Holly Hiscox was concerned that many of her A-level students -- asked to evaluate three different historical interpretations for their non-examined assessment task -- still tended to hold unhelpful misconceptions about the nature of interpretations. In this article she explains how she created an introductory scheme of work to help them understand…

Students sometimes resist the history lessons their teachers try to impart; challenging the purpose and relevance of the information being shared. However, reading "The Giver" can help to bridge the gap between students accepting and rejecting the lessons of history while learning to value the skills such as citizenship and awareness associated…

The question "what if?" has been asked by historians for generations. This article explains how history teachers can use students' own what-if questions to enhance their historical knowledge and understanding by offering educators a step-by-step plan for utilizing counterfactual history into their classrooms. Additionally, the author offers a…

While social studies content about communities, neighborhood jobs, and maybe even some state history is taught in the early elementary grades, often the upper elementary grades are the first time students learn about the larger progression of history. How do teachers begin to teach the progression of U.S. history and the themes and questions that…

Every major measure of students' historical understanding since 1917 has demonstrated that students do not retain, understand, or enjoy their school experiences with history. Bruce Lesh believes that this is due to the way we teach history--lecture and memorization. Over the last fifteen years, Bruce has refined a method of teaching history that…

Simulation games can play a critical role in enabling students to navigate the problem spaces of the past while simultaneously critiquing the models designers offer to represent those problem spaces. There is much to be gained through their use. This includes rich opportunities for students to engage the past as independent historians; to consider…

The Battle of Bull Run is routinely cited as the first land battle of the Civil War. This battle between Union and Confederate forces took place near Manassas, Virginia, on July 21, 1861. But was this battle really the initial skirmish between the North and the South? Historians today concede that the first land battle actually took place on June…

A "podcast" (an amalgam of the word broadcast and the iPod digital audio player) is essentially a broadcast of digital audio files on the web that users can listen to on their computer or digital audio player (e.g., iPod). Podcasts can be automatically delivered to an iPod or computer whenever new content is available. This unique feature of…

Over the past decade historians and educational researchers in the UK, Australia, the USA and Canada have been devoting ever increasing energy to the systematic exploration of the learning of history at the college level. Now members of the discipline have come together to nurture and to disseminate this new scholarship of teaching and learning…

Contends that perceived weaknesses in the history profession and historical writing also are manifested by dissatisfaction with history textbooks. Describes the immediate and long-range impact of "The Rise of American Civilization," a college level textbook by Charles and Mary Beard. Contends that the book was comprehensive, well…

Research studies aimed at exploring how secondary school students engage in doing history, develop historical reasoning and understanding often times neglected the theoretical frameworks that historians of different orientations use to study the past. As a result of this oversight, some historical concepts are sometimes weakly defined, ambiguously…

Maintains the enduring public fascination with the Civil War provides opportunities and dangers for history teachers. Reviews changes in historical interpretations of the Civil War. Asserts that recent scholarship suggests that both the South and North fought to preserve doomed social systems. (CFR)

Contends that history is a nearly "sense-less" profession because reading is almost the only source of historical understanding. Reviews content related to sensory experiences in college history textbooks. Argues that including language about the senses in historical writing and instruction will enlarge the audience and the field of…

This book is an invaluable resource to educators seeking to bring history alive for students at all levels. The anthology opens with chapters on the fundamentals of oral history and its place in the classroom, but its heart lies in nearly two dozen insightful personal essays by educators who have successfully incorporated oral history into their…

Social studies instruction in the elementary school is sometimes far removed from the students' daily lives, and teachers continually search for ideas to create more meaningful learning experiences. That is especially true when students study history, which can often be distant, abstract, and impersonal. As many classroom teachers realize,…