In an attempt to provide pre-service teachers with the opportunity to realistically address controversial issues that promotes social competence, a class project is undertaken that addresses the creationism versus evolution debate. Pre-service teachers in an elementary social studies and science methods course participate in a combined class project. The project involves lectures on three major topics: due process, creationism, and evolution, a court trial where two opposing groups defend their positions; and completion of pre- and post test with items about (...) evolution, creationism, due process, and learning via simulation and debate. Results of a mixed Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) indicate a significant pre-to-post effect in understanding due process at p. <.01. Similarly, the four-point rubric for short essay written response show an increase in understanding of due process from 1.6 to 1.9. At the beginning of the project, students evidenced a limited understanding of due process and apprehension about controversial issues. Based on the data gathered at the conclusion of the project, students showed an increased understanding of due process, were able to embrace controversy, and had learned the value and difficulty of teaching controversial issues. (shrink)

This article provides a brief overview of the qualities of American presidential leadership as well as two rubrics that social studies students can utilize to analyze candidates for the presidency in the past, present, and future. Presidents often exhibit certain characteristics or attributes that make them effective leaders. These abilities include an effective communication style, organizational skill, a vision of public policy, cognitive style, political skill, and emotional intelligence. Given these characteristics, it is important for social studies students to categorize (...) and assess leadership qualities of presidential candidates in order to reach an objective and informed decision. This article provides a two-part rubric that students can adopt. The first rubric includes basic information or criteria such as education, military experience, political experience, and others while the second advanced rubric includes the different presidential qualities as criteria. These rubrics provide a systematic process that students can utilize for assessing and categorizing presidential leaders. (shrink)

To the age-old debate over what it means to be human, the relatively new fields of sociobiology and artificial intelligence bring new, if not necessarily compatible, insights. What have these two fields in common? Have they affected the way we define humanity? These and other timely questions are addressed with colorful individuality by the authors of _The Boundaries of Humanity_._ Leading researchers in both sociobiology and artificial intelligence combine their reflections with those of philosophers, historians, and social scientists, while the (...) editors explore the historical and contemporary contexts of the debate in their introductions. The implications of their individual arguments, and the often heated controversies generated by biological determinism or by mechanical models of mind, go to the heart of contemporary scientific, philosophical, and humanistic studies. Contributors_: Arnold I. Davidson, John Dupré, Roger Hahn, Stuart Hampshire, Evelyn Fox Keller, Melvin Konner, Alan Newell, Harriet Ritvo, James J. Sheehan, Morton Sosna, Sherry Turkle, Bernard Williams, Terry Winograd. (shrink)