This hour-long virtual professional development session (recorded) for social studies educators addresses the following questions – and more:
- What is the relationship between controversial topics, problems, and issues?
- What are controversial political issues?
- What is the difference between an open and a settled issue, and an empirical and a policy issue?
- Why should we include controversial political issues in the school curriculum?
- What are key best practices about teaching young people to engage in discussions or deliberations of controversial political issues?
Presenter – Dr. Diana Hess, Dean of Education at the University of Wisconsin, co- author of The Political Classroom: Evidence and Ethics in Democratic Education and author of Controversy in the Classroom: The Democratic Power of Discussion
Host – Joe Schmidt, Social Studies Specialist at the Maine Department of Education