This paper reports on a study that represents a new approach to understanding early and middle grade children's development of historical time awareness. The study sought to embed children's time awareness in a sociocultural framework, and to move beyond linguistic symbol systems to incorporate visual data sources. The researchers began with three…

This study examines the ability of students to develop empathy for peoples of the past and to avoid the belief that people in the past were no different than today. The paper reports the results of a year-long qualitative investigation of fourth and fifth graders' attempts to understand the values, attitudes, and beliefs of people in the past. The…

This study investigates middle graders' understanding of significance in United States history through open-ended interviews with 48 students in grades 5-8. Students were presented with a set of captioned historical pictures and asked to choose the one important enough to include on a timeline of the last five hundred years, and to explain their…

Reports on the results of an experiment testing 58 elementary school students tasked with chronologically ordering a set of nine historical pictures and thinking aloud about their efforts. Provides increased evidence regarding the kind and sources of children's historical knowledge and how they deploy that knowledge. (MJP)

Presents seven brief essays addressing recent research efforts and policy initiatives aimed at reforming the history curriculum. Notes that policy recommendations are rarely informed by research on either historical or pedagogical thinking. Authors include Keith C. Barton, Matthew T. Downey, Terrie L. Epstein, Linda S. Levstik, Peter Seixas,…