Nearly 140 years have not erased Georgia's memory of the trail of destruction by General William T. Sherman and Union troops as they burned their way from Atlanta to Savannah during a critical campaign of the Civil War. Those weeks in late 1864 have left a lasting influence on the state's history and culture. This article deals with Georgia's…

On October 21-22, 2006, FPRI's Marvin Wachman Fund for International Education hosted 46 teachers from 26 states across the country for a weekend of discussion on teaching about China. Sessions included: (1) Classical Chinese Thought and Culture and Early Chinese History (Victor Mair); (2) State and Society in Late Imperial China (Matthew Sommer);…

The educational publisher Pearson/Scott-Foresman in 2006 introduced curriculum to address California History/Social Studies standards. Fifth grade students have difficulty comprehending non-fiction text that is informative enough to have historical accuracy. The publisher promotes a program that features a standard in every lesson, and promises no…

What lies behind the lack of theorizing about content in history in contrast to much greater attention given to theorizing about children's developing understanding of historical skills and processes? Egan's model of the characteristic ways in which children of different ages engage with the world is used to raise the question of what content to…

In this article, the author describes a syllabus which he designed in his United States history survey courses to help his students learn to think like historians. It contains important information about the way historians work and think, along with descriptions of the reading materials the student will use to further their practice of history.…

The purpose of this paper is two-fold. First, the author wants to describe generally how the Teaching American History (TAH) grant stakeholders in the Plymouth Canton Schools prioritized a professional development model that emphasized historical thinking. Rather than describing specific institutes, programs, and curriculum projects, the author…

In this article, the author points out that in this increasingly visual world, outstanding films can engage classes and lift the curtain on the cultures and modern history of Latin America. He recommends some of the most gripping and perceptive films on this topic, and offers advice on how teachers can provide the background to these dramas and…

This paper examines portrayals of Russia and the Russians in two generations of Ukrainian history textbooks. It observes that the textbooks are highly condemning of Ukraine's main ethnic other in the guise of foreign ruler: the tsarist authorities and the Soviet regime are always attributed dubious and malicious intentions even if there is…

The Crusades are among the few medieval events with which most students have familiarity. However, during these days of heightened tensions in the Middle East, for many the Crusades have taken on an urgency as a distant historical phenomenon that speaks powerfully to present religious and political concerns. This helps explain why in 2005, two…

At a recent state social studies conference, the author relates that he conducted a session on how to integrate historical thinking into history instruction. Even with modest optimism, the author expected just a few participants for his "after-lunch" session. Much to his shock and pleasant surprise, the author presented to a full room of eager…

For many of the students in the author's American history class, early twentieth-century American history seems far removed from their daily lives. Being first and second-generation American citizens, many of the students do not have the luxury of hearing grandparents and great-grandparents telling stories about FDR and Henry Ford. More…

Since 1998, the author's classroom has doubled as a training ground for students to experience archeology, research, service learning, outreach, and political activism, all within the history curriculum. In 1998, the author began teaching a class he called Research History. It was based on the concept of getting students involved using primary…

This paper describes the practices and outcomes of a pilot graduate student seminar on teaching and learning within the History Department at the University of Texas at El Paso. It documents results by considering the careers of three accomplished PhD students, who learned classroom techniques over different periods of time through personal…

Most students assume that a thriving society runs smoothly because people abide by the laws. But there are various informal, as well as formal, means of social control such as gossip, ridicule, and shame that function even in complex societies to achieve social control, or conformity to group norms. Good teaching ideas have the potential to lead…

This article details a heuristic history teachers can use in assigning and evaluating multimedia projects in history. To use this heuristic successfully, requires more than simply following the steps in the list or stages in a recipe: in many ways, it requires a reorientation in what it means to think like an historian. This article, as much as…