Summarizes the five reasons why the National History Standards will have a minimal effect on history instruction in U.S. schools: (1) the controversy behind the standards; (2) the unrealistic and impractical nature of the standards; (3) competition with local policies; (4) the formulation of widely adopted textbooks; and (5) the nature of history.…

Highlights some guiding principles for developing a website and addresses various topics about software and website needs in the history classroom. Provides suggestions for the content of a college history website: (1) support materials; (2) exchange of ideas; (3) information-transfer and skill-building activities; (4) scholarship resources; and…

Characterizes a history course at Texas A&M University-Kingsville entitled "Methods of Historical Research" that focuses on the philosophy of history, research methods, and computer technology. Reveals how the philosophy of history and research methods aspects are intertwined and discusses the changes in the course due to advances in…

Explains how the experience of discussing family issues in the public arena, especially on radio talk shows, has caused the author to rethink her approach to teaching family history. Discusses two techniques that can assist students in keeping their feelings about their own family experiences from interfering with their understanding of history.…

Provides information on the drafting of fathers during World War II. Discusses how mothers were supposed to keep the fathers present in the lives of their children. Focuses on Kathryn Wisdom and how she informed her husband about their daughter's development through a letter. Includes the letter and discussion questions. (CMK)

Discusses how the students at New Vista High School in Boulder, Colorado, created simulations and embedded them in web pages. The process has helped them better understand social studies content. Considers examples of student projects, addresses the benefits of using computer simulations, and highlights the challenges of using this technology.…

What teachers know about their subject-matter and how to teach it has become increasingly important as states continue to expect more rigorous learning outcomes for K-12 students--even more so when we consider that they must teach this content to an increasingly diverse student population. This article reports the findings from a four-year case…

In United States history, the GAPE or Gilded Age and Progressive Era, roughly the last third of the nineteenth and first two decades of the twentieth centuries, constitutes one of the most formative and complex of periods, a time that historians designate as the birth of the United States. Many high school students and undergraduates find this…

In this article, the author discusses the factors that contribute to the success of International Academy in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan in teaching history to its high school students. In 2003, "Newsweek" ranked the academy number one in the nation. The secret to its success is a combination of high expectations set by both teachers and…

Students in this author's undergraduate Sociology and Social Science classes often tell him that the "history" they learned in high schools was different than the "history" they learned in university classes. They often claim that what they learned in K-12 was "wrong" and that they did not learn the "real"…

iPods are one of the hottest selling gadgets on the market. They are everywhere, and that includes college campuses. Duke University initially distributed iPods to all incoming freshmen and then moved to a classroom focus, and even smaller campuses, such as Georgia College & State University, have gotten considerable publicity for their…

The question, "What were the causes of World War I?," has become one of the classic historical debates of which there seem to be endless permutations. In the past 90 years historians, journalists, and politicians have offered many more or less rational explanations for the war. Although at least some of the usual "causes"…

In most disciplines, professors ask students to "read" without specifying what this operation means for their particular field. This chapter traces the path laid out in a cultural history class, where reading entails identifying the essential elements of a text. (Contains 1 figure.)

In this article, the author talks about the dismal results in National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) tests, brought about by the inadequacy of funds required by the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. Recently, chief school officers from 14 states, various state legislatures, and superintendents by the bushel have been loud in their…

This study uses the tools of functional linguistics to illuminate the writing requirements of the history curriculum in the context of Australian secondary schools. It shows how the resulting linguistic description was integrated into a sequence of teaching and learning activities through collaboration between linguists and content/pedagogic…