In this article the authors examine The Student as Historian project in highlighting how critical historical thinking can provide other and more complex renditions of history. The authors note that teachers' understandings of educational ends, purposes, values, and critical content knowledge are entwined and inextricable from ideological stances…

One path to improving adolescents' literacy skills is to integrate reading and writing into the content areas in which such work occurs. Although argumentative writing has been found to help students understand historical content and transform information, scholars do not know the influence of specific task structures on students' writing or…

Historical excurse was suggested as a beneficial form of using the history and philosophy of science in the modules of learning materials developed within the History and Philosophy in Science Teaching project. The paper briefly describes the theoretical framework of the produced modules, addressing ontological and epistemological aspects of…

History teaching is fraught with the pitfall and danger of subtly instilling into the young the notion that the way history happened was inevitable. This demands the corollary that the way it happened is the "right way." In this article, the author opines that teachers should be prepared to analyze the grounds on which their judgments are made. He…

"The Vanishing West" traces the decline and near extinction of the Western Civilization history survey course in America's top colleges and universities from 1964 to 2010. This course, covering classical antiquity to the present, was once part of the undergraduate curriculum's intellectual bedrock, not only because it was often a graduation…

Learner-centered instruction is principally rooted in the constructivist learning theory. It has gained particular traction in education fields and is most often associated with the work of John Dewey. The purpose of the current study was to identify effective, learner-centered strategies in history of dress courses. This practice-driven study was…

This article presents a story about eighty-six ninth-grade World History and Geography students who authored a "how-to" book, while pretending that they were experts who lived in the past and had to explain how to do something relating to that time period. These students attended a large high school in the Midwest; the school's…

In the decade since the attacks of September 11th, the political climate in the United States has become increasingly intolerant of opposing viewpoints. This climate, made nearly ubiquitous by 24-hour news cycles and increased exposure to political media, poses quite a challenge to teachers wishing to broach political topics as part of their…

This article describes the personal and pedagogical contexts for the development of a 9/11 curriculum. The author relates his own experiences learning of the event and teaching it soon afterwards and the subsequent development of a nationally distributed 9/11 curriculum.

Having served as a college and university instructor at several institutions, the author has taught numerous history courses that have dealt with race relations in the United States. A class that he currently teaches, titled "Race in America," focuses specifically upon this topic. It is designed for non-history majors who are in their…

In 1998, the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center launched OurStory: History through Children's Literature, a history and literacy program series for family visitors to the Museum that was designed to help children and adults enjoy exploring history together. Ten years later, to reach a broader, national…

It's not unusual for lawmakers to debate aspects of the American political system, but a recent discussion in Utah's House of Representatives wasn't merely theoretical. The bill under consideration, since signed into law, requires public schools to teach that the United States is a "compound constitutional republic." The curriculum also…

Analogies for teaching about causation abound. Rick Rogers is alert, however, to the risks inherent in drawing on everyday ideas to explain historical processes. What most often gets lost is the importance of the chronological dimension; both the length of time during which some contributory causes may have been present, and the ways in which they…

Eleanor Roosevelt's support of African American rights was one of the highlights of her activities as first lady. Her fearless advocacy for justice pulled her into political controversies that were unprecedented for the wife of a president. The first lady's initiatives in support of the rights of African Americans offer students an excellent…

This article takes up the question of world history teachers' pedagogical content knowledge by reporting on two separate but related projects. In the first, we briefly discuss an empirical investigation one of the authors conducted into the ways that pre- and in-service world history teachers think about, organize, and make meaning of separate and…