Developing an Online Social Studies Resource:
Needs Assessment Phase

Carolyn Awalt
Patricia Ainsa
University of Texas at El Paso

Introduction
     In the past several years many changes were implemented in teacher education in Texas. These changes have impacted universities. In 2002, the State Board for Educator Certification implemented a new program that includes standards to establish a seamless, cohesive system of education in order to align mandated student curriculum with educator certification. The program combines content and professional knowledge and skills that a new entry-level teacher should have. The areas that are tested for certification are Pedagogy and Professional Responsibility, Literacy, Mathematics, Social Science, Science, and Fine Arts/Health.

     Test results show that the area of Social Studies challenges students beyond the degree that other areas challenge. The area of Social Studies or Social Science is one of the broad areas that encompass many concepts. Within Social Science the concepts of History, Geography, Economics, Government, Citizenship, Culture, and Science, Technology and Society (the social and environmental consequences of scientific discovery and technological advances.) A beginning teacher must have mastered the content knowledge in all areas of Social Science and be prepared to teach it.

     Understanding online education today is not aided by the history of educational computing. Computer-assisted instruction or computer-based instruction focused on electronic curriculum materials. Students would interact with the materials to learn specific content. Individualized learning experiences and problem sets with feedback characterized the style of pedagogy in early computer-assisted instruction. The theory behind the early attempts was behavioral and early cognitive learning theory. This type of instruction persisted because there was ample empirical evidence in terms of student achievement or learning outcomes.

     The current situation of online education encompasses the future direction of teaching and learning. It involves collaboration, connectivity, student-centeredness, eliminates boundaries, incorporates community, provides exploration, shares knowledge, provides multisensory experiences, and authenticity.

     One of the most noticeable single changes that online education brings is collaboration among students and teachers, and students and with fellow students. Since there are online projects that involve information sharing, collaboration is increased. As for connectivity, students easily connect with one another through email and conferencing online. Although in most online classes, faculty create and organize curriculum, students determine the direction of the class by their participation and activities. Thus, student-centeredness yields more self-responsibility for learning. By increasing accessibility and connectivity, the online community is developed. Virtual communities unite people around common interests worldwide on the web, just as discussion groups unite students in an online classroom. With all of the resources on the web, discovery learning is simple and usually problem-based. The shared knowledge is there for the searching. For better or for worse, everyone can author or publish on the internet. Multimedia technology available on the web can be geared to individual learning styles, and incorporate various kinds of media. As for authenticity, students can access real experts and databases of the actual subject instead of simulated examples. Increasingly, the world’s technical literature is found online.

Test Scores and Identifying Needs - Qualifying Exams (see Tables 1 and 2)

     Before the students take the state content exams, they must pass a local university qualifying exam. There are four Social Studies competencies on the EC-4 exams. On average they score a 69. On the EC-4 Generalist/Bilingual qualifying exam, students on average, score a 76 on the Social Studies domain of the Qualifying Exam. Students have the most difficulty with demonstrating knowledge of geographic relationships among people, place and environments in Texas; as well as understanding the concept of culture and social science skills.

     On the 4-8 Generalist/Bilingual qualifying exam, the students on average score a 62 on the Social Studies domain of the qualifying exam. On this exam, there are seven social studies competencies and students score the lowest (average 55) on demonstrating an understanding of geographic relationships involving people, place and environment in Texas, the United States, and world as defined by the Texas Education Knowledge and Skills.

     On the social studies composite qualifying exam for grades 4-8 certification. Only five UTEP students in the last year have attempted the TExES exam. Three of these students have passed the exam. On average students need to take this qualifying exam twice to pass and be allowed to take the state certification exam. The average score of these students is a 242. Only 16 UTEP students have attempted the 8-12 Social Studies qualifying exam. Eleven of these students have passed the exam. Students usually need to take this exam twice before passing. The average score of these students is a 233.

State Certification Exams

     From April, 2004 to May, 2005, 19 students have attempted to pass the Texas Social Studies Composite Certification Exam for Grades 4-8. Thirteen of the nineteen students passed on the first try. Two passed on the second try. One student has taken the test five times in that interval and failed each time. One has taken it twice and failed each time, and two others have not attempted to take the test again after the first failure.

     In the same period, 45 students attempted to pass the Texas Social Studies Composite Certification Exam for Grades 8-12. The table below delineates the student’s efforts. Most significant are those 11 who stopped after 1-3 tries. Two students have failed the test six times from 2004 to 2005. (See Table 6)

Identification of the Problem

     Increasingly, school principals and human resource departments are requiring that teacher applicants pass the state content test before being considered for a teaching position. Considering that the test costs $82 for each administration, inadequate preparation for testing can be very costly to the individual as well as damaging the reputation of the university.

Required Course Preparation:

     Elementary (Early Childhood to fourth grade) and middle school (Grades 4-8) generalist and bilingual generalist preservice preparation includes only 12 hours of social studies. The social studies specialist for middle school is required to have 24 semester hours in one subject area with 12 of those hours being upper division courses and an additional 12 hours in a combination of the other areas with at least 3 semester hours in all areas (history, political science, geography and economics). The requirements for high school are identical except that the number of additional hours in other areas is 24.

     In 1989 the Texas legislature passed a bill requiring all college of education to change their degree plans by 1991 to mandate that students take their content courses outside of the college of education in the appropriate college of the university. Thus, social studies majors would get a degree in interdisciplinary studies with a major and a minor in different social studies areas. Until recently, professors in those areas have not been aware of the relationship of their courses and state social studies credentialing examinations. To further complicate the preparation process, the university professors readily admit that their “philosophical” approach to history differs from the state of Texas’ philosophy found in the questions on the certification tests.

     Many students take all courses for the first two years at the local El Paso Community College because of its cheaper tuition, availability of classes, smaller student to teacher ratio, multiple campuses – none of which are generally more than 20 minutes away from a student’s home, and parking is ample. Unfortunately, the social studies courses at the community college and those at UTEP have never been reviewed for alignment with the state-testing framework.

     Officially only 1 in 4 students graduate from UTEP in 6 years. Some take as many as 8-10 years because of family obligations and the necessity to work to pay tuition. As a consequence, the student taking any of the exams may not have taken a social studies course recently!  Some will be taking the exam three to five years after taking their last social studies course.

     In addition, although there are a multitude of test preparation manuals in the market place, there are very few that focus on social studies.

Design and Development - Development Methodology

     Most online learning resources are developed using the Instructional Systems Development model. Using this model, the project is divided into five stages; analysis, design, production, implementation, and evaluation. This is particularly useful in that details are known before any development begins. Considering the cost of online development, this is a good idea. Form (aesthetics) and function (usability) are categories of design principles that have to do with screen design and interactivity and the processing of user actions. One necessary design consideration is the creation of programs that are usable by people with disabilities. Input and output must be amenable to alternative processing. A team approach is used to develop online resources. It is rare for one individual to possess the range of skills needed to take the project to completion. Faculty (experts in content matter), graphic designers (experts in aesthetics), and technical support (experts in keeping the online resource up and running), are the basics of any online design team.

Specific Rational for Online Design:

1. Time restrictions can be detrimental to learning. Since all students learn at different rates, faster learners do not like to wait and can loose interest if they have to wait for the slower learners to understand a concept. Slower learners can get lost if the class pace is too fast for their learning style. Web based instruction can be timed according to the individual student.
2. It can be difficult to get competent instructors to teach the review courses for Social Studies certification tests. A well-designed web based instruction module is free of instructor dependency.
3. The online resource will be based on the TExES Standards, domains, and competencies so that all areas of testing will be covered by the web-based resource review.
4. The web-based instrument will allow for repeated practice as desired by the student utilizingthe exam training. A learner can work as little or as long as he/she desires with the resource.
5. With a web based online exam, test questions could be validated and instructors or developers could obtain feedback on what to improve or change. Instructors could know which areas to reinforce in a classroom by receiving feedback from missed items or competencies or domains on a test.

Conclusion

     The design model of the online resource will solve the problems and meet the needs of students who are failing to grasp the knowledge and concepts involved in teaching social studies sufficiently to enable passing certification test scores. The web-based design will be free of instructor or time restrictions; it will be based on the TExES competencies; it will allow for unlimited repeated practice; it could yield qualifying exams; it could take the place of inadequate test preparation sessions, and it could be used to validate test items. In the future, the possibility of an online journal could develop as part of the resource. This journal could stand alone, or coordinate with another journal. The dissemination of basic knowledge and teaching skill information toward teacher certification in the area of social studies is a void that must be filled.

Table 1. Scores on EC-4 State Certification Exams

      Domain 1 – English, Language Arts and Reading (40% of test)

      Domain 2 – Mathematics (15% of test)

      Domain 3 – Social Studies (15% of test)

      Domain 4 – Science (15% of test)

      Domain 5 – Fine Arts, Health, PE (15% of test)

Table 2. Scores on EC-4 Bilingual Generalist State Certification Exams

      Domain 1 – Bilingual Education ( 38% of test)

      Domain 2 – English, Language Arts and Reading (25% of test)

      Domain 3 – Mathematics (9.3% of test)

      Domain 4 – Social Studies (9.3% of test)

      Domain 5 – Science (9.3% of test)

      Domain 6 – Fine Arts, Health, PE (9.3% of test)

Table 3. Scores on Grades 4-8 State Certification Exams

      Domain 1 – English, Language Arts and Reading (31% of test)

      Domain 2 – Mathematics (23% of test)

      Domain 3 – Social Studies (23% of test)

      Domain 4 – Science (23% of test)

Table 4. Scores on Grades 4-8 Bilingual Generalist State Certification Exams

      Domain 1 – Bilingual Education ( 33% of test)

      Domain 2 – English, Language Arts and Reading (21% of test)

      Domain 3 – Mathematics (15% of test)

      Domain 4 – Social Studies (15.5% of test)

      Domain 5 – Science (15.5% of test)

Table 5. Number of Students Attempting Grades 4-8 Social Studies Exam

Table 6. Number of Students Attempting 8-12 Social Studies Certification Exam

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