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The discussion explains gaps between official curriculum and classroom enactment, and emphasizes the need for teachers as curricular-instructional gatekeepers with clear educational purposes, not mere technicians.",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/","Research & Report",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/why-do-we-learn-this-stuff-students-views-on-the-purpose-of-social-studies/598543/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"image":36,"author":41,"headline":10,"publisher":44,"fileFormat":47,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":48,"datePublished":49,"encodingFormat":47,"isAccessibleForFree":50,"interactionStatistic":51},"DigitalDocument",{"url":37,"@type":38,"width":39,"height":40},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/why-do-we-learn-this-stuff-students-views-on-the-purpose-of-social-studies/598543.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":42,"@type":43},"A glass of water","Person",{"url":19,"name":45,"@type":46},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-30","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":52,"interactionType":53,"userInteractionCount":55},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":54},"ViewAction",6,{"@type":57,"mainEntity":58},"FAQPage",[59,65,69],{"name":60,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":62},"Why do pre-service teachers struggle to explain the purpose of social studies?","Question",{"text":63,"@type":64},"They typically give content-focused responses about history, geography, and current events, while rarely mentioning citizenship as the primary goal. When citizenship is explained as the subject’s aim, many students are surprised.","Answer",{"name":66,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":67},"What does research suggest about students’ reactions to social studies?",{"text":68,"@type":64},"Studies indicate social studies is often the least liked course and is viewed as lacking relevance. Students commonly describe it as boring, textbook-based, and not applicable to their lives.",{"name":70,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":71},"How does the article explain the gap between taught and experienced curriculum?",{"text":72,"@type":64},"It attributes the mismatch to how teachers interpret prescribed curriculum and to differences between the planned curriculum and what is enacted in classrooms. 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Students’ views on the purpose of social studies  \nSusan Gibson, University of Alberta  \nIntroduction  \nI’ve been teaching pre-service elementary social studies teachers for over 20 years and one thing that always astonishes me is how fuzzy they are about why we teach social studies as a subject in schools. When I ask this question in my undergraduate social studies methods classes, I usually get specific content-focused responses such as: to learn about history and geography, Canada and the world, other people and cultures, government and politics, or current events. Learning to be a good citizen is rarely mentioned even though social studies programs across Canada have a long history of citizenship education as their primary goal (Clark & Case, 2008; Gibson, 2009; Osborne, 2008; Richardson, 2002) . When I explain that social studies is the school subject that aims to develop our children’s understanding about what it means to be a good citizen, my students are genuinely surprised. Few acknowledge being aware that they were learning about citizenship when they were taking social studies in elementary and secondary school. Is this true of most children and youths’ experiences in school?  \nA Review of the Literature  \nA scan of the literature on teachers’ and students’ perceptions of social studies asa school subject from the last three decades would seem to suggest that this lack of overt attention to citizenship education is typical. A number of research studies consistently found that social studies is often the least liked course that children and youth take in school and the one that they feel most lacks relevance to their lives (Chapin, 2006; Chiodo, & Byford, 2004; Egan, 1980; Heafner, 2004; Schug, Todd & Beery, 1984; Steffay & Hood, 1994; Thornton, 2005; Zhao & Hoge, 2005) . For example, in Zhao and Hoge’s (2005) study, they interviewed 300 children from kindergarten to Grade 5 and discovered that,“Most children who do not like social studies say ‘it is boring and useless,’‘it’s reading the textbook’ and‘it doesn’t apply’”(p. 3) . More positive student reactions to social studies have been found in classrooms where the teacher has clearly articulated goals and a strong sense of purpose as well a personal enthusiasm for the subject (McCall, 2006) .  \nSears (1996) attributes the problem with social studies to a mismatch between what is reflected in the official curriculum and the way in which it is being represented in the classroom. Aoki (2005) sees this mismatch occurring because the teacher is caught in the “zone of between”(p. 163) in which she or he is “indwelling in two curriculum worlds” (p. 165) . One world is the curriculum as planned; the other is the curriculum as lived in the classroom. Curriculum as lived is described by Rogers (1989) as “those  \nCanadian Social Studies 45(1) Gibson  \nthings that a student chooses to emphasize, elaborate on, ignore or omit as he or sherecounts learnings from a class or a field trip – the learner’s personal meanings. [These] make up the experienced curriculum”(Rogers, 1989, p. 715) . This gap between taught and experienced curriculum occurs because “prior to and during its enactment, teachers have great leeway to interpret prescribed curriculum”(Thornton, 2005, p. 11) . Cuban (1992) adds that, \"the gap between what is taught and what is learned—both intended and unintended—is large\" (p. 223) .  \nMost teachers tend to be content driven with the larger intended curricular goals often getting lost. Brophy and Alleman (1993) claim that,“teachers appear to proceed [with curriculum implementation in the classroom] by asking what knowledge, skills and values are emphasized in the state and district guidelines for the grade level and then make sure that these are covered, especially the ones that are likely to be tested”(p. 28) . Often,“knowledge content gets fragmented into disconnected bits that can be memorized bu","cbCaidX06gqbjrmK","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaidX06gqbjrmK","pdf",179581,16,"English","# Introduction\n# A Review of the Literature\n## Perceptions and relevance\n## Curriculum mismatch and lived curriculum\n# Social Studies Teaching and Learning: The Alberta Context","[{\"question\":\"Why do pre-service teachers struggle to explain the purpose of social studies?\",\"answer\":\"They typically give content-focused responses about history, geography, and current events, while rarely mentioning citizenship as the primary goal. When citizenship is explained as the subject’s aim, many students are surprised.\"},{\"question\":\"What does research suggest about students’ reactions to social studies?\",\"answer\":\"Studies indicate social studies is often the least liked course and is viewed as lacking relevance. Students commonly describe it as boring, textbook-based, and not applicable to their lives.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the article explain the gap between taught and experienced curriculum?\",\"answer\":\"It attributes the mismatch to how teachers interpret prescribed curriculum and to differences between the planned curriculum and what is enacted in classrooms. This produces an “experienced curriculum” shaped by learners’ personal meanings.\"}]","Why do we learn this stuff - Students’ views on the purpose of social studies | PDF",1792087125]