compared to the same responses of individuals in the private sector, the study shows a specific contrast, particularly in the professional responses between teachers and student teachers in public service and individuals in occupations in the private sector. The second objective is to include the voices of women, primarily elementary teachers, but also women in the private sector, in the historical narrative of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center. Hopefully, this inclusion will encourage the use of personal accounts and narratives in the study of historical events (M. White,1965; H.White, 1980). [Abstract has been modified to meet ERIC abstracting guidelines.]

This study investigates the social studies teaching practices of sixty-seven elementary teachers who are part of an alternative master's degree program in New York City. The respondents' program emphasizes constructivist and inquiry based teaching practices in its social studies methods courses. The findings are from an exit survey that was completed at the end of coursework. The study finds that the teachers use constructivist teaching practices in social studies more than teacher directed instruction. The teachers with undergraduate majors in the social sciences use these practices even more than the total group of respondents. However, the results when focusing on teachers with academic undergraduate majors in the disciplines of social studies which include history, economics and political science show a preference for mixed method instruction which includes some direct teacher instruction as well as constructivist student inquiry. (Contains 9 tables.)

Advocates of a multicultural curriculum in the public schools argue that including the heritage and cultures of the many cultural and ethnic groups in our society will result in a better educated citizenry with a better understanding of the broader society of the United States. To achieve this goal it is important that students investigate ways of living in cultures different from their own. It is also important that they investigate the contributions of different cultures. The investigation of important places and structures that often represent a cultural group's contributions to human history will help to achieve this goal of better cultural understanding. This paper includes skills from the language arts and social studies curriculums within a multicultural inquiry into landmarks from around the world. The intent is to help students towards an understanding of the unique histories and accomplishments of many of the societies that are now part of America's cultural landscape. This paper is an example of an elementary classroom project that uses multicultural perspectives of world landmarks to encourage students to think deeply about landmarks and their meanings to a variety of cultures. The study is an example of the incorporation of children's non-fiction books, print resources and teacher evaluated websites in the structure of a group project. In the project students create inquiries in groups that explore essential questions common to each landmark and conduct research based on these questions.

This study includes the voices of elementary teachers, primarily women, in the historical narrative of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center. Hopefully, this inclusion will encourage educators, and social studies educators in particular, to use personal accounts and narratives in the study of historical events. Also this study furthers the discussion of teachers as public servants essential to the maintenance of the democratic state by demonstrating how teachers' actions on this day show the essential qualities of public service. Additionally the study focuses on the personal and emotional responses of teachers to the attacks and the effect these responses had on their actions in the classroom. The intent is to further the research on the emotions of teachers and their connection to classroom decision making, as well as to inform research on classroom decision making in more ordinary circumstances by looking at teacher decision making in extraordinary circumstances. This study is the first part of a future study that will compare the responses and decisions of teachers to the responses and decisions of individuals outside of the classroom, who were located not only in Queens but in Manhattan, including lower Manhattan and the World Trade Center itself. (Contains 8 charts.)

`The Teaching Fellows (TF) program in New York City was designed to attract individuals interested in an alternative certification program in teaching. The present investigation represents the first two waves of an ongoing investigation of TF in a graduate elementary education program. The TF begin the program during the summer by participating in two education courses and a field experience. In the fall, they are placed as full-time teachers in low performing schools. For the next two years, the TF teach full-time during the day and take two masters level education courses in the afternoon or evenings. Upon completion of their final college course and the end of their obligation to the TF program, the TF were given a survey that focused on many aspects of their experience. Survey results indicate that approximately 29 percent of TF intend to leave their current teaching position at the end of their contractual obligation. This report focuses on how the TF perceptions of the schools' socioeconomic status, the perception of support received from fellow teachers and the principals within the schools, the beliefs they hold about the efficacy of their teaching practices and their beliefs about pupil control in a classroom setting impact on their plan to remain teaching in their current setting. Pearson product-moment correlations revealed that socioeconomic status, administrative support and feelings of general teaching efficacy all correlated with the TF long-term goal of continuing to teach in their present setting. Utilizing a stepwise regression analysis, feelings of general teaching efficacy were found to significantly predict the TF plan to remain teaching in their current school. Findings from this investigation point to the need to build in more support for the TF in order to keep them in the positions they have been trained for.

The Teaching Fellows program in New York City was designed to attract individuals interested in an alternative certification process. The present investigation is an exploratory study of Teaching Fellows in a public graduate elementary education program. The department of education placed these alternatively certified teachers in teaching positions in low performing schools throughout the city. The Teaching Fellows completed a survey that focused on many aspects of their experience including previous employment, reasons for joining the program, curriculum, teaching efficacy and retention. This investigation utilized a portion of the survey to examine perceptions of socioeconomic status, the perceived support from school administrators, their pupil control ideology and beliefs about the efficacy of their teaching. Positive findings from the preliminary analysis include the inclination on the part of the Teaching Fellows to treat their students in a humanistic, encouraging way and feelings of competence as expressed in their personal teaching efficacy. (Contains 1 table.)

The evaluation methodology delineated in this paper is a work in progress. The purpose is to develop a method for evaluating social studies curriculum materials that encompasses the materials' comprehensibility and the perspective offered. The paper draws from past evaluations that focused on either comprehensibility or perspective but have not typically encompassed both types of evaluation. It offers examples of studies for comprehensibility such as those done by I. L. Beck and M. G. McKeown (1991), Bonnie B. Armbruster and Thomas H. Anderson (1984), Jere Brophy (1990) and Jane J. White (1988). It offers examples of studies for perspective as well, such as those by Jean Anyon (1978, 1983), Ray Allen Billington (1966), Joel Taxel (1984), Linda S. Levstik (1990), and others. As a general overview, the evaluation methodology determines whether the curriculum materials are age appropriate, educationally significant, and offers the perspective of groups of people important to the topic. Noting that a content goal is necessary for each topic being evaluated, the paper states that this content goal serves as a model for age appropriate and educationally significant information on the particular topic. It explains that, for the first use of the evaluation, three topics from the original textbook series for elementary school social studies by Hanna and Rugg: (1) pre-industrial Pacific Island societies, specifically Samoa and New Guinea; (2) Dutch colonial New York; and (3) the beginnings of industrialization in the 18th century English textile industry. It notes that the aim is to use this evaluation in the future with other materials, modern and historical fiction and non-fiction tradebooks, videos and computer resources as well as textbooks and materials at grade levels other than elementary. (Contains 22 references.) (BT)