There has been substantial research conducted in the field of
social studies education relating to effective instructional
pedagogy. However, many research studies fail to take into
account one very important variable: How do the students enjoy
learning social studies? This paper is a survey research study
designed to see what a group of middle school students liked
and disliked about social studies instruction. The purpose of this
research is to gain a better understanding of what instructional
methods the students enjoy in the social studies classroom. By
analyzing the students’ perspective of effective instruction,
teachers can begin to design lessons incorporating methods that
have been proven to maximize student interest in the social
studies classroom.