Teaching higher-order thinking in social studies: The role of content coverage and intellectual challenge

Highlights: − Higher-order thinking is central in education for democracy and citi-zenship. − It requires student access to content knowledge and encouragement to partake in advanced inferential analysis. − Our findings indicate that the two knowledge and analysis have different importance among the teachers in the three contexts. Purpose: The aim of this study was to explore opportunities to develop higher-order thinking for students in social studies, with a focus on teach-ers' content coverage and support for engaging in social studies analysis. Design/methodology/approach: A video study using naturalistic classroom observations of 80 social studies lessons was conducted in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden using a predefined observation manual. Findings: The findings showed different patterns of emphasis on content coverage and intellectually demanding analyses across classrooms in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. Practical implications: The findings contribute empirical knowledge about naturally occurring classroom practices that can be used for professional development. They also highlight how contextual factors may influence teaching in social studies