Empathy may have disappeared from official documents but the history teacher who does not still regularly think about it, plan for it and teach it would be hard to find. What is history if not, in part, an attempt to understand how people thought and felt in the past? This is not to deny, however, that the criticisms levelled at empathy-type tasks…

Deborah Robbins charts a story of her own learning during the PGCE year. She explains how she identified a point of interest in her own practice--the use of modern-day examples. Turning this into a focus for testing her own hypotheses, she theorised from her own lessons to produce guiding principles to improve her teaching. For example, she…

In two, linked articles, appearing in this and the next edition, Maria Osowiecki shares an account of a five-lesson enquiry, based on the concept of historical significance (National Curriculum Key Element 2e) for mixed ability Year 8. She wanted to experiment with an array of creative teaching techniques that would appeal to a wide range of…

American popular music -- ballads, folksongs, and mass media songs -- can be used in an American studies class to trace social history. This takes advantage of young people's loyalty to music and enlists their aural sensitivities in learning about the United States. (JH)

Advocates the abandonment by teachers of some of their traditional viewpoints (historical and cultural), goals, and methods and, through the use of technology in some cases, proposes developing closer ties to the children and the community of which they are a part. (SF)

The first half of a workshop in history education with participants from the United Kingdom and from the United States, which took place at Cal Tech in August, 1973, is described in this article which includes a preview of the second half to be held in England in 1974. (JH)

This essay discusses one mentor's approach to teaching history in an individualized instruction/self-study environment. The first part of the paper discusses student-mentor relations, emphasizing that the role of the mentor is to act as a mediator in a special way between the student and the abstract world of scholarship. For example, mentors need…

There are no published "cases and materials" dealing exclusively or substantially with the American Colonial Period. (Author)

English legal history should continue to be taught in our law schools because it does provide context for the study of American law, but it has long been a question how much of that context has value in training for actual practice. (Author/KE)

A broader and more meaningful perspective for studying world history is suggested based on the course of global events during the 1960s and 1970s. (JR)

As part of a four-college project to integrate the religious tradition with humanities teaching, humanism is discussed from a Christian perspective. Definitions of the terms humanism, religion, Christianity, and Christian humanism are provided. The latter is viewed as the issues surrounding the Christian approach to the dichotomy of good and evil…

Designed for elementary school students, this unit on the Wyoming evolution from territory to statehood provides concepts, activities, stories, resources, and maps. Concepts stress the five national flags which have flown over Wyoming, several other territories Wyoming was a part of, construction of the Union Pacific railroad, problems of the new…

This paper presents a rationale for including social history in American and European history courses at the high school level. Social history topics which can be of special interest to high school students include the history of schools, the history of leisure, the history of health practices, the needs and experiences of various vital groups in…