Examines the viability of using hypothetical problems that need the application of causal models for their solution as a method to assessing understanding in the social sciences. Explains that this method was used to describe how seventh-grade students understand causal factors affecting the "discovery and colonization of America." (CMK)

This article describes how, by comparing multiple perspectives of the story of Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott, students can experience first-hand how different published accounts of the same event may contain different information. The author relates the lesson plan of Jennifer Morrow, a third-grade teacher at Coral Ridge Elementary…

Each month, "Curriculum Review" offers teachers mutual support, the sharing of ideas, and words of encouragement to help them face challenges in the classroom. The November 2004 issue of "Curriculum Review" contains the following articles: (1) "We Hear from Readers"; (2) "What They're Saying"; (3)…

While an abundance of classroom and teacher education research has been dedicated towards understanding young elementary children's use of primary sources, not nearly enough exemplars have been examined that demonstrate the teaching of historical reasoning within linguistically and culturally diverse settings. The complexity of teaching social…

No sensible historian would argue that using images in history lectures is a pedagogical waste of time. All people seem to accept the idea that visual elements (paintings, photographs, films, maps, charts, etc.) enhance the retention of historical information and add greatly to student enjoyment of the subject. However, there seems to be very…

In this article, the author discusses the contradictory goals of several groups and individuals that are waging war against social studies and the historians' attitudes in response to this war. He stresses that he is not claiming that these "strange bedfellows," as he comes to call them, that are attacking social studies are working in…

"Chronicle of Higher Education" presents an abundant source of news and information for college and university faculty members and administrators. This June 4, 2004 issue of "Chronicle of Higher Education" includes the following articles: (1) "What Has Happened to Historical Literacy?" (Rabb, Theodore K.); (2)…

This study considers the influence on British education (particularly schools) of Alan Bullock, Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University from 1969 to 1973 and distinguished contemporary historian. It quotes extensively from Bullock's own writings, including his developing personal views on education, and reflections on his own experiences. Following a…

In post-Mao China, wide-ranging reform programmes have affected almost every sphere of life. History education has been no exception, and in addition to attempts to revise teaching, learning and assessment methods, there have been preliminary forays into textbook pluralism and gradual devolution of curriculum development. History education…

In New York, state-level policymakers have invested considerable political and economic capital in new tests as both a measure of accountability and as a vehicle for increased educational standards. In this study, we look at how 9th and 10th grade global history teachers are making sense of the first administration of a new 10th grade global…

Over the past two decades, interest in Holocaust education has grown substantially as individual states, starting in the 1980s, began to mandate and/or recommend Holocaust studies as part of the social studies curriculum. As a result, these mandates and/or interest in the Holocaust have spawned any number of curriculum products, some of which seek…

When there is a limit on the amount of information available in a classroom, the students need to depend on the teacher as the master of information. Conversely, when accurate information is widely available, conveniently organized, and easily accessed, then the nature of the learning that takes place can resemble more what the AHA now advocates:…

Across the spectrum of academic disciplines, history is one of the few to be organized largely on the basis of the nation-state. With a few notable exceptions, only since the 1960s have American historians begun to see the limitations that this nation-bounded approach has imposed on the field. Since then a movement to internationalize the study…

In this article, the author details how she and another teacher developed a multicultural Wisconsin history curriculum for a fourth-grade classroom. Their focus in this article is a description of the main ideas students learned and the instructional strategies that supported their learning from the three-week unit on Wisconsin government. They…

The author has been teaching the Holocaust course to two (sometimes three) full sections of sophomores, juniors and seniors for the past nine years. However, she found passionate opposition from some surprising corners. She met prejudice face to face from her district's school board member. Amazingly, the true impact of her teaching about the…