In this study a group of elementary teachers use illustrations, rather than written text, to introduce their students to the peoples and places of the ancient silk routes. The illustrations are from two picture books; "Marco Polo," written by Gian Paolo Cesaerani and illustrated by Piero Ventura (1977), and "We're Riding on a…

We are providing our secondary students with an unbalanced, inaccurate view of world history, this can lead to greater social injustice. The purpose of this paper is two-fold: (1) examine the reasons for and issues with providing a gender balanced view of history in order to lead to a more well rounded illustration of history; and (2) demonstrate…

Interest by American educators in the Holocaust has increased exponentially during the second half of the twentieth century. In 1960 the Holocaust was barely being addressed in American public schools. Yet by the 1990s several states had mandated the teaching of the event. Drawing upon a variety of sources including unpublished works and…

For the past twelve years, the author has been teaching a lower division introductory historical methods course that uses active learning to introduce students to the issues and practices of historical methods, the "how to" of historical inquiry, research and writing. In her methods course, she is working to take into account the perspectives and…

Human history is often shaped by the outcomes of arguments, not only in the sense of disputes between people or governments, but in the sense of the more rational pursuit of trying to convince others to accept or do certain things by offering reasons that are presented as compelling for so doing. Yet history teachers have done little to help…

The number of books published on the American Civil War has been remarkable. According to the 2002 edition of "The Civil War Desk Reference" by the Library of Congress," at least 50,000 books and pamphlets on the Civil War have been published since the 1860's." Consequently, history instructors have to confront the difficult task of selecting a…

Wikiality, Wikimania, WikiGnomes, Wikitrolls, Wikibots, Wikipediaholism... all these neologisms have been coined in recent years to talk about Wikipedia, the online, open-source encyclopedia. In this article, the author describes a project that aims to craft a pedagogical approach that incorporated student-contribution to Wikipedia in order to…

The Historical Scene Investigation (HSI) project is designed to help teachers integrate historical investigations into their K-12 history instruction. The HSI project materials provide streamlined and aesthetically engaging Web-based historical investigation exercises. Each case exercise engages students in a historical investigation using rich…

Maintains that Marshall Hodgson's work, "Rethinking World History," is an interregional approach to world history. Argues that his chief contributions to historical writing were his consideration of epistemological issues, his revisionist views of the history of Europe, and his vision of world history as the center of a reinvigorated…

Transfer articulation is an important policy issue in Virginia. With increasing economic strains on federal and state budgets, pressure on key actors in higher education, and critical teacher shortages, an opportunity presented itself to investigate state transfer policy and articulation agreements designed to facilitate student transfer.…

On March 24-25, 2007 FPRI's Marvin Wachman Fund for International Education hosted 44 teachers from 23 states across the country for a weekend of discussion on teaching about the Military in U.S. history. The Institute was held at and co-sponsored by the Cantigny First Division Museum. Sessions included: (1) War and the Military in American…

On April 14, 1865, at approximately 10:20 p.m., John Wilkes Booth, a prominent American actor, sneaked up behind President Abraham Lincoln as he watched a play from the presidential box at Ford's Theater and shot him in the back of the head at point-blank range. Of the 14 doctors who attended to President Lincoln on the night of his assassination,…

This article explores the potential of the graphic novel as a means to approach history and historiography in secondary school social studies and history classrooms. Because graphic novels convey their messages through the interaction of visuals and written text, they require reading that is across the grain. They have been likened to hypertext, a…

There are many talented and creative dance professionals working in academia today, and it can be stifling to an artist to feel that one must give students traditional class assignments to evaluate their progress. Dance is a creative endeavor, and all aspects of the curricula, even non-movement-based classwork, can and should reflect this fact. In…

Elementary social studies has used the same scope and sequence for more than a half century despite significant changes in society. Efforts to reform the curriculum are adversely impacted by inertia, tradition, the culture wars, traditional state autonomy in setting curriculum, publishers, and competition between disciplines for space within the…