Program Learning Outcomes for Adolescence Social Studies, BA/BS
Candidates who successfully complete all required components of the Adolescence Social Studies
program at SUNY New Paltz will:
• Content Knowledge: Demonstrate content area mastery by completing at least 30 hours of
coursework in social studies.
• Planning: Be able to plan lessons in social studies that are standards-based, clear and
organized, rely upon a variety of appropriate instructional strategies and appropriate
technologies, and differentiate instruction, providing opportunities to promote appreciation of
diversity, tolerance, and inclusion in safe, democratic, and equitable learning environments.
• Assessment and P-12 Learning: Be able to choose, design, and implement authentic and
appropriate formative and summative assessments to evaluate student learning, consider
assessment data when making instructional decisions, and identify effective or problematic
teaching moments as they are occurring in order to facilitate student growth in specified
content, cognitive skills, and/or social skills.
• Pedagogical Practice: Demonstrate the ability to maximize student learning by incorporating
content and pedagogical content knowledge, appropriate and effective technology, and a
variety of developmentally and contextually appropriate evidence-based instructional strategies
to make learning meaningful for students while teaching.
• Dispositions: Exhibit the knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary to practice an ethically
informed and self-reflective philosophy, participate effectively in institutional change, and
develop respectful relationships with students, families, communities and colleagues.
• Critical Thinking: Identify, analyze, and evaluate different methods of planning, assessing, and
teaching in order to develop well-reasoned arguments that support pedagogical decisions.
• Information Management: Use technology and basic research techniques in order to locate,
evaluate, and synthesize best-practices concepts in content knowledge, planning, assessment,
and pedagogical practice.
