Museums have great potential to help secondary students develop a deep understanding of the past; however, we know little about what history teachers actually do or want to accomplish when they utilize museums. In this study, the authors draw on questionnaire and interview data from 94 secondary history teachers in Connecticut in an effort to…

Hollywood films based in history are inevitably a blend of historical record, fiction, and a film-maker's perspective. If films are not perfect representations of the past, then how can and should we interpret their images and messages? How might teachers talk about or show historically based films during lessons in a way that promotes students'…

What and how do students learn about history from motion pictures? How does this knowledge interact with the history they learn in school? This is a complex problem space that has seen little empirical research. To lay the groundwork for addressing these questions, we describe two exploratory studies. The first study takes a broad view, using…