The Usefulness of Educational Research in Curricular/Instructional Decision-Making in Social Studies

The usefulness of educational research for curricular/instructional decision-making in social studies education is questioned on several grounds including the frequent lack of clearcut implications of findings for practice because of alternative value and factual assumptions, the lack of cumulative findings relevant to the “real life” of the school, the inadequate understanding of science as a knowledge-building endeavor that underlies much educational research, and the difficulty of making decisions about individual students based on “central tendency” findings. Research findings, it is suggested, do have heuristic value for teachers as sources of alternatives for instruction and for classroom research. Past studies may serve as a basis for further, more productive research in social studies education, but a thorough reassessment of research methods, strategies and aims is urged.