C3 Framework for Social Studies Education

I have recently been reading about Inquiry Learning as part of the C3 Framework and as a methodology in the classroom. The College, Career & Civic Life Framework for Social Studies State Standards (henceforth, C3F) is a guide for states to build upon the Common Core State Standards to create a well-rounded and meaningful social studies curriculum. It calls for "students to become more prepared for the challenges of college and career ... [and] civic life.” 

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]

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[1] Swan, Grant, and Lee (2013), 12

[2] Swan, Grant, and Lee (2013), 29

[3] Swan, Grant, and Lee (2013), 59

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid.

[6] VanSledright, Bruce. (2013). Can assessment improve learning? Thoughts on the C3 framwork. Social Education. Silver Spring, MN. NCSS: 77 (6).334-338.