How to study social studies in a time of a pandemic

In the year 1658 Amos Comenius He published his children’s book, Comenius. This post took twenty-five years to “present everything to the greatest possible number of senses”. It was a kind of encyclopedia and considered The first illustrated book for the social sciences and natural sciences. Each one featured pictures, words and explanations in two columns (Latin and colloquial). It was used until the middle of the nineteenth century.

Today, in times of a pandemic, social science educators have become a “great Comenius” thinking about designing and organizing educational materials that enhance motivation, using educational technical tools and the intention of every student and student learning.

Proposing pedagogical and innovative strategies for learning the social sciences in and outside the classroom is a challenge for educators in the region. Francisco Cagiao He highlights that the goal of teaching social sciences is to ensure that a person is able to think comprehensively about his individual events, immersed in his social environment, as a result of a historical process in which human groups have built ways of organizing, defining, loving, defending, expressing, producing and interpreting reality.

Realism, Accurate Presence, and Blended Learning Speed ​​up the process for students to face new scenarios Sharing devices – or not being forced to share – realizing a good Internet or continuing to record on paper. Others receive items on their devices sitting in their favorite chairs, while sipping their favorite soft drink or engaging in other interactive activities while they set aside student representations on their desk with their book, notepad, and pencil.

New streams pass through us thinking about educational material designs and access and inclusion approaches such as those of Howard Gardner Or the Inclusive Learning Design. Each subject should represent a special format that leads to a specific narrative, to a roadmap that guides students in their learning path. In this way, allocate efforts into collaborative work and active learning, that is, in response to learning opportunities that your teacher designs.

Aesthetic or sensory access is stimulated through nurturing in the form of the avoidance of physical and behavioral barriers, for learning, for everyone’s participation and language differentiation or classification. Basically, kind of access to experiences Holding hands. Can we launch this kind of experience in the social sciences? The answer is a big yes. Let’s launch educational materials that allow us to create new looks through images, video libraries, or audio libraries, share ideas in a conversation or debate, choose new tracks using simulations and interactive maps, think about podcasts, investigate or create games for others who They want to play. Let’s create poetry on digital walls, let’s read poems by recording our voices, let’s draw visual poetry on a screen or on a sheet of paper.

Maybe they weren’t like encyclopedias Orbis Pictus But it’s cool works that allow it Students strengthen their skills by communicating in different ways, Investigating different topics, asking questions with critical thinking and reflection, allowing them to develop their independence and work essentially independently. They are also great works because they are provided so that everything is served to the widest possible number of senses ”and we learn to learn together and take care.

Maria Laura Videla is Professor of History, Degree in History, Degree in Education, Specialized in Teaching Social Sciences and History (FLACSO) and MA in Educational Technology.

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