Kristine Pytash, Todd Hawley and Kate Morgan
The purpose of this paper is to explore the potential of using digital shorts (Pytash et al., 2017) focusing on social issues in social studies classrooms.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the potential of using digital shorts (Pytash et al., 2017) focusing on social issues in social studies classrooms.
Design/methodology/approach
Qualitative case study is used in this study.
Findings
Digital shorts focused on important social issues, and included their beliefs and perspectives about their social issue, as well as insights into their developing identities as citizens. The authors’ findings demonstrate how this assignment can be the gateway for discussions regarding social issues, how students perceive their identities tied to contemporary social issues, and how they make sense of these issues within multimodal compositions.
Research limitations/implications
The findings from this research have implications for researching the effectiveness of digital media production analysis for students’ learning of social issues.
Practical implications
The findings from this research have implications for exploring how digital media production analysis can be incorporated into social studies courses.
Originality/value
Although the push for social studies teachers to provide spaces for students to demonstrate these capacities, few examples exist in the literature.
Details
Keywords
Kristine E. Pytash and Elizabeth Edmondson
Writing is an important tool for content acquisition and for teaching analytical skills in economics. Students must be able to read and write in the economics with an…
Abstract
Writing is an important tool for content acquisition and for teaching analytical skills in economics. Students must be able to read and write in the economics with an understanding of how knowledge is produced and disseminated in the field. This study sought to understand how 12 secondary students enrolled in an economics course engaged in evaluating, critiquing, and studying a mentor text to learn how to craft a policy paper. A mentor text is a high-quality model text students can read and study to learn more about how to write in the field of economics. Results found students self-reported learning: the content of economics how to structure their paper, the discourse of economics. They further gained an understanding of why economists write.