Controversial Issues in Social Studies Curriculum Essay

In the article, â€Å"Controversial Issues and Democratic Discourse†, Hess (2011) explored the implications of incorporating Controversial Issues (CI) into Social Studies lesson. She included multifarious research findings from studies conducted in Social Studies classrooms in US and delved further to discuss its implications on teachers and students. This review aims to summarize the main research findings and contextualise its implication on the teaching and learning of Social Studies in Singapore. According to studies carried out in US schools, research findings showed that CI discussions were actively carried out in Social Studies classrooms where students claimed to have discussed about their differing opinions on political and social†¦show more content†¦On one hand, Hess explained that the discerning process in selecting appropriate issues is critically important as another main research finding has shown that there are evidence of students being disengaged from the discussion because the issue has personal relevance that are deemed as sensitive to them. Research studies surfaced the various personal reasons such as being wary of the judgment of their peers, issues that evoked anger and anxiety and also subliminal segregations in class that teachers need to be aware of. Nevertheless, studies provided alternatives such as online participation; and it has also proven that students’ political engagement is enhanced when they are able to grasp the ideology of the normalization of conflict and are familiar to the concept of accepting differing opinions in discussion. On the other hand, further studies have shown that the inclusion of CI discussions develops civic outcomes and democratic values as students display increasing tolerance towards others over time. 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