Learning Resources

Pearson To Debut New Social Studies Programs

• By Joshua Bolkan
• 11/19/14

Pearson will debut new social studies programs aimed at improving student engage at the secondary level.

The new programs include "American History" for middle schools and "World History," "United States History," "Marauder's American Government" and "Economics" for high school.

Collaboratively designed with "educators, experts and students from around the country," according to a news release, the programs "combine time-tested best practices" and technology and are aligned to the College, Career and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards. Developed last year by the National Council for the Social Studies, the new standards shift away from content delivery in favor of preparing students for life after classes.

"While much of the content in social studies hasn't changed, if we are going to engage today's students in learning this important subject, we must transform our instructional approach," said Kathy Swan, project director and lead writer on the C3 standards, and a collaborator on the new standards, in a prepared statement. "Today's technology provides us with a new way of immersing students in learning about history, geography and culture by personalizing content and actively involving them in thinking in different ways."

Features include:

• Digital and print resources designed for active learning;
• Quick recap exercises;
• myStory videos, designed with NBC Learn, to help students make personal connections with people and places from around the world;
• Access to NBC Learn's 17,000 education videos for the 2015-16 school year;
• "Civic Discussion Topic" inquiries, developed with the Constitutional Rights Foundation (CRF);
• Built-in progress monitoring;
• Formative and summative assessments; and
• Embedded professional development for teachers.

"If we are going to educate 21st century learners, it is crucial that we take a 21st century approach, integrating all of the powerful tools and resources that we have available into an engaging and interactive learning environment," said Pearson's Managing Director for Learning Services Bethlam Forsa, in a prepared statement. "Through our collaboration with educators, experts and other leading education organizations, we reimagined social studies to develop programs that will provide students with a foundation for success in college, career and civic life."

The new programs are currently available for pilot programs and will be available for implementation  in fall 2015. More information is available at pearson.com.