Mentoring in the Social Studies

Quality social studies instruction is salient for all pupils What happens on the local, state, national, and international levels affect each person. Then too, social studies should emphasize good citizenship in school and in society. A knowledgeable person with needed skills to function well in relating to others is important. People possess different values, beliefs, and cultures which indicate that each person must be accepting of others and stress a caring society. The social studies mentor might well assist the teacher in improving the curriculum involving objectives, learning activities, and appraisal procedures in ongoing lessons and units of study. DeVilling the Role of the Mentor Mentors must be well versed in teaching the social studies as well as apply appropriate psychological principles in ongoing lessons and units of study. They need to be able to work effectively with each teacher, using quality human relations. Being uncaring, rude, and arrogant have no roles to play in teaching and learning situations. Cooperatively, the mentor and teacher need to identify problematic situations and work harmoniously in their solution(s). There are situations which hinder learner progress in the social studies. These must be pinpointed and resolved to assist pupils to achieve more optimally: 1) pupils not understanding vital concepts and generalizations. Here, the mentor and the teacher must analyze reasons for this occurring. A variety of developmentally appropriate experiences need to be in the offing. These must be sequenced so that more optimal achievement does occur. The pace of lesson presentations should be such that acquisition of concepts and generalizations are attained with meaning theory being emphasized. Continual diagnosis need to be stressed so that learner achievement is in evidence (See Wolk, 2008). 2) pupils need assistance in scaffolding. When learnings appear to be too complex, within reason, the teacher perceives a gap between what the pupil is achieving and what might be possible To close the identified gap, a series of carefully ordered learnings may make for closure (Ediger, 2010). 3) pupils need to be engaged in ongoing lessons and units of study. With involvement, pupils perceive interest in achieving salient objectives. The learner and the curriculum become one with the interest factor inherent in learning. There are fewer distractions and less lack of time on task, when each pupil is focused on the learning activity at hand. Disruptions in learning need to be replaced with interesting experiences in the social studies (See Parsons, 2008). 4) pupils must feel that purpose is involved in pursuing, growing, and developing. Meaningless subject matter consisting of facts and trivia must be replaced with vital concepts and generalizations. The mentor and the social studies teacher cooperatively need dialogue to come up with what is worthwhile and purposeful to the learner (See Young and Cates, 2005) 5) pupil self monitoring stresses the importance of learner ownership of the curriculum. Thus, the pupil reflects upon what has been acquired and comes up with more accurate ideas in terms of subject matter learnings. The mentor is a guide and motivator in assisting each teacher to put forth maximum effort in teaching and learning situations. He/she does not dictate nor force selected behaviors upon the teacher, but rather intrinsically helps social studies teachers to analyze teaching behaviors with the intent of providing pupils with challenging, developmentally appropriate experiences. The mentor must be highly knowledgeable about different philosophies of instruction in order to provide the best fit for individual styles of learning. Mandated objectives are predetermined and measurably stated, for teachers to use in teaching and learning situations. These ends represent targets to aim toward in the instructional arena. Learning activities are aligned with the precise objectives. …