DOCUMENT RESUME ED 358 028 SO 023 134 AUTHOR VanSledright, Bruce A.; And Others TITLE Fifth-Graders' Ideas about the American Revolution Expressed before and after Studying It within a U.S. History Course. Elementary Subjects Center Series No. 81. SPONS AGENCY Office of Educational Research and Improvement (ED), Washington, DC. PUB DATE Feb 93 CONTRACT G0087CO226 NOTE 93p. PUB TYPE Reports Research/Technical (143) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC04 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Educational Research; Elementary School Students; *Grade 5; *History Instruction; Intermediate Grades; Knowledge Level; *Revolutionary War (United States); *Student Attitudes; United States History ABSTRACT This report is one of a series on how curriculum unit experiences in U.S. history influenced the learning of fifth-grade students. This report focuses on the American Revolution period. Before the unit began, three classes of fifth graders stated what they knew (or thought they knew) about the events leading up to the Revolutionary War, the War itself, and what occurred in the new nation as it began the process of governing itself. In general, students knew very little about this period as they approached their study of it. After the unit, most of the students were much better informed and seemed to have a reasonably good understanding of the events and the historical context in question. They also demonstrated some understanding of circumstances that may have contributed to the Revolutionary War. However, most students appeared to lacl, an appreciation of different interpretive positions on the issues that surrounded the birth of the United States. They also were limited in their understanding of how the new nation began the process of self-government. (Author) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Once of Educational Researchand Improvement Elementary Subjects Center EDUCATIONAL RESOURCESINFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) Series No. 81 The document has been reproducedas *eyed from the person or ocoandation originating a 0 Minor changes have been made toimprove reproduction Quality FIFTH-GRADERS' IDEAS ABOUT THE Points of veinyOf OpMIOollstated in this docu merit do not necessarily represent official AMERICAN REVOLUTION EXPRESSED BEFORE OERI pOction or policy AND AFTER STUDYING IT WITHIN A U.S. HISTORY COURSE Bruce A. VanSledright, Jere Brophy, and Nancy Bredin Center for the Learning and Teaching of Elementary Subjects Institute for Research on Teaching College of Education Michigan State University MSU is an affirmative action/equal opportunity Institution Elementary Subjects Center Series No. 81 FIFTH-GRADERS' IDEAS ABOUT THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION EXPRESSED BEFORE AND AFTER STUDYING IT WITHIN A U.S. HISTORY COURSE Bruce A. VanSledright, Jere Brophy, and Nancy Bredin Published by The Center for the Learning and Teaching of Elementary Subjects Institute for Research on Teaching 252 Erickson Hall Michigan State University East Lansing, Michigan 48824-1034 February 1993 This work is sponsored in part by the Center for the Learning and Teaching of Elementary Subjects, Institute for Research on Teaching, Michigan State Uni- versity. The Center for the Learning and Teaching of Elementary Subjects is funded primarily by the Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education. The opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the position, policy, or endorsement of the Office or Department (Cooperative Agreement No. G0087CO226). Center for the Learning and Teaching ofElementary Subjects The Center for the Learning andTeaching of Elementary Subjects was awarded to Michigan State University in 1987 after anationwide competition. Funded by the Office of Educational Research and Improvement,U.S. Department of Education, the Elementary Subjects Center is a major projecthoused in the Institute for Research on Teaching (IRT).The program focuses on conceptualunderstanding, higher order thinking, and problem solving in elementaryschool teaching of mathematics, science, social studies, literature, and the arts.Center researchers are identifying exemplary curriculum, instruction, and evaluation practicesin the teaching of these school subjects; studying these practices to build newhypotheses about how the effectiveness of elementary schools can be improved;testing these hypotheses through school-based research; and making specific recommendationsfor the improvement of school policies, instructional materials, assessment procedures,and teaching practices.Research questions include, What content shouldbe taught when teaching these subjects for understanding and use of knowledge? Howdo teachers concentrate their teaching to use their limited resources best? and Inwhat ways is good teaching subject matter-specific? The work is designed to unfold inthree phases, beginning with literature review and interview studio; designed toelicit and synthesize the points of view ofvarious stakeholders (representatives of the underlyingacademic disciplines, intellectual leaders and organizations concerned withcurriculum and instruction in school subjects, classroom teachers, state- and district-levelpolicymakers) concerning ideal curriculum, instruction, and evaluation practices in thesefive content areas at the elementary level. Phase II involves interview andobservation methods designed to describe current practice, and in particular, best practice asobserved in the classrooms of teachers believed to be outstanding.Phase H also involves analysis of curricula(both widely used curriculum series and distinctivecurricula developed with special emphasis on conceptual understanding andhigher order applications), as another approach to gathering information about currentpractices.In Phase HI, models of ideal practice will be developed, based on what hasbeen learned and synthesized from thefirst two phases, and will be tested throughclassroom intervention studies. The findings of Center research arepublished by the IRT in the Elementary Subjects Center Series.Information about the Center isincluded in the IRT CommunicationOuarterly,(a newsletter for practitioners) andin lists and catalogs of IRT publications. For more information, toreceive a list or catalog, or to be placed on the IRT mailing list to receive thenewsletter, please write to the Editor,Institute for Research on Teaching, 252 Eri6.sonHall, Michigan State University, EastLansing, Michigan 48824-1034. Co-directors: Jere E. Brophy and Penelope L. Peterson Senior Researchers:Patricia Cianciolo, Sandra Hollingsworth,Wanda May, Richard Prawat, Ralph Putnam, TaffyRaphael, Cheryl Rosaen, Kathleen Roth, Pamela Schram,Suzanne Wilson Editor: Sandra Gross Editorial Assistant:Tom Bowden Abstract This report is one of a series on how curriculum unit experiences in U.S. history influenced the learning of fifth-grade students.This report focuses on the American Revolution period. Before the unit began, three classes of fifth graders stated what they knew (or thought they knew) about the events leading up to Revolutionary War, the war itself, and what occurred in the new nation as it began the process of governing itself. In general, students knew very little about this period as they approached their study of it. After the unit, most of the students were much better informed and seet..d to have a reasonably good understanding of the events and the historical context in question. They also demonstrated some understanding of circumstances that may have contributed to zhe Revolutionary War. However, most students appeared to lack an appreciation of different interpretive positions on the issues that surrounded the birth of the United States. They also were limited in their understanding of how the new nation began the process of self-government. FIFTH-GRADERS' IDEAS ABOUT THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION EXPRESSED BEFORE AND AFTER STUDYING IT WITHIN A U.S. HISTORY COURSE Bruce A. VanSledright, Jere Brophy, and NancyBredinl Current theory and research on subject-matter teaching emphasize the im- portance of teaching school subjects for understanding, appreciation, and ap- plication, not just knowledge memorization and skills practice.Drawing on neo-Vygotskian theorizing and work on knowledge construction, conceptual change, and situated learning, educators have been developing methods of teach- ing school subjects in ways that connect with students' existing knowledge and experience and engage them in actively constructing new knowledge and changing their naive conceptions. Progress is most evident in mathematics and science, where rich literatures have developed describing what children typically know (or think they know) about the content taught at their respective grade levels. Curriculum developers can then use this information as a tsis for developing instruction that both builds on students' existing valid knowledge and con- fronts and changes their misconceptions. The potential for applying similar concepts and methods to curriculum de- velopment appears to be at least as great in social studies as in other school subjects, but realization of this potential cannot occur until a significant understanding is attained describing children's knowledge and naive ideas about the social studies content commonly taught at each grade level. The authors have initiated a program of research designed to address this