Research On "Concept Learning" In American Social Studies Curriculum

Concepts are the starting point for acquiring knowledge and the foundation for building the world.Concept learning is like an intelligent filing system that can help us efficiently process and store information in a chaotic world.Concept learning is particularly important in our country’s subject teaching,but there are still many problems in our country’s concept learning.The social studies curriculum in the United States is a comprehensive curriculum of social and humanities aimed at enhancing the abilities of citizens.Concept learning has been one of the central goals of the social studies curriculum since the 1960 s and 1970 s.Concept learning in social studies curriculum is a strategy that helps students to learn concepts by identifying key attributes and distinguishing positive examples from negative examples,and to understand the relationship between different concepts to organize thoughts and experiences.After long-term exploration and development,the concept learning in social studies curriculum has formed an independent and mature system.Therefore,the development of research on the concept learning in the American social studies curriculum has important reference significance for the concept learning in our country.This article systematically sorts out and integrates the concept learning in the American social studies curriculum with the help of literature research method,text analysis method,etc.,in order to provide effective experience for the development of concept learning in our country.Firstly,it expounds "what" : it introduces the background and theoretical basis of concept learning in the social studies curriculum;it clarifies the connotation of concept learning in the social studies curriculum;it summarizes the four characteristics of concept learning in social studies curriculum,namely developmental,social,interactive and diagnostic;the influencing factors of concept learning in social studies curriculum are proposed from four aspects: concept itself,student’s experience,student’s attitude and teacher’s teaching ability.Secondly,it analyzes "why" : the role of concept learning in the social studies curriculum is proposed from three aspects: students,teaching and society.Finally,it introduces "how" : it demonstrates the core concepts to be learned in the social studies curriculum;it puts forward three ideas of concept learning in social studies curriculum,namely specialization,informationization and scientification;it introduces two main methods of concept learning in social studies curriculum,namely concept formation method and concept attainment method,and introduces the corresponding instructional design based on the two methods,and compares the similarities and differences between the two methods;it reflects on the two main methods of concept learning in the social studies curriculum from two aspects: before and after concept learning.The deficiencies in our country’s concept learning are mainly manifested in "three emphases and three lightnesses",that is,emphasizing the explanation within the concept but lighting the connection between concepts;emphasizing rote memorization but lighting understanding and exploration;emphasizing teacher’s teaching but lighting student’s learning.We should combine the effective experience gained from the research of concept learning in the American social studies curriculum with our country’s educational reality.On this basis,this article provides the following enlightenment for the development of concept learning in our country: in terms of textbook design,present knowledge to students in the form of big concepts;in terms of content presentation,use positive examples and negative examples to reduce the defamiliarization and abstraction of concepts;in terms of path guidance,use cue concepts direct students to specific thought clusters;in terms of process development,teachers should use questions to promote concept learning;in terms of form arrangement,combine cooperative learning with concept learning.