Experimental archaeology is a vibrant and fascinating field that offers great opportunities for hands-on student learning in history. Although it is typically taught by archaeologists and anthropologists, it is certainly accessible and easily adapted to history courses. In addition to teaching "Introduction to Experimental Archaeology"…

Educators, legislators, and other segments of the general public have been in discussions related to evaluating history as an academic subject. Various individuals and groups have taken up the task of not just trying to decipher what history majors learn, but also how they are equipped to apply what they learn outside of academia. Since the Spring…

The moment many students begin to get excited about history is when they realize that much historical knowledge is contested, enmeshed in a productive argument that never ends and therefore endlessly fascinates. Such an epiphany might occur at any time. But a frequent catalyst is classroom debate, a formalized contest that dramatizes and vitalizes…

In this article, we investigated the level of transfer of authentic pedagogy among 12 classroom teachers after participating in a three-year professional development project using scaffolded lesson study. We met with teachers for 2 weeks each summer and provided historian-led content sessions and teacher educator facilitated model pedagogy…

This article reports on a study that repositioned elementary students in new roles as active, critical participants in historical inquiry--roles that required a more mature epistemic stance. It reports 5th-grade students' responses to instructional methods intended to help them understand the nature of historical knowledge, appreciate the work of…

This article presents the findings of an exploratory study that investigated how users of archival material deal with the copyright-like restrictions that archives place on reuse of their holdings. In interviews with seventeen historians and genealogists, the author explored their awareness of copyright when reproducing archival holdings, their…

To prepare students for participation in a pluralistic, democratic society, history curriculum should help them develop mature ideas about why multiple accounts of the same events exist. But how can we know if we are successful? In this article, we describe work on the design, validation, and piloting of a paper-and-pencil instrument called the…

This manuscript, written with the educator in mind, describes the Youth Historians in Harlem (YHH) program, a twenty-week after-school history program that engaged urban students in history by immersing them in aspects of the historical process. Throughout the program, a group of Black male high school students were apprenticed as historical…

Scholars often define historical reasoning as constructing defensible interpretations of past events. Drawing on critical theory, this article suggests that it also entails consciously framing one's topic of inquiry. The article examines an instructional unit that aimed to foster this expanded view of historiography. Forty students, ages 14-15,…

This article presents problems and possibilities associated with incorporating into history teaching a digital demographic database made for professional historians. We detect and discuss the outcome of how students in Swedish upper secondary schools respond to a teaching approach involving digitized registers comprising 19th century individuals…

The United States government has invested nearly one billion dollars in funding to professional historians and history educators across the country since 2000 to strengthen the teaching of American history in elementary and secondary schools, yet we know little about how these programs impact student learning. Using data from one such Teaching…

This document reports survey results providing data and ideas for evaluating possible Organization of American Historians (OAH) international initiatives. The survey was constructed to address a wide range of issues and to solicit information on those resources that Americanists worldwide either wish to receive or have to offer. It sought…

This is a study of the research communities in history and political science at Kent State University (Ohio). The purpose is to provide a profile of historians and political scientists and to discover the kinds of information they use for research. A survey/questionnaire was circulated to the history and political science departments. Information…