Structured Academic Controversy

The social studies, as an academic discipline, is being relegated to the sidelines across our country, and this is especially true in North Carolina. From Oklahoma to Florida even to Britain and India, the humanities as a discipline have been given the short shrift by those in power. Some of this has to do with asserting that things like political science or economics are not as necessary or important as math or science. Some of this has to do with the notion that you don't need literature to make a bomb. Whatever the reasons, the humanities in general, and social studies in particular are being marginalized and it is negatively impacting students.

Eroding the perceived importance of the social studies is carried out in critical thinking. Are multiple choice tests teaching students critical thinking skills? Clearly they are not. One of the best ways to teach these critical thinking skills necessary for the 21st century is through the social studies, and more specifically, teaching social studies through a Structured Academic Controversy (SAC).
many ways. One of these ways is through standardized testing. States, districts, and schools place higher importance on subjects that have high stakes tests attached to them. If you eliminate the high stakes tests attached to social studies, you lower the degree of importance placed on them by most stakeholders. One of the things on which businesses in the US place a lot of emphasis is

SAC was developed by David and Roger Johnson out of the University of Minnesota. The purpose is to provide an alternative to debate with an either/or structure, but rather recognize controversy as something that doesn't need to be solved, per se. In this way, students learn to come to compromise without worrying about winning or losing. They also learn to recognize other points of view as being correct without abandoning their own perspective. Not only does this foster correct historical thinking, but the ability to take multiple points of view and synthesize new ideas is exactly the kind of critical thinking skill modern businesses would love to have in their employees.

How does SAC work? The teacher starts with an overarching historical question; one that does not have a simple answer and one that can be argued either way. Next, the teacher prepares documents to support both view points on the historical question. There will need to be three to four documents per side of the controversy. Some ideas for where to find the documents are listed below:

• Textbooks
• Library of Congress
• US Archives
• Stanford History Education Group
• Other specific websites dealing with the particular historical question

The students are then split into groups of four. Within each group of four, they will be broken down into two pairs. Each pair is given one set of documents. The documents will tell conflicting stories. The students take time in their pairs to read and discuss the documents, and then come up with their response to the historical question, citing evidence from the documents. Once both sets of pairs have had a chance to complete this, they come back together.
Then one pair presents their response to the question citing the evidence that backs them up. The other pair does not refute their perspective, but rather restates the first pair's opinion and their point of view, making sure that they were understood. Then the second pair presents their opinion with their evidence and the first pair restates for understanding. Once both pairs have presented, then they work towards reaching a consensus on the historical question. If no consensus is reached, then the two pairs need to clarify where the differences lie.

In his article about using this technique, George Jacobs refers to many of the benefits of using this sort of cooperative controversy in the classroom. First, it forces students to think, rather than just focusing on memorization of historical facts.Second, it increases the students intrinsic motivation. The goal would be that the students would be excited to come to their own conclusion from the evidence rather than just have the information told to them. Third, it increases the need and desire to cooperate. When most businesses today focus on how well employees can collaborate on teams, this should be a skill that is highly emphasized in schools. Fourth, it helps students accept ambiguity better. Sometimes, there is no undisputed "right" answer, and students ability to work within that ambiguity will increasingly help them think critically. 

In our present economic state, the demand for highly skilled workers who can think critically is out there, but much of our population is unprepared. Unprepared because we have spent the last 20 years focusing on multiple choice tests and only considering those subjects that might provide some sort of
strategic advantage over our presumed enemies. It is time to shift towards helping students think critically, and further their cognitive abilities and social studies classes, if taught correctly, can foster these skills better than most other disciplines.

References

Delany, E. (2013, December 1). Humanities Studies Under Strain Around the Globe. Retrieved May 14, 2015.

 Fallon, N. (2014, December 3). Is Your Team Missing This Important Business Skill? Retrieved May 15, 2015, from http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/7532-critical-thinking-in-business.html

Jacobs, G. M. (2010). The Academic Controversy Technique: Towards Cooperative Debates. Online Submission,

 Strauss, V. (2011, July 25). Teachers in a bind: Tests don’t measure critical thinking. Retrieved May 15, 2015, from http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/teachers-in-a-bind-tests-dont-measure-critical-thinking/2011/07/25/gIQAz84fZI_blog.html

 Teaching History.org, home of the National History Education Clearinghouse. (n.d.). Retrieved May 15, 2015, from http://teachinghistory.org/teaching-materials/teaching-guides/21731