When students gripe about schoolwork, a common complaint is that the subject in question won’t be helpful for them in their lives after high school. In social studies, where students are obliged to study events in the seemingly distant past, it can be especially hard for them to grasp the relevance of the material to their everyday lives. Without this vital connecting point, students often struggle with staying engaged, and this lack of engagement is one of several challenges that social studies teachers are hard-pressed to overcome.
Teachers also face hurdles in ensuring their students’ retention of the course material. The need to cover a broad curriculum while promoting deeper understanding and critical thinking can be a difficult balance to strike. Additionally, it’s important for students to not only remember key facts but also develop lasting civic engagement and a sense of responsibility. In school environments where standardized testing pressures can overshadow more impactful participatory learning, all of this can be a demanding and difficult task.
Social studies teachers can overcome engagement and retention challenges by making the material more relevant and meaningful to students — something that the learning program THINKING PRO can help them excel at. By connecting lessons to local issues that students care about, THINKING PRO encourages them to see the real-world impact of the subjects they're studying. This connection not only sparks their interest but also fosters a deeper understanding of how history, government, and civic action affect their communities.
In addition, THINKING PRO equips students with critical thinking skills that are applicable both in and beyond the classroom. These skills enable students to analyze complex problems, make informed decisions, and engage in thoughtful civic participation, laying a foundation for long-term personal growth and social responsibility.
In the following case study, social studies teacher Mona Mustafa and her students from Paterson, New Jersey, show how THINKING PRO promotes student engagement and retention for targeted and impactful results.
Promoting Student Engagement Through Local Issues
Mona Mustafa has been implementing THINKING PRO in 9th and 10th grade history courses since the 2022-23 school year. She focuses on connecting current news events with the local history of Paterson, utilizing the THINKING PRO framework to boost student engagement. By tapping into what students care about, THINKING PRO makes historical and civic topics feel more relevant, encouraging them to engage with the material on a deeper level. Additionally, the program adapts to students’ comfort levels, allowing them to learn at their own pace without feeling overwhelmed.
This personalized approach has yielded strong results: according to student surveys, 80% of participants reported feeling comfortable learning at their own speed, and 77% found THINKING PRO to be engaging and motivating. Mona even recounted her excitement at how her IEP and low-achieving students engaged deeply and produced unexpectedly high learning outcomes.
Among her students, THINKING PRO’s Capstone Project was a favorite method of engagement. By allowing students to pick local issues that resonate with them, these projects drew students in. One Patterson student said of THINKING PRO,
The Capstone Project was most useful to me because it gave me motivation to research and develop a cause that is relevant and helpful to my community.
These outcomes and testimonies highlight the program’s ability to make social studies more accessible, relevant, and inspiring for students, fostering a more active and invested approach to their learning.
Retention of Knowledge and Skills: Education, Not Regurgitation
Other important goals of Mona’s are to improve the writing skills of her students and fulfill the state’s new critical media literacy requirement. THINKING PRO has equipped her to do both — in a way that sticks with students. The THINKING PRO pretest and posttest, featuring 12 items that assess critical thinking, reading comprehension, and news media literacy, show striking results: 89% of Mona’s students improved their scores from pretest to posttest.
Furthermore, in student surveys, 75% said THINKING PRO empowered them with thinking tools relevant for decision making, and 72% said THINKING PRO helped them be more mindful of how they engage with the news.
One of Mona’s students says:
I think that getting to choose my own cause that I wanted to research was most memorable. It helped me learn more about what’s happening in my community, as well as my country. It was something I was passionate about too. The project helped me expand my knowledge.
Mona herself writes,
I appreciated how the THINKING PRO system gave students targeted skills and gave them the tools to make them more effective readers and thinkers.
Overall Impact
THINKING PRO fosters engagement and retention through personalized, project-based learning, helping students see the real-world impact of history and civic action. Mona Mustafa is only one of many social studies teachers to see impressive results, with students showing increased motivation and improved critical thinking and media literacy skills. THINKING PRO empowers students to take ownership of their learning, making social studies more meaningful and impactful — and preparing them with needed skills to navigate the world around them.
Mona Mustafa writes:
In a time when it is more important than ever for youth to be knowledgeable consumers of news, this program gives them the tools they need to distinguish between reliable and unreliable sources. It allows them to connect directly to the news coming out of their local community and gives them the power/agency to choose issues that matter to them.
Breathe New Life Into Social Studies With THINKING PRO
THINKING PRO is a powerful tool that helps social studies teachers engage students by connecting lessons to local issues they care about. With its personalized learning approach and focus on critical thinking, it makes history and civic education relevant and impactful. Try THINKING PRO today to inspire students, improve retention, and foster lasting civic engagement.