The Stage-less Sage: Dimension 3 and the Democratization of Information

By Craig Perrier

August 23, 2014

This summer I have been getting excited about Dimension 3 of the Inquiry Arc, Evaluating Sources & Using Evidence.  My enthusiasm for this dimension coincides with curriculum work I’m doing on media literacy and historical thinking pedagogies. It’s got me thinking that in combination with curriculum and pedagogical knowledge, the C3 could be useful as a professional development tool. 

In Dimension 3, the emphasis is on skills that should be a part of any social studies course. In particular, the C3 argues for developing students’ skills to gather and evaluate sources, and then develop claims and use evidence to support those claims. The skills that students develop in this part of the inquiry process are timely, essential, invigorating, and transferable.

To return to my opening point, what is it that has gotten me so excited?  As I hinted in the title of this post it’s this notion of the democratization of information. This idea is rooted in the reality that students, teachers, and sources of information are in dynamic tension. That means teachers empower students to gather, assess, and use resources by facilitating learning experiences rather than delivering the finished products.  Let’s explore this creative pedagogical view a bit further.

First, Dimension 3 asks teachers to recognize information democratization in terms of access to information. The emphasis is on the use of multiple sources.

  • Gather relevant information from multiple sources representing a wide range of views…” 
  • Identify evidence that draws information directly and substantively from multiple sources to detect inconsistencies in evidence in order to revise or strengthen claims.”

In this regard, Dimension 3 reminds me of French philosopher Paul Ricoeur’s claim that “If it is true that there is always more than one way of construing a text, it is not true that all interpretations are equal.”

So, the challenge is for teachers to create a range of learning opportunities that allow for students to locate, understand, assess, and use lots of sources. It’s not a one shot deal. This can be a big challenge for some teachers who will need to shift, from being a performer and holder of knowledge to being a facilitator and developer of knowledge. Indeed, the entire C3 framework supports this change. Teaching is no longer, if it ever was meant to be, a stage for teachers to perform upon. 

To help in this process, I suggest the following continuum. It depicts a range of scenarios for teachers to support students in working with sources.

This continuum is, of course, only a start. Teachers must use their expertise and creativity to support students’ work with sources. In turn students should begin to think about how they work with sources in their everyday lives.

For teachers who proliferate the sage on the stage approach, Dimension 3 suggests a different metaphor; that is teacher as a director and producer of learning opportunities.  This vision of teaching reflects the realities of information access and really may very well move us closer to a more democratic social studies.