I have been looking for ways to make social studies more real and meaningful for our students and believe I have come up with one key idea. Whatever the subject, we are all teaching facts and values. Presumably we present facts as objectively as possible. Students then filter these facts through their belief systems. Worst-case scenario is when students believe the course has no relevance to their lives and is not worth learning. Best-case scenario is when students evaluate the subject matter and use it to question and expand their beliefs in light of facts and values presented in the class. How do we move from the worst-case scenario to the best-case scenario?

Engagement begins with awareness. Students must be aware that they all have their own unique beliefs about facts and about values. In other words, each student must be aware of his/her unique worldview. Likewise, each teacher and textbook has a unique worldview that must be understood by the students.  By discussing personal worldviews and how these relate to the subject matter, the subject matter becomes personalized instead of remaining generic and boring.

For example, an old male Caucasian teacher has a much different worldview than a current high school student. He cannot even fully understand what it is like growing up in today’s world. He will only begin to understand if he engage students in discussions about their worldviews. Furthermore, every student has a different worldview based on gender, ethnicity, family background, and life experience.  Sharing these differences with each other should be an engaging and edifying experience for everyone. In order to fully appreciate the subject matter students must become aware of their unique worldviews and how these worldviews can enrich their learning experience. This should be an ongoing discussion throughout the course.

The idea of worldviews really came to life when my wife and I were recently riding home on BART from SFO late at night. The train stopped at the Embarcadero station for half an hour because someone was holding a door open.  There were also some very strange acting people in our BART car. About 20 minutes into the delay two BART police officers walked through our car. My wife and I were comforted by their presence. A black woman sitting next to us said, “Why are they here? They cause nothing but trouble.” This and other things she said made me realize she and I have totally different worldviews developed through totally different life experiences.

I have been looking for academic discussions and lessons on worldviews and how these can be incorporated into the learning environment. There appears to be very little out there. I finally found some lessons related to civics, but easily adaptable to any social studies subject, in the Annenberg Classroom website. The specific site is http://www.annenbergclassroom.org/page/BackgroundBeliefs. This is part of a larger group of lessons about analytical thinking, http://www.annenbergclassroom.org/page/critical-thinking-lesson-plans. There is much great material here that encourages students to reflect on their worldviews and to question their foundational beliefs.

I do believe it will be of great benefit to our students to bring the subject of worldviews into our curriculum. Not only will it personalize the learning experience, it will also bring students to the understanding that each person’s learning experience is different and is, in the end, a path to understanding others and us.

Whatever comments you might have will be appreciated. And I hope we can discuss this more during the school year.