This study delves into the complex relationship between storytelling and historical understanding. Focused on how lower-secondary students employ narrative discourse in writing, it examines the extent to which their storytelling aids or limits historical comprehension. Drawing on systemic-functional linguistics and history education theories, the…

Historical empathy may be enhanced by virtual reality (VR) technologies, which provide varying degrees of immersion into other time periods and places. This study explored the effects of combining semi-immersive and fully immersive VR with a follow-up writing task to promote historical empathy with adult learners. Thirty-six participants were…

Background: Since its integration into the European Higher Education Area, the Spanish educational system has evolved, introducing innovations into university teaching methodologies. This new approach entails the development of capacities, competencies, and skills that enable students to develop their critical thinking. Objective: This work aims…

The past is not in the classroom to observe and study. Thus, creating a lively and understandable image of a past period or situation is an achievement to be learned. A variety of tasks can be used to stimulate students to create an image of the past. In this experimental study, 151 grade 9 students (14-16 years old) participated by completing a…

Drawing on data generated following the 2016 United States presidential election, in this article the author considers how a classroom makerspace made Black girls' literacies visible in new ways. During a six-week integrated humanities unit in a third-grade public school classroom in the Midwestern U.S., four Black girls used making to create a…

While the United States has a divisive history around the separation of church and state in public school, current national and state teaching standards do include curricular objectives related to the study of religion. This paper focuses on the ways a diverse group of sixth-grade public schoolchildren engaged with religious content in their…

In this experimental study, 151 middle school students explored 3 historical controversies, first reading and discussing primary source documents in groups, then writing arguments on their own. Students were either randomly assigned to an experimental condition, using argumentative schemes and critical questions as guides during discussions, or to…

Prompted by Cushman and Grabill's call to "ask and answer the difficult questions" about service learning ("Reflections" 2009), this article addresses the difficult question of "what happens when service learning goes wrong." Authors engaged in family history writing and service learning with a local historical group. When the project was unable…

Literacy skills taught in the elementary grades establish a good foundation but are not adequate for the demands of secondary content curriculum. In history, preservice teachers must be prepared with a solid content base along with the pedagogy for teaching that content. To better teach and enhance student writing, preservice teachers need to…

In his book, "A Whole New Mind", Daniel Pink champions the benefits of right-brained thinking: creativity, flexibility, empathy, and meaning. He stresses the need to not only be logical, but also aware of emotion; to not only be sequential, but also conceptual; and to not only be calculating, but also recognize value. The project described in this…

To address the disparity in the skills of entering students and the goals of the first-year learning community (LC) program, the authors created a series of scaffolded, or tiered, writing assignments around the concept of kingship to move students from summary to analysis to synthesis. For each assignment, the authors incorporate informal…

Recommends using time bonding (finding a role model and researching the process and story behind that individual's accomplishments) as a means to interest students in history. Outlines the instructions covering the objectives of the writing assignments. Students researched a variety of biographies including Jackie Robinson and Lyndon Johnson. (MJP)

Maintains that to encourage student discussion about history, students must have something to say and be willing to say it, and the teacher must be able to guide a discussion. Describes a secondary-level course in which student discuss assigned readings on an electronic mail bulletin board. (CFR)