The tradition of Thanksgiving in America dates back to 1621 when the Pilgrims were virtually starving. Nowadays, Americans celebrate this event by eating more than they need and giving some thoughts to the blessings they had for the past year. Many of today's children are not accustomed to how it feels to be hungry, although many experience it on…

This article summarizes findings from a nine-year research program investigating how technological affordances might be used as a part of holistic learning environments to support teachers and learners in disciplined inquiry about persistent social issues. We discuss what our findings suggest about the potential and the limitations of…

A number of times over the past century, there have been struggles in the United States over what is and is not included in the history curriculum. These struggles have primarily been over who is represented in the teaching of history. In Canada, however, this debate has not been as prevalent. For example, Historica's Heritage Minutes is a…

The main purpose of this study is to determine the level of use of primary sources in the 6th Grade Social Studies Course Books. The "document analysis" method from among the qualitative research methods was used in the study. The study was conducted on 4 books from among the Social Studies course books published by total of 6 Publishing…

At a recent professional development program, the authors asked teachers to recall the ways in which they learned about history in the course of their own schooling. The teachers at this professional development gathering not only identified some of the key challenges facing elementary teachers charged with teaching social studies curricula, they…

At the heart of social studies education is the notion that social studies teachers teach core civic values that educate citizens and perpetuate democracy. The author of this article asserts that as the democratic system continues to evolve, technology is playing a greater role in how people learn and communicate. It makes sense, then, that social…

Being a teacher is a multifaceted process situated in contexts that deeply influence one's experiences and development. History teachers face a number of challenges while simultaneously holding particular goals for history teaching. Drawing on interview data from focus teachers with different levels of teaching experience, this article presents…

The author begins this article by suggesting that in the United States late 20th century immigration patterns have been perceived by some who consider themselves American natives because they were born in the country (even though their ancestors are of European stock) as threatening to soften the glue that preserves their vision of the right and…

Recently, attention has been paid to computer and video games as a medium for learning. This article provides a way of conceptualizing them as possibility spaces for learning. It provides an overview of two research programs: (1) an after-school program using commercial games to develop deep expertise in game play and game creation, and (2) an…

This article investigates the effect of the vitality of historical issues in collective memory on students' history learning processes and products. Forty 12th grade students of different ethnic background participated in two historical problem-solving learning tasks. The historical issues were found to differ in their vitality in collective…

Middle school education is failing to meet the intellectual needs of young adolescents, yet there is little research that examines how teachers are prepared to work at the middle level. In this article, I discuss findings from a semester-long, qualitative case study that examined how the elementary and secondary teacher education pathways at one…

This article is a summary and conclusions of a field study carried out in a secondary education classroom with the aim of experimenting and observing how 13-year-old students learn the history of architecture by using complex virtual reality software. Within the framework of autonomous and active learning, students act as builders of some of the…

Interactive whiteboards (IWBs) have rapidly become an integral feature of many classrooms across the UK and elsewhere, but debate continues regarding the pedagogical implications of their use. This article reports on an in-depth case-study from the wider T-MEDIA project (Teacher Mediation of Subject Learning with ICT: a Multimedia Approach). A key…

In the Spring of 2000, Ruth Meyerowitz and Christine Zinni began collaborative efforts--inside and outside of academia--to enhance a course on The History of Working Women at SUNY Buffalo. Videotaping the oral histories of women labor leaders, they later teamed up with Michael Frisch and Randforce Associates--a research group at SUNY at Buffalo's…

This book is provided as a guide, encouragement and handbook for faculty to introduce digital media in language they can understand and provide strategies and activities they can quickly assimilate into their teaching. The authors are excited that more people will be able to benefit from the powerful help and guidance contained in this book. This…