A Historically Boring Subject Among Students

The podcast discusses why many students dislike social studies and offers suggestions for teachers to enhance their curriculum. The article mentions a survey from 1982 that showed students had a negative view of the subject. Teachers play a crucial role in making social studies enjoyable by making the content interactive and thought-provoking. Students should be encouraged to explore, experiment, and interact with the material through activities like critical thinking questions, digital gallery walks, research projects, and virtual field trips. Additionally, teachers should relate the content to students' lives and remain culturally responsive by celebrating diverse cultures and ethnicities. The goal is to make history and social studies interesting and enjoyable for students. Hi and welcome back to another historically boring podcast and today we're going to be talking about history, no pun intended, but more specifically social studies in the classroom and why so many students dread social studies. Today we're going to be talking specifically about what teachers can do to enhance their social studies curriculum and way of teaching history and how we can make history go from something students dread to something students may see as a hobby of theirs. So in the Washington Post article, Why So Many Students Hate Social Studies, they talk about a survey that was completed in 1982 and the survey talks about whether students enjoyed social studies, the results were students were indifferent or felt negatively about the subject. Now, teachers have an important role in determining whether students dislike or find social studies enjoyable. So let's dive right in to what teachers can do to enhance their lesson. Make the content more interactive and thought provoking. When students are the leaders in their learning, they're more likely to be engaged and will have more memorable experiences. Rather than like a history teacher constantly sharing dates and facts during the lecture, the students must explore and experiment and interact in their learning. This can be done through activities like answering critical thinking questions that are neither right or wrong. So it's always very important when you throw those critical thinking questions to students, they don't get back a right or wrong answer. That's just a time for them to share their thoughts and their ideas about what they're learning. It is also, it can also be done through activities like digital gallery walks or research projects and virtual field trips. Number two, make the content relate to students. Students are more invested in something when they see how it relates to them. Rather than copying definitions from like a textbook, students could complete a project about the Native American tribes who passed through their community during the Trail of Tears. So when relating the content to students, teachers should really remember and remain culturally responsive by being empathetic as well as celebrating the triumphs and successes across all cultures and ethnicities. Teachers can learn more about being culturally responsive on virtual and digital platforms. I hope you enjoyed today's Historically Boring Podcast and I hope we think about and broaden our ideas on how to make a topic that's very interesting and important, history, social studies, something that students absolutely love and hopefully see as a hobby of theirs. Thank you. Bye bye.