There is so much more to preparing a citizen than merely running students like lemmings through a three-year succession of history survey courses. Everyone is neglecting most of the social sciences in American high schools today, favoring the sequential and systematic delivery of history. What should be primary in the teaching of social studies,…

In 2004, an upper Midwestern school district received a grant to administer content-specific professional development to teachers of American history. A series of nine master's level, degree-eligible courses were developed and administered by the local university's history department. At the conclusion of the grant activities in spring of 2008,…

Ji-li Jiang's extraordinary memoir "Red Scarf Girl" transports readers to a tumultuous time in Chinese history--the first two years of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. Caught between conflicting forces--joining the Revolution's call for rebellion, protecting her family, and fitting in with her peers--Jiang describes how her…

This pilot study aimed at developing and validating an evaluation model to assess the impact of participation in the National History Day in Ohio program (NHD-OH) on students academic achievement and intellectual growth by using as key indicators: a) High-stakes tests, i.e., Ohio Graduation Tests (OGT) in Social Studies, Reading and Writing; b)…

The ongoing interpretive case study that the author highlights in this article focused on students' use of online discussion forums within a problem-based inquiry classroom. The focus of inquiry during the year centered on two historical questions: What does it mean to be an American? What is America's place in the world? The participants in this…

The 20th of January 2009, will always be known as the date of the inauguration of the first African-American President of the United States. The journey--historically, socially and emotionally--has been a long one. The story of race relations in America, from exploitation to excellence, has been told by many in various forms, from song and dance…

Contends that perceived weaknesses in the history profession and historical writing also are manifested by dissatisfaction with history textbooks. Describes the immediate and long-range impact of "The Rise of American Civilization," a college level textbook by Charles and Mary Beard. Contends that the book was comprehensive, well…

Describes an instructional unit in which Frederick Jackson Turner's Frontier Thesis is applied to Russian history. Suggests that the activities and recommended readings are perhaps best suited to Advanced Placement and honors classes. Includes a list of student readings, teacher resources, and step-by-step teaching procedures. (CFR)

In this pilot study, participating Hispanic and Southeast Asian freshmen took a writing-intensive history survey course with a weekly analytic journal task. The study examined the helpfulness of the weekly journal and the scaffolding steps provided by the professor and teaching assistants, by peers in their learning community, and by out-of-class…

The aim of this study is to determine the importance of the competence and competence acquiring levels in the subject matter and subject teaching of the teachers who are graduated from the primary school teaching programmes of the educational faculties, towards the social studies. The universe population of the research are the teachers who were…

This essay is based on the author's presentation at FPRI's History Institute for Teachers on America in the Civil War Era, 1829-77. Slavery lasted for 250 years just in the territory of the United States, and for half a millennium in the Atlantic world. Teaching about it is therefore a huge assignment. The author cites five contexts for teaching:…

This article explores historical reasoning, an important activity in history learning. Based upon an extensive review of empirical literature on students' thinking and reasoning about history, a theoretical framework of historical reasoning is proposed. The framework consists of six components: asking historical questions, using sources,…

Biography has a proven track record of exciting interest in historical events. Barbara Tuchman used it extensively in her best-selling histories, considering it a "vehicle to carry the larger subject," something that "encompasses the universal in a particular... representative." Others favor biography because it "humanizes history," "personalizes…

In this qualitative research study, the author investigated social studies teachers' conceptions of history by conducting in-depth, semistructured interviews with 12 in-service teachers. Results indicated that participants tended to look at the outcome of historical knowledge construction without considering its process or mentioning forces that…

This article describes the ways in which the author guided her third- and fourth-grade students in the use of historical fiction and primary and secondary sources (letters, historical newspapers, census data, photos) to think and write critically about provocative historical events. In creating their own newspaper, students learned to summarize…