GATEways to Teacher Education

A journal of the Georgia Association of Teacher Educators

Second, meaningful technology integration is a challenge with the use of lecture. PowerPoint and other presentation technologies constitute the most frequently used technological enhancements used in lecture (Baker et al., 2018). However, evidence suggests that although students might feel like an instructor using PowerPoint is delivering a more organized lecture that helps sustain their attention, this perception does not equate to improved cognitive learning (Baker et al., 2018).As a result, overuse of PowerPoints, notetaking, and memorization during a teacher’s lecture can lead students to devalue the content, hence being disengaged (Busey & Russell, 2016).

Third, concerns with teaching to state standardized tests pose challenges for why teachers choose to predominately lecture for social studies instruction. Standardized tests tend to require students to reproduce factual information they have learned over the year, which can encourage teachers to implement lecture as an efficient way to cover large amounts of content (Bolinger & Warren, 2007). Since student performance on these tests is part of school and teacher evaluations, broader instructional and curricular goals of social studies such as historical inquiry, decision-making, critical thinking skills, and analysis of historical sources may be neglected (Bolinger & Warren, 2007). Consequently, the influence of testing leads to didactic coverage of the content and limits student-centered practices that develop the broader goals of social studies education (Jang, 2019; Deslauriers et al., 2019; Thomas & Howell, 2012; Bolinger & Warren, 2007).

Finally, equity and representation concerns arise when lecture is the primary instructional method in social studies. Reliance on textbooks when lecturing often focuses on White male perspectives and leaves many students’identities absent from the curriculum (Sleeter, 2011; Pezone, 2010; Loewen, 1995). Teachers may attempt to address this gap by including the perspectives of marginalized groups and people in the lecture. However, lecture still places heavy emphasis on the teacher as a content expert and relies heavily on oral language as the primary medium for instruction. As student populations become increasingly diverse, students speaking other languages and dialects, such asAfrican American Vernacular English or Spanish, become more prevalent in classrooms. Ultimately, Singer (2010) asserts that when students learn social studies content mainly via lecture, “they learn that some people’s ideas are not valued” (p. 3). Consequently, teachers must find differentiated pedagogical methods that convey content that is representative of the diverse needs, backgrounds, histories, and cultural assets of students (Muhammad, 2020).

Teaching Social Studies Online and the COVID-19 Pandemic Research on the impact of social studies education since the COVID-19 pandemic began is rapidly growing. For example, Kaden’s (2020) study found that the majority of one teacher’s remote workload was comprised of 1) facilitating synchronous instruction on webconferencing tools, 2) recording class sessions, 3) organizing students in breakout rooms for small group instruction, 4) grading student work, and 5) facilitating discussion about course content and other issues stemming from the pandemic. Specific to social studies instruction, Ferlazzo (2020) highlights five social studies teachers’experiences teaching online during school building closures, who noted that they tried to adhere to familiar routines by facilitating discussion on current events, checking in with students who may be feeling isolated, and using web-based tools