 Social Studies Guiding principles (OSPI)
1. Focus on enduring understanding. The GLEs focus on the big ideas in civics, economics, geography, and history that
will help students understand and analyze the world. Facts are critically important – but facts should be the building blocks for understanding trends, ideas, and principles, not stand-alone bits of memorized data.
2. Promote authentic intellectual work. Students should have the opportunity to engage in disciplined inquiry, to construct their own knowledge through independent research and analysis, and to develop skills and understandings that have value beyond school.
3. Strike the right balance between depth and breadth. It would be impossible to teach students about every important topic in socials studies and, at the same time, to provide students with the in-depth learning experiences they need to become skilled researchers, analysts, and practitioners of democratic values.
4. Incorporate multiple perspectives and cultural awareness. Students in our schools come from a wealth of cultural backgrounds. All students must find relevance to their own frame of reference, and respect for their group’s historical perspective in the social studies curriculum. Moreover, all students should learn to identify and analyze the perspectives of the authors they read. |
