Contextualizing Social Studies Lessons
This problem could be mitigated by contextualizing social studies lessons. In contextualizing a lesson, a teacher exposes students to a portion of reality or real-world situation which is illustrative of the concept or the big idea being taught, and which is familiar to or has been experienced by the students. After analyzing the portion of reality or situation presented, the students are guided to form their own understanding of the social studies concept or principle. Thus, the students are not being required to memorize the important concepts and principles in social studies. Rather, they are being equipped with the language with which they could understand and interpret their world—a skill that a citizen of a democratic country must possess.
Although contextualization has only become a byword among Philippine public school teachers in recent years, the idea is by no means a novelty. Basically, it is a reiteration of the constructivist principles that learning takes place when people are allowed to construct their own understanding of the world, and that the teacher must view himself less as a repository of knowledge than as a mere provider of sensory data. It may also be traced to John Dewey’s (1916) view that it is only through the agency of the environment that learners could genuinely grasp the relationship between experiences and their consequences, and that the only function of the school is to reconstruct and reorganize the environment in such a way that adds to the meaning to the experiences, and which increases the child’s ability to control the direction of subsequent experiences. However, in spite of the fact that the idea has been around for more than a century, rarely has it been incorporated in the classroom practices of many social studies teachers. This is unfortunate as contextualization, or the idea it embodies, is fairly easy to put into practice.
In contextualizing a lesson in social studies, a teacher must first identify the concept and the big idea that the lesson aims to teach by extrapolating them from the K-12 Gabay Pangkurikulum sa Araling Panlipunan. Let me use a lesson about allocation as an example. For this particular lesson, the curriculum expects the students to demonstrate the ability to determine the relationship of allocation to scarcity, needs, and wants (“Nasusuri ang kaugnayan ng alokasyon sa kakapusan at pangangailangan at kagustuhan”). The expected response from the student may be written this way: “Mahalaga ang alokasyon upang matugunan ang kagustuhan at pangangailangan ng mga tao sa kabila ng umiiral na kakapusan.” This constitutes the lesson’s big idea. Of course, for the students to be able to arrive at this idea, they must first have an understanding of the concept of allocation.
After identifying the concept and the big idea that the lesson is supposed to teach, the teacher must analyze their structure. This would help the teacher in selecting data or situations that would facilitate the students’ comprehension of the lesson’s target concept, and help them arrive at the big idea. The teacher’s mastery of the subject matter plays a crucial role in this stage of planning. Once it has become clear to the teacher what exactly are the concept and the big idea that his students are supposed to learn, he could proceed to the task of selecting the data or real-life situations that best exemplify or illustrate them. In this process, the teacher must take the students’ level of mental development, language, experience, and culture into account.
Let me give an example. For the aforementioned lesson about allocation, the teacher may use “agawang-kendi,” a parlor game familiar to most Filipinos, and which is illustrative of the concept of allocation. The activity could show that without a conscious, systematic way of distribution (concept of allocation), most goods would end up at the hands of the few, while the majority would have to make do with what is left. It would also demonstrate how proper allocation could lead to the satisfaction of everyone’s needs or wants despite scarcity or the limited number of goods (big idea). Prior to the conduct of the activity, however, the teacher must make sure that the number of candies that would be cast are the same as the number of students who would join the game. He must also tell the participants to keep to themselves the candies that they would manage to catch or grab, and not share them with anyone until after the class. This would ensure that the purpose of the activity is not obscured or defeated.
After selecting and planning the activity, the teacher must prepare the questions that would guide students towards the understanding of the concept or the big idea. In undertaking this task, the teacher must order the questions from the simplest, i.e. those that merely ask students to give information or details about the activity and its outcomes, to the most complex, i.e. those that require students to analyze the details and information that they have given. The final questions must provide students the opportunity to give their own definition of the concept, or/and formulate a generalization that would constitute the lesson’s big idea.
Finally, in requiring students to answer the prepared questions, the teacher must employ a cooperative learning strategy or structure that he/she deems most appropriate. Examples of these strategies or structures are “Think-Pair-Share,” “Round Table,” “Round Robin,” and “Teammates Consult.” Using a cooperative learning strategy in processing information derived from the class activity facilitates the students’ understanding of the lesson’s concept and big ideas. It also has the added benefit of helping students develop their socialization and communication skills, which are essential to their training as good citizens.
As I have said,
contextualization is a teaching approach that is relatively easy to put into
practice. However, as it requires a considerable amount of time on the part of
the teacher, a certain degree of mastery of the social studies concepts and
principles, and a great deal of familiarity with the students’ developmental
stage, background, and interests, many teachers might consider it too taxing on
their part compared to the teaching practices that they have long been
accustomed to. But a good social studies teacher would always find a way to
present his lessons in the context that his students are familiar to, and which
they find relevant and interesting. This is because the only appropriate
context for teaching social studies is the students’ context.
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SAMPLE LESSON: ALLOCATION (ENGLISH) Big Idea: Allocation
is important to ensure the efficient use of limited natural resources in
meeting the limitless human needs and wants. Activity: Bring
candies whose quantity is the same as the number of students who are expected
to join the game. Ask participants to stand at the center of the room. Tell
them that you are going to throw some candies to the floor, and each one of
them may grab as many as he wants. Upon giving the signal, throw the candies
to the floor. Guide Questions: 1. How many of you have
participated in the game? 2. How many candies
did I throw? 3. Are the candies
sufficient in number such that each participant could have got one candy?
Explain. 4. Was each one of
you able to get a candy? 5. Who among you was
able to get the most number of candies? Who was not lucky enough to get even
one? 6. In your opinion,
what should I have done instead so that everyone had a candy for
himself/herself? 7. What you have
suggested is called allocation. In your own words, what is allocation? 8. If we don’t
practice allocation in the use of our country’s resources, what do you think
would happen? Explain. 9. Why is
allocation important in managing and distributing our resources? |
References:
Dewey, J. (1916). Democracy and
Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education. The Project
Gutenberg, EBook# 852.
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