Scaffolding Critical Reasoning in History and Social Studies: Tools to Support Problem-Based. Historical Inquiry

Transcription

1 Scaffolding Critical Reasoning in History and Social Studies: Tools to Support Problem-Based Historical Inquiry Thomas Brush, Indiana University John W. Saye, Auburn University DRAFT: PLEASE CONTACT THE AUTHORS BEFORE QUOTING OR DISTRIBUTING Presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Francisco, CA, April, Authors may be contacted at: Support for this work has been provided by the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary education, Grant P116B041038, the National Endowment for the Humanities, Grant ED , Auburn University Outreach Scholarship Grants, Auburn University College of Education and Indiana University School of Education.

2 Scaffolding Critical Reasoning in History and Social Studies: Tools to Support Problem- Based Historical Inquiry There is a substantial body of literature supporting the hypothesis that the investigation of authentic, complex problems is an effective method to deeply engage learners with a variety of content and develop better decision-makers and problem-solvers (Jonassen, 1997, 1999; Land & Zembal-Saul, 2003). Problem-based inquiry activities provide learners with opportunities to move beyond the memorization of discrete facts in order to critically examine complex problems. In problem-based inquiry activities, learners interact with a wide variety of resources, develop strategies for utilizing those resources to address authentic, content-specific problems, and present and negotiate solutions to those problems in a collaborative manner (Hannafin, Hill, & Land, 1997). There are numerous examples of successful implementations of problem-based inquiry, a vast majority of these examples being found in the various disciplines of science. Examples include Learning by Design (Kolodner et al., 2003), WISE (Linn, Clark, & Slotta, 2003), Alien Rescue (Pedersen & Liu, 2003), and River City (Dede, Nelson, Ketelhut, Clarke, & Bowman, 2004). Despite the fact that social educators have advocated that social studies and history instruction focus more on history as a problem-solving activity, inquiry-based curriculum reform in social studies has not been widely accepted and adopted by teachers (Dundis & Fehn, 1999; Saye & Brush, 2004; Zukas, 2000). Problem-based inquiry in social studies requires learners and teachers to deal with social problems that are ill-structured, controversial, and multilogical (Kuhn, 2005). These problems require different kinds of support structures to facilitate reasoning than those needed by learners when engaged in more well-structured problems of logic (Perkins,

3 Allen, & Hafner, 1983). Because of this, few teachers attempt to implement inquiry activities, and thus few models of problem-based inquiry exist from authentic social studies classrooms. Tools to Support Problem-Based Historical Inquiry Over the past eight years, we have engaged in a series of generative design experiments in order to examine the obstacles to historical inquiry, and to promote new models of inquiry in social studies (Brush & Saye, 2000, 2001; Saye & Brush, 1999, 2002, 2004). One of the overarching goals of our efforts has been to develop resources to support and promote the implementation of problem-based historical inquiry (PBHI) activities in middle- and high-school social studies classrooms. PBHI differs from what may times occurs with more traditional social studies instruction in three distinct ways. First and foremost, PBHI focuses student inquiry on addressing persistent societal problems. For example, a more typical inquiry problem may require students to examine conflicting accounts (i.e., British officers, residents of Boston, eyewitnesses) of the events surrounding the Boston Massacre in order to determine the causes of the event (VanSledright, 2002). Although this example does represent an ill-defined problem, it does not include an essential aspect that we believe facilitates student motivation and engagement with the problem a persistent issue that presents students with moral and ethical challenges. A PBHI problem focusing on this time period might begin by asking: What actions are justified to bring about social change? In order to align this persistent issue with the time period under study, the specific unit problem may focus on examining whether colonists were justified in using the tactics they chose to protest British authority (and eventually gain independence). In the process of examining this problem, students would need to gain foundational knowledge of the event, examine the effectiveness and consequences of various tactics used, and confront ethical issues relevant to the use of those tactics. As a culminating

4 assessment, students propose solutions to the unit problem (via a variety of methods) and defend their solutions with historical evidence from the time period under study. Second, because PBHI requires students to examine civic questions within the context of historical events, students must go beyond traditional historical inquiry in order to engage in moral reasoning and apply their knowledge of areas such as political philosophy, government, economics, and a variety of other knowledge bases in order to develop potential solutions to the problems under study. As they engage in these problems, students acquire important general historical inquiry skills such as recognizing the biases associated with various perspectives and the differences in interpretations of events based on time and place. We believe that by structuring history units around PBHI problems, students acquire these strategies and habits of mind that they will be able to apply to similar issues they may face in the present and future. Finally, PBHI units center on persuasive and dialectical reasoning that is, the ability to genuinely entertain more than one perspective regarding an historical issue, and make a persuasive argument that accounts for those varying perspectives. In PBHI units, students are required to grapple with ethical issues and problems that may not have been resolved during the time period under study. Thus, they must develop solutions that may differ from the strategies actually employed by historical figures or groups at that time. Whatever their ultimate solution, students must demonstrate that they understand the various points of views of the participants in the event, and utilize those viewpoints to develop a reasonable and plausible solution to the problem based on the evidence available to them Successfully implementing our PBHI model in social studies classrooms presents unique obstacles for students. Results of our research have identified two major learner-related obstacles complicating efforts to implement PBHI: student engagement with historical problems and

5 student readiness to handle the cognitive challenges posed by social inquiry. The remainder of this paper will provide an overview of our efforts to address these challenges through the application of various support structures within a multimedia learning and teaching environment to facilitate development and implementation of problem-based activities in the secondary social studies classroom. This online environment, the Persistent Issues in History Network (PIHNet, accessible at provides teachers with tools to develop scaffolded problem-based activities and integrate those activities into their history curriculum. Our initial research has suggested that conceptual and metacognitive scaffolds embedded within PIHNet activities may assist students with analyzing historical data and synthesizing the data in order to develop more persuasive arguments regarding specific historical points of view (Brush & Saye, 2001; Saye & Brush, 2002). We will provide specific examples of how tools and resources available within the PIHNet environment are assisting students as they engage in problem-based inquiry. Facilitating Student Engagement In order to engage in meaningful inquiry related to an historical event, students must possess substantial knowledge of that event. However, teachers have found it difficult to engage students to the level and duration necessary for them to acquire that knowledge base (Onosko, 1991; Rossi, 1995). In order to solve complex historical problems, learners must be able to apply previously learned knowledge in unique and novel ways. However, learners must first genuinely engage the problem to develop the rich, divergent knowledge base necessary for critical reasoning about social issues (Newmann, 1991). Many times, novice learners tend to examine social problems superficially, and fail to put in the time and effort necessary to understand the depth and complexity of an issue (VanSickle & Hoge, 1991; Wineburg, 1991, 1999). Students tend to perceive history as an authoritative narrative rather than as claims about the past to be

6 evaluated. In addition, teachers have often been unsuccessful in motivating students to persist with exploration of the topic to develop deep knowledge (Newmann, 1991). Because they do not find history relevant or engaging, students resist the sustained study of a topic. Results of our research has demonstrated that multimedia resources that are appropriately structured can enhance student engagement by providing more lifelike and varied representations of the social world that increase the realism of the problem scenario and appeal to multiple ways of knowing. Our research has primarily utilized the Decision Point (DP): Civil Rights interactive database to provide content support for the activities we have implemented with students. This database contains over 1000 conceptually organized multimedia source documents including newspaper accounts, eyewitness recollections, documents, photographs, and news footage from the civil rights era (see Figure 1). We have found that that encounters with the past that this environment affords can promote greater student engagement with the unit problems being explored (Saye & Brush, 1999; Saye & Brush, 2002; Brush & Saye, 2006). For example, when discussing the overall Civil Rights unit he had just completed, one student specifically described the usefulness of the DP database: we got to see like actual footage of things that are going on right now, I mean we could ve watched the video of all of it. I think it was a lot more interesting to have those little clips we could look at and just actually see, like half of it. Another students stated, that it really makes you think, I mean, put yourself in what happened back then compared to now. I see how much things have changed throughout history, that makes history fun. (Brush & Saye, 2006).

7 Figure 1. Sample of DP: Civil Rights database. Supporting the Cognitive Challenges to Disciplined Inquiry Engaging students in the historical topic under study is essential for students to gain necessary foundational knowledge; however, students still face numerous cognitive challenges when grappling with social problems associated with the topic or event. Rigorous analysis of social problems requires different cognitive skills than those necessary in other disciplines. Unlike more well-structured problems encountered in fields such as science and mathematics in which problems generally progress from hypothesis to solution, social issues present students with ill-structured, multilogical problem landscapes. In order to effectively analyze social problems, students must be able to apply a variety of disparate knowledge bases related to

8 history, ethics, politics, and government towards the construction of a model of the situation under consideration (Parker, Mueller, & Wendling, 1989; Saye & Brush, 1999; 2002; Simon, 1982; VanSledright, 2002). Also, students have additional knowledge deficits that impede their ability to engage in disciplined inquiry in history. First and foremost, students lack the declarative knowledge base of history experts use to situate specific events in broader historical contexts. Similarly, students generally have not had experience in engaging in historical inquiry thus, they do not have an understanding of the inquiry strategies historians apply to problems in their field. Students do not know the best methods for investigating historical problems, nor do they have experience with analyzing historical evidence in order to determine its worth (VanSledright, 2002). Finally, unlike experts, students do not employ metacognitive strategies to help monitor and guide their thinking as they are investigating historical problems (Wineburg, 1999). The overall impact of these obstacles is to hamper students capacity to engage in rigorous inquiry and decision-making. These obstacles were particularly evident in our initial studies in which student investigations of societal problems related to the Civil Rights Movement resulted in superficial solutions to the unit problem with little historical evidence to support the solutions, and few instances of empathetic or dialectical reasoning among students (Brush & Saye, 2000; Saye & Brush, 1999). Scaffolding disciplined inquiry. Results of our early studies led us to examine strategies to support disciplined inquiry within the overall learning environment. One manner of addressing the issue of students lack of foundational declarative knowledge regarding a particular historical event is to provide learners with scaffolded accounts of historical events with links to select primary sources. For example, within the DP: Civil Rights database, we have experimented with

9 providing students hyperlinked introductory essays that summarize a particular event and allow students to explore additional information regarding the event in a more structured manner. Links embedded within the essays allow students to encounter primary documents within the sort of framing context that a more expert researcher might possess and lead them to make connections that they might otherwise not consider (Brush & Saye, 2001). To encourage students to explore primary sources regarding an event more deeply, essay links also deliberately link students to primary sources that support claims made in the essays (see Figure 2). As one student stated when asked about the usefulness of the hyperlinks embedded within the essays: So then you can go into it to get more depth and that s what I like more about yours because you can do that on this. [Without the essays,] you can t get so much in-depth, you have to go do all kinds of other research [instead of] where you can just click on one thing and go straight into it. (Brush & Saye, 2001). Figure 2. DP: Civil Rights introductory essay with linked primary source document.

10 Another possibility that interactive hypertext presents for helping students develop more complex representations of the problem landscape is to deliberately embed links within an introductory essay that provide competing perspectives regarding an historical claim. In the example below (Figure 3), hyperlinks within the introductory essay focusing on Birmingham, Alabama, purposefully lead students to examine two competing source documents: an editorial from a Birmingham newspaper in which white moderates are pleading with African-Americans for patience in achieving Civil Rights, and an excerpt from Martin Luther King s Letter from a Birmingham Jail, in which Dr. King laments that the white moderates are those most responsible for the slow progress in achieving Civil Rights. We believe that presenting historical documents to students in this manner encourage them to confront the interpretive nature of historical claims, wrestle with competing logics, and assist students with developing more evaluative views of historical events. Figure 3. Embedding links to competing perspectives within an essay.

11 Finally, conceptual and metacognitive scaffolds (Hannafin, Land, & Oliver, 1999) can be embedded within source documents to provide students with additional support as they are analyzing those specific sources. Contextual cues embedded in a source document can provide learners with the background knowledge that an historian would possess and utilize to understand the meaning of the source. By situating the link to this source document within a narrative essay, we can provide an introduction to a particular event or concept, or direct learners to other source documents that might encourage or deepen conceptual understanding. In the source document below (Figure 4), for example, students attempting to analyze a poem published in a Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) newsletter may not have the foundational knowledge to understand terms such as kills for alabama, bombs like Birmingham, or the background of the author of the document (Charlie Cobb). All of this information is essential in order for the student to engage in authentic historical reasoning without it, students generally are only able to analyze the document at a superficial level. Using hyperlinks embedded within the document, students can have easy access to additional information generally possessed by historians that allow them to analyze the source at a deeper level.

12 Figure 4. Embedded foundational knowledge cue in SNCC Poem source document. Similarly, just as we can use embedded scaffolds to provide foundational and contextual knowledge, we can also embed contextual information into electronic documents that may encourage metacognitive activities similar to those in which more expert investigators engage during historical problem-solving (Wineburg, 1991, 1999). For example, students exploring the evolution of beliefs and strategies employed by SNCC during the 1960s might be assisted in interpreting documents published in SNCC newsletters by metacognitive cues that prompt them to compare accounts over time and ask questions about the subtext that may help explain changing behaviors among SNCC membership. In the example below, students are asked to consider the tone of the SNCC poem (published in 1965 in the The Voice an organizational newsletter), and then compare this to the more optimistic perspective presented in the SNCC Philosophy Statement published in the same source five years earlier. Prompts embedded within the document encourage students to attempt to reconcile the different perspective presented in

13 the SNCC poem (see Figure 5). Anecdotal and observational data from our past studies suggest that conceptual and metacognitive supports such as these may help students engage in more systematic, rigorous investigations of the past (Brush & Saye, 2006; Saye & Brush, 2002, 1999). We are currently designing field studies to test our hypotheses in more direct ways. Figure 5. Embedded metacognitive cue in SNCC Poem source document. Providing students with models of inquiry activities. On-line models of exemplary performances help students gain a sense of what it means to do a complex task well and how they might proceed in accomplishing task requirements. Situated cognition theorists, studying the role that apprenticeship plays in developing expertise in a variety of real-world activities

14 (Brown, Collins, & Duguid, 1989), urge that such cognitive apprenticeships be applied to schoolbased learning as well. An essential first step in guiding novices toward mastery in a given task is the provision of a model of exemplary performance. Models of exemplary student work may be provided on-line through text and images. However, the availability of streaming video and audio also allows us to capture live exemplary performances by students and teachers as they plan and implement a variety of inquiry-related tasks that are associated with PBHI. Delivery through the Internet allows learners to participate in virtual apprenticeships no matter where they are located. We are currently in the process of developing a videocase database of wise practice models of PBHI implementation. This resource, known as the Peristent Issues in History Laboratory for Virtual Field Experience (PIH-LVFE), combines an ever-increasing database of videocases of authentic classroom practices with multiple resources and tools to enable teachers to assist their students with problem-based historical inquiry. Each videocase includes teaching resources (lesson plans, assessment tools, activity materials) associated with the targeted instructional activity; pre- and post-interviews with classroom teachers; and reflections of teaching practices by history and social studies educators. In addition, the PIH-LVFE contains online tools that allow teachers using the video database to annotate specific video segments and integrate database resources into classroom activities. We believe that these examples of real classrooms engaged in inquiry tasks will help teachers envision implementing such learning in their own classrooms, as well as help teachers demonstrate tasks that need to be accomplished during an activity to students who may not be familiar with PBHI activities. Teachers may use these models to discuss each standard to be met in performing a task, and students may review

15 the models to help them conceptualize how they might meet those standards in their own culminating activities. For example, we filmed a skilled teacher engaged in a unit focusing on Washington s use of federal troops during the Whiskey Rebellion. The culminating activity for the unit was a press conference in which small groups of students worked together to represent the views of particular historical or contemporary actors or interest groups involved in the event (e.g., Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, rural farmers). Group members engaged in the roles of actors, public relations agents, and the press to defend their assigned positions and challenge the positions of those whose views differed (see Figure 6). By having this videocase available online, students who are asked to engage in this activity in the future have access to a model of a press conference activity, and thus have a clearer understanding of the expectations for their performance.

16 Figure 6. PIH-LVFE George Washington Press Conference videocase. Conclusion We are continuing the process of developing and refining tools and resources for students to assist them with engaging in PBHI activities. In our own work, we have been encouraged by results that suggest the potential for technology to stimulate and support more complex learner understandings. However, our investigations emphasize that there is much that we do not yet know about technology s potential as a tool for successful implementation of PBHI both in supporting student learning and supporting the implementation of PBHI activities in authentic

17 classrooms. For instance, a continuing design dilemma involves finding the balance between identifying areas within the overall learning environment where appropriate conceptual, strategic, and metacognitive scaffolds are essential and avoiding the temptation to provide so much structure that we stifle excitement and creativity. We conclude with a cautionary note. Although our research to this point supports the claim that scaffolded multimedia learning environments can encourage rigorous historical investigations, we do not wish to promote technology as a panacea for the challenges teachers and students face when engaging in disciplined inquiry in the social studies. Our investigations have, in fact, uncovered potential disadvantages to the use of multimedia resources with students. For example, learners sometimes view more realistic primary and secondary sources (such as photographs and video footage of historical events) as immune to the biases associated with textual information, and thus more readily accept these sources as what actually happened. Technology can ease cognitive burdens associated with inquiry, but success hinges upon skilled, energetic teachers and motivated learners. Continued investigation is needed to determine what can be done to develop and implement more powerful social studies learning experiences. We hope that others join us in research that explores application of theories generated from our work to the multiple issues surrounding student learning in social education.

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