By:
Estanislao M. Mejia
“Generalizations
are a logical step in teaching. This will guide us to think critically about
the context of knowledge and help us transferring that knowledge to a variety
of topics within the social studies. After understanding the relationship
between “fact” and “concept” students will be capable of producing high-quality
generalizations that eliminate isolation of ideas and stimulate crossover and
relevance to the social studies curriculum.”[1]
Particularly,
in Social Studies content, there are three elements to consider: these are facts, concepts and generalizations. These three concepts go
together. They are interconnected and intertwined. In the definition above, “it is a logical
step in teaching...” “Generalization is the ability to discern between fact and
concept.”[2]
It is a step by step process. First we have the facts, and then out of these
facts we form concepts and end up to generalizations.
We have
learned that knowledge is experiential. Knowledge starts from our sense
perceptions. This knowledge are formed from our five faculties namely, sense
of touch, sense of smell, sense of feeling, sense of
hearing, and sense of taste. These are percepts. Thus, it is confirmed by empirical evidences.
These percepts are self evident. We need not to prove it wither these exist or
not. However, the process of cognition must be followed naturally.
In Latin
(A Scholastic maxim derived from Aristotle) "Nihil est in intellectu quod
non prius in sensu". This is also an empiricist maxim that in its most
basic form states that "knowledge arises from evidence gathered via sense
experience". This is often contrasted with rationalism which argues that
certain concepts and knowledge are innate and "gained a priori,
independently of experience".
II. Teaching Facts, Concepts, and Generalizations
You have to teach it all: facts, concepts, generalizations,
hypotheses and all other forms
of social studies knowledge. And
you have to teach it all at once in some artful blend because none of it can
exist in isolation. Concepts rely on facts, but facts are not meaningful except
as they relate to concepts and generalizations. It is all a complex, interdependent
structure, each layer relying on the layer above and below for support and
cohesion. Pull one component out, and the structure collapses. Existing methods
of teaching do not provide much help in deciding how each of these elements can
be taught together or even sequentially for optimal student learning. Learning
is a construction process. Students build understanding, piece by piece and
often in highly individualistic ways. Not all students learn the same way. It
is up to us to help them in the endeavor.[3]
Some
curriculists said that the “existing methods of teaching do not provide much
help in deciding how each of these elements can be taught together or even
sequentially for optimal student learning. Learning is a construction process.
Students build understanding, piece by piece and often in highly
individualistic ways. Not all students learn in the same way. It is up to us to
help them in the endeavor.”[4]
One
of the most important implications of the new Essential Standards for instruction
in K-12 Social Studies classrooms is the focus on teaching to Big Ideas. How to
deal with these BIG IDEAS is our task. It is our task to uncover the transferable lessons of Social
Studies through the process of understanding, the role of generalizations in
the teaching and learning process as well as how to write generalizations.[5]
Generalizations
are statements about relationships between and among concepts. Generalizations
are true and verifiable for all cases on the basis of the best evidence available.
For example, if you were once bitten by an Askal (a fact), you cannot generalize
that all Askals bite. If, however, you had evidence that all Askals bite, you
could make the generalization, “Askals bite. ”Generalizations organize and
summarize information obtained from the analysis of facts. A generalization is
usually a broad assertion. In contrast, a fact is a truth only about a particular
incident or case.[6]
Dr.
Robert Sweetland in his Facts,
Concepts, and Generalizations - Explanations, Examples, and Instructional Ideas
defined generalizations as the summary statements of relationships between
concepts, the summary statements of cause and effect, or the summary statements
of predictions of future relationships. Furthermore, generalizations are
powerful as they provide a way to consolidate information to make it more
usable and easier to remember. Laws, principles, and theories are all kinds of
generalizations. These generalizations require the connection of concepts by a
relationship. Relationships can only be built with direct observational
evidence and reasoning. Good teaching practices will mediate both.[7]
III. Forming Generalizations Skill
Textbooks
contain thousands of facts. Because there are so many facts, it is sometimes
difficult to understand how they relate to one another and what their
underlying meaning might be. One way to synthesize, or combine, a group of
facts is to form generalizations. A generalization is a broad statement that
describes a situation in terms of what is generally true. Most generalizations
are used to connect different facts about the same situation or topic.
HOW TO FORM GENERALIZATIONS[8]
1. Collect
information about the topic. As you read your textbook or other material,
gather as many facts as you can about a particular topic or event. Make sure
the facts come from trustworthy sources. Although you can be sure that all of
the facts presented in textbooks published have been checked and verified, this
is not always true of everything you read or hear. If the facts are incorrect,
your general statement about the facts will be incorrect. ( e.g. Gregorio
Zaide’s 1st Mass location in the Philippines, Mazau in Butuan? Masua
in Southern Leyte? )
2. Look
for relationships among the facts. Ask yourself what the facts have in
common and what links them. Determine if the evidence forms a pattern. For
example, the statements “Pedro likes tamarind,” “Pedro likes unripe mango
carabao,” and “Pedro likes kalamansi” are related in that they concern fruits
that Pedro likes and that those fruits are sour in taste. Thus the evidence
forms a pattern.
3. Form
a general statement about the related facts. Remember that when forming a
generalization, all of the specific evidence must lead to the same general
conclusion. If any of the facts do not fit, the generalization will not be
correct. For example, knowing that Pedro likes tamarind, mango carabao, and
kalamansi could lead you to make the general statement that Pedro likes sour
fruits. If you know, however, that Pedro likes tamarind and kalamansi but hates
sour fruits, you could not make the same generalization.
4. Make
sure your generalization is valid. Keep in mind that your generalization
must take into account all of the facts but must not make claims that the facts
do not support. For example, if you hear a loud crash and the screech of metal,
see a group of people gathering in the street, and then hear the siren of an
approaching ambulance, you could use these facts to make the general statement
that an accident has occurred. You could not, however, use these facts to say
that there has been an accident involving an automobile and a motorcycle.
Generalizations
is also called enduring understandings. Big ideas, or essential understandings,
are the conceptual ideas or lessons of social studies that being known or
learned. Generalizations are derived from making the connection between at
least 2 concepts.[9]
In order for us to fully understand how generalizations
are formed from the curriculum standards, we need to briefly review the
structure of knowledge. Here we will see the role of generalizations as well as
how to construct them.
In
a traditional curriculum framework, we would usually begin by identifying a
topic that we wanted the students to study. For example, The Filipino Revolts
during the Spanish Period.
Then, we teach a set
of facts related to the topic and assess the students on how well they can
remember that set of facts. Following this model of curriculum design doesn’t
work anymore because there are so many facts to learn and so little time in
which to teach. Students are unable to remember all of the facts because they
rarely get the opportunity to think deeply about the content. This is a
traditional coverage-centered curriculum.
If
we want students to acquire more intellectual depth in the Social Studies and
transfer those facts to new events, situations, places, and cultures, then we
must teach to a higher level of abstraction. In this way, students will be able
to organize all of those facts around concepts and generalizations.
So,
instead of stopping at the factual level, we must identify the key concepts
that will add deeper meaning to the topic under study. Remember that concepts
are timeless, universal, abstract, and have many different examples. So we can
use them to organize our topic-based curriculum. For this particular unit, The
Filipino Revolts During Spanish Period, we may think about the concepts that we
could teach like: global interactions, political ideology, innovation, values
and beliefs, revolutions or even industrialization, global marketplace, or
political and economic power.
Once
we have identified the concepts to be learned out of that particular topic,
then we should begin to ask ourselves, what ideas can I help my students derive
from this study that they can transfer through time, across cultures, and
across other situations?
These
transferable ideas could be categorized as either principles or
generalizations. Principles are the foundational trusts of a discipline such as
the law of supply and demand in economics. Generalizations do not rise to the
level of principles, but are important conceptual ideas that students need to
internalize in order to have deep understanding of their subject area.
An example of a
generalization that we could write that would be supported by the factual study
of the Filipino Revolts During Spanish Period might be: New political ideas may
lead to revolution. Notice the two concepts in this example are political ideas
and revolution. This generalization is an important idea because it transfers
beyond the study of the Filipino Revolts During Spanish Period. It applies
across different time periods, different cultures, and different situations.
Another generalization that supports the
topic: The Filipino Revolts During Spanish Period could be: Technological
advancement often transforms the global marketplace.
A third example could be: Nations with
greater economic power usually yields more political power in world affairs.
Here is another example of a transferable
idea that students may derive from the topic: the Filipino Revolts During
Spanish period. A people’s values and beliefs shape their interactions with
other people.
Conclusion:
Generalizations
are “big ideas” while facts are specific and limited. Generalizations come from
an analysis of many sets of facts.
Before a generalization is proven, it is a hypothesis. Hypotheses are potential generalizations. There
are two ways to organize activities which help students to develop
generalizations or prove hypotheses (potential generalizations), the inductive
(discovery) approach or the deductive (expository) approach. Both methods require students to understand
the relationships among items and to be actively involved in learning. Facts,
concepts, and generalization are inseparable in the teaching-learning method.
References
Banks, James A., with Ambrose A. Clegg, Jr., Teaching
Strategies for the Social Studies:
Inquiry, Valuing, and
Decision Making, Third Edition, New York: Longman,
1985.
Bremen High School District 228 , How
to teach Generalization, 2002-2015, Blackboard,
Inc. Available:
http://www.schoolwires.com (December 2015)
Dr. Robert Sweetland, Facts, Concepts,
and Generalizations - Explanations, Examples, and Instructional Ideas, Available:
http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml (December 2015)
Erickson,
H.L. (2007). Concept-Based Curriculum and Instruction for the Thinking Classroom.(Department of Public
Instructions North Carolina, USA) p.98.
Fraenkel,
Jack R., Helping Students Think and Value: Strategies for Teaching the Social Studies, Second Edition, New Jersey:
Prectice-Hall, 1980.
Jarolimek, John and Clifford D. Foster, Teaching and
Learning in the Elementary School,
New York: Macmillan, 1985.
Marzano, Robert, Dimensions of Thinking: A Framework for
Curriculum and Instruction, Alexandria,
VA: ASCD, 1988.
SSCED Tool Kit, Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment
Strategies, Available/PDF/. Retrieved
December 2015 from http://www.socstrp.org ( December 2015)
[1] Shiveley, J.M., & Micso, T. (2009) Reclaiming
Generalizations in Social Studies Education: Social Studies Research &
Practice, 4 (2), 73-78. Retrieved December 2015 from
http://www.socstrp.org/issues/PDF/4.2.6.pdf
[2] Ibid.
[3] SSCED
Tool Kit, Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment Strategies, Available/PDF/. Retrieved
December 2015 from http://www.socstrp.org ( December 2015)
[4] Ibid.
[5] Erickson,
H.L. (2007). Concept-Based Curriculum and Instruction for the Thinking
Classroom.(Department of Public Instructions North Carolina, USA) p.98.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Dr.
Robert Sweetland, Facts, Concepts, and Generalizations - Explanations,
Examples, and Instructional Ideas, Available: http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml (December
2015)
[8] Bremen High School
District 228 , How to teach Generalization, 2002-2015, Blackboard, Inc.
Available: http://www.schoolwires.com
(December 2015)
