The C3F is built around
an Inquiry Arc made up of four dimensions of activity that "support a
robust social studies program rooted in inquiry".[1] These dimensions are:
1. Developing questions
and planning inquiries
This
dimension is built upon the assumption that inquiry arises from innate
curiosity and questioning. Questions are developed into two kinds: compelling
and supporting (C3F, 23). Compelling questions bring out themes and issues that
cross time, remain unsolved (or possibly unsolvable), and promote exploration
and argumentation (ibid.). Supporting questions help to shape and develop a
line of inquiry into a compelling question (C3F, 24). The C3F encourages
teaching students to ask their own compelling questions and using compelling
questions to guide students through curricula.
2. Applying disciplinary
concepts and tools
The
C3F is also assumes that the subject of 'social studies' is built upon several
academic disciplines, but is not any one of those disciplines per se.
The C3F focuses in on four core disciplines that "provide the intellectual
context for studying how humans have interacted with each other and with the
environment over time".[2] The four disciplines are
civics, economics, geography, and history. They are each described with their
own set of core concepts and tools as follows:
- Civics: civic and
political institutions; participation and deliberation: applying civic virtues
and democratic principles; processes, rules, and laws
- Economics: economic
decision making, exchange and markets, the national economy, the global economy
- Geography: geographic
representations: spatial views of the world; human-environment interaction:
place, regions, and culture; human population: spatial patterns and movements;
global interconnections: changing spatial patterns
- History: change,
continuity and context; perspectives; historical sources and evidence;
causation and argumentation
3. Evaluating sources
and using evidence
The
C3F provides students with a conducting high-level inquiry by teaching them to
evaluate sources and use evidence to create argumentation. This dimension
focuses on the skills a student needs to find reliable information and build
arguments by shaping the evidence collected.[3]
4. Communicating
conclusions and taking informed action
The
final dimension of the C3F asks school systems and schools to include
"expectations for students to collaborate with others as they communicate
and critique their conclusions in public venues".[4] This dimension is meant to
provide students with opportunities to engage in the act of being a citizen and
part of their community in ways that "support the goals of college and
career readiness ... and readiness for civic life".[5]
VanSledright (2013)
suggests that this model of learning necessitates using more authentic
assessment, rather than testing, to describe student learning. He suggests a
three part formative assessment that assesses cognition through observable
tasks that are interpreted consistently via rubrics.[6]
