What is...

Teacher Inquiry?

What is Social Studies for Diverse Learners? Who Teaches Social Studies for Diverse Learners? What are Prospective Teacher Responsibilities for Social Studies for Diverse Learners? Calendar Resources Home

"When you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. When you teach him how to fish, he can feed himself for a lifetime." Throughout this course you will "learn how to fish" and how to teach your students "how to fish" in your social studies classroom. Inquiry is a learning tool that begins with your questions about teaching and leads to the development of a teacher's pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). Pedagogical content knowledge is the knowledge that a teacher constructs as she blends her knowledge of subject matter content, pedagogy, self, students, and context. Thus, inquiry, targeted at the development of PCK, is a stance that good teachers assume as professionals who plan for, carry out, and study the effectiveness of their instruction. This course is designed to move you beyond thinking like a student to help you begin thinking like an elementary social studies teacher. Thinking like a professional is requires asking the questions that professionals ask about their practice. During your experience in DDL, we will explore the following teacher inquiry themes as a tool for helping you develop your own pedagogical content knowledge: Inquiry into the context, Inquiry into content, Inquiry into student learning, Inquiry into the acts of teaching as well as Inquiry into professional self. You will be constructing PCK as you begin to see how the inquiry areas interact and influence each other as teachers make instructional decisions.