The methods of teaching history in grades 6-12 have changed over the last few years to be more interactive and collaborative. More and more, teaching and learning revolves around an essential triad of inquiry, primary sources, and literacy in a collaborative classroom environment. "Teaching History Today" is about placing inquiry,…

This study addresses the need for improved pedagogical strategies in early childhood and elementary social studies education, focusing on reducing instructional disparities and opportunity gaps for lower socio-economic status (SES) students. Utilizing the wonder framework by Conijn et al. (2022), we propose a design-based approach to enhance…

What makes a successful student teaching experience? The purpose of this 18-month long project was to improve social science educator preparation through embedding skills and practices of teaching with primary sources into teacher preparation coursework associated clinical experiences. This project involved professional development opportunities…

There is synergy between the investigative practices of police detectives and social scientists, including work-based researchers. They both develop lines-of-inquiry and draw on multiple sources of evidence in order to make inferences about people, trends and phenomena. However, the principles associated with lines-of-inquiry and sources of…

In this article, the authors discuss how to explore the agency of ordinary citizens using local institutions to combat Jim Crow segregation laws during Freedom Summer. Primary sources from Miami (OH) University website about Freedom Summer and Susan Goldman Rubin's trade book ground the inquiry. Through the series of activities discussed, middle…

Social studies educators have encouraged the use of primary sources and inquiry in the classroom for decades; however, inquiry-based instruction in which students engage meaningfully with primary sources remains the exception rather than the norm. The publication of the College, Career and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State…

As advocates of engaging students in historical inquiry and of the use of primary sources to aid in this inquiry, we support the claims of numerous student benefits, such as learning to detect bias, appreciating the interpretive nature of historical thinking, and the drawing of conclusions based on judgments about evidence (Fehn & Koeppen,…

Students of history are expected to be able to interpret visual images as a source of primary evidence for historical inquiry, yet history teachers may not always place sufficient emphasis on pedagogies that consistently and specifically target the skills of visual interpretation. Developing understanding of visual evidence is sometimes left to…

The "International Society for the Social Studies (ISSS) Annual Conference Proceedings" is a peer-reviewed professional publication published once a year following the annual conference. The following papers are included in the 2014 proceedings: (1) Legal Profession in the Technological Era with Special Reference to Women Lawyers in…

This paper reports on the Digital Historical Inquiry Project, an initiative for developing activities and programs that enable preservice and inservice social studies teachers to learn the methods of digital historical inquiry and implement those methods in their teaching experiences. At one of the project sites, San Diego State University social…

The ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) Standards have put technology integration "on the map" for teacher educators, creating a useful reference point for guiding new teachers toward appropriate technology uses. The authors reflect on their work at a progressive teacher education college, assessing the strengths and…