For many people committed to strong academic standards, the "advanced" high school courses offered through the College Board's Advanced Placement program and, increasingly, the Diploma Programme of the International Baccalaureate Organisation (IBO) represent the curricular gold standard for secondary education. Admissions directors and…

In this article, the authors considered the use of the software Knowledge Forum to complete a curriculum-based project with students enrolled in asynchronous, Web-based Advanced Placement courses in Canada and the United States. Knowledge Forum is an online database that promotes written interaction in a social constructivist environment. The…

Knowledge about racism is a critical component of educational curricula and contemporary race relations. To examine children's responses to learning about racism, European American (Study 1; N = 48) and African American (Study 2; N = 69) elementary-aged children (ages 6-11) received history lessons that included information about racism…

This resource document is designed to assist teachers in implementing the "History-Social Science Framework for California Public Schools, Kindergarten through Grade Twelve." The purpose of these models is to support implementation of the "Framework" at the local level. In addition to serving as a resource for teachers and…

This paper discusses a project that was designed to explore Dutch student attitudes about World War II and how the War is portrayed in Dutch history textbooks. The project was undertaken as part of an effort to help teachers provide Dutch students with better insight into the causes, background, and aftermath of World War II; and to develop in the…

This guide helps secondary students to understand "The Diary of Anne Frank" through a series of short essays, maps, and photographs. In view of new scholarship, the historical context in which Anne Frank wrote may be studied to improve the student's perspective of recent history and of the present. A drawing shows the hiding place in the…

This guide helps secondary students to understand the role of the rescuers of the Jews during the Holocaust. The rescuers included atheists, government bureaucrats, German soldiers, antisemites, devout Christians, and even German collaborators. The focus is on how people, both good and bad, react in times of stress and of the moral choices all…

Historical thinking involves being able to conceptualize historical events from multiple perspectives and to relate historical data within these. Hypermedia has enormous potential for supporting the development of historical thinking because it is open, nonlinear, and heterogeneous in ways other media is not; it can physically represent…

In 1995 the Virginia Board of Education adopted new Standards of Learning in four core subject areas: mathematics, science, English, and history and social science. The new standards set targets and expectations for what teachers need to teach and students need to learn. The requirement is designed to provide greater accountability on the part of…

In 1996, Minnesota's Anoka Ramsey Community College (ARCC) participated in the Exploring America's Communities project sponsored by the American Association of Community Colleges. The project works to strengthen the teaching and learning of American History, literature, and culture at U.S. community colleges. The grant application from the ARCC…

In 1996, New Jersey's Bergen Community College (BCC) participated in the American Association of Community Colleges' Exploring America's Communities project, which works to strengthen the teaching and learning of American history, literature, and culture at U.S. community colleges. BCC's primary goals were: infusing material into existing American…

This unit is one of a series that presents specific moments in history from which students focus on the meanings of landmark events. Columbus's momentous arrival in 1492 in the Caribbean ended the mutual isolation of two regions of the globe. From this moment on, the future of the Americas has been inextricably linked to those of Europe, Asia, and…

This manual presents teaching practices that are appropriate when using textbooks to teach history-social science to students with learning disabilities and others at risk for school failure. The approach is to improve the quality of regular text materials and the way text information is presented and processed, rather than reducing reliance on…

This essay addresses six pedagogical issues that English language arts teachers should consider in preparing to use Holocaust literature to address "intolerance and bigotry" in their teaching. Teachers should ask themselves: (1) Does the literature unit emphasize anti-Semitism as a cause of the Holocaust?; (2) Does the unit provide all…

Developed to help Alberta, Canada, teachers implement a new sequence of social studies courses, this teacher resource manual offers suggestions for organizing, teaching, and evaluating the new program, and additional information about the program. It is organized into the following sections and subsections: (1) Teaching Social Studies--social…