Three innovative approaches for teaching California history are described. (DE)

Suggests that college level history teachers collect and analyze data about students to help identify students possessing an underlying predisposition toward history. Maintains that survey data collected from students can provide more information about students than was previously available and can also help teachers develop and implement courses…

Describes a method for making the study of history more interesting. Based on student research and composition, the method involves students in writing both true and false "autobiographies" of famous people. Students then exchange autobiographies and determine which accounts are true and which are false. (AV)

Outlines an interdisciplinary university course, Historical and Psychological Analyses of Genocide, which dealt with the Nazi treatment of Jews during World War II. The course examines psychological and sociohistorical principles which could result in mass murder. Concludes that such an approach promotes a thorough explanation of such an event.…

Suggests that character and personality profiles can heighten student interest in history. Provides an outline for writing a report on an historical personality and recommends activities which involve students in simulation and creative writing. (Author/DB)

Suggests that high school history can be more interesting and useful if students are taught to formulate, evaluate, and use historical statements on the basis of evidence available in primary sources. Outlines a curriculum based on this thesis. (AV)

Describes an innovative college history course which studied various operas and their librettos as representative of political and social history. (AV)

Argues that A level history students are denied any initiative in formulating the questions they might wish to ask. (Editor)

Reasons for the current unpopularity of history courses include lack of innovative teaching methods, too much stress on factual data, and lack of information about the post-1937 era. Questions to stimulate teachers of history are offered in cognitive, affective, and evaluation areas. (AV)

Illustrates how concepts such as "authority,""cause and effect" and "culture" can be taught to primary children, and how pupils can be taught to think more rigorously. (Editor/RK)

Characterizes the crisis in history instruction as resulting from low student interest and high unemployment among historians. Suggests actions by historians which might mitigate this crisis, including expanding course offerings to include subjects of global interest, offering innovative courses, stressing basic patterns of human experience, and…

Outlines reasons for studying scientific history and presents a brief history of science in American universities. Maintains that college students should learn to view America's position of leadership in science and technology as a result of influences within educational, scientific, and governmental circles since 1940. (Author/DB)

By providing adolescents with the opportunity to interact with a much extended social environment of humans past and distant, the history teacher is able to promote maturity of moral judgment as an important aspect of social development. Some normative data relating to this transition in adolescents are presented. (Editor/RK)

Reviews the political history surrounding the development of the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. Includes a shortened and simplified version of the major articles of the Ordinance. Identifies three instructional resources for teaching about the Northwest Ordinance in secondary schools. (JDH)

Discusses use of computer simulations for instruction at the middle-school level, especially in history and geography. Reports on a case study of a large middle school's response to technology over a 3-year period. The study focuses on the simulation program "Mary Rose," a shipwreck salvaging simulation. (Author/CH)