The Role of Discussion in Generating Jurisprudential Reasoning in Social Studies

• In Event: Critical and Historic Thinking in Social Studies Teacher Education and Development

Abstract

In this paper, we present findings from a single-case study of a three-lesson mini-unit on executive orders. The students engaged in a concept lesson on five historic executive orders and a Structured Academic Controversy on President Obama’s DACA executive order. We analyze in this paper the student learning in terms of their use of facts, concepts, legal and ethical reasoning. We found that the lesson plan encouraged authentic debate and learning in these areas, but the teacher missed opportunities to probe student thinking. Our paper suggests the importance of strong discussion facilitation necessary to generate deep analysis of complex issues that attend to factual, definitional, legal, and ethical claims.

Author

• Jada Kohlmeier, Auburn University