Glossary of Key Terms

Central to a rich social studies experience is the capability for developing questions that can frame and advance an inquiry. Those questions come in two forms: compelling and supporting questions.

What is a Compelling Question?

• A question that focuses on enduring issues and concerns.
• A question that serves as a lens for interrogating the past, present and future.
• A question that addresses unresolved issues that require the person or group of people asking the question to construct evidence-based arguments in providing a response
• The use of compelling questions is not limited to the discipline of history

Compelling questions can be used to organize an entire course of study, or, as in middle and high school, to organize a particular unit of study

What are Supporting Questions?

• Questions that focus on descriptions, definitions, and processes about which there is general agreement within the social studies disciplines
• Questions that contribute essential knowledge and insights to the inquiry behind a compelling question.
• Questions that seeks to provide the context for addressing larger questions
• Questions that assist students in constructing explanations and arguments addressing larger questions.

The various core areas of study (disciplines) within social studies provide the intellectual context and lenses for studying how humans have interacted with each other and with the environment over time. Each of these disciplines—civics, economics, geography,  history, and the social sciences come equipped with a distinct set of disciplinary tools and methods that, when applied, offer  unique insights into the questions that they posit, as well as how they communicate the results of their inquiries. These disciplinary methods and tools constitute the habits of mind that both researchers and students apply in their inquiries within that field of study. These disciplinary approaches strongly influence the types of evidence that is sought out by each of the social studies disciplines. 

Note: "Using clickers," "taking quizzes or exams,"  "notetaking,"  etc. are NOT discipline-specific tools and methods! 

Students who have taken HIST315 should revisit the "Discipline Statements" handouts for ideas for identifying skills and habits of mind specific to each discipline.