Archaeological Inquiry and Integrating Science and Social Studies: A Research Opportunity

Summary

Educators have long claimed that traditional school subjects should be integrated while archaeologists praise the ability of their discipline to bridge the divide between science, social studies, and many other subjects. While everyone seems to think that interdisciplinary teaching and learning is important and highly desirable, very little research has been conducted on students’ conceptual understanding of the relationship between science and social studies. In a case study, I assessed students’ understanding of interdisciplinary learning through archaeological inquiry and found that they were confused about the nature of both science and social studies and the relationship between the two. Additionally, I found that very little research on conceptual understanding of interdisciplinary science learning has ever been conducted. The preliminary findings from the case study and the lack of research point to a promising area for future research of prime relevance to archaeology education.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• Assessment in Archaeology Education: Project Archaeology Research

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 16024