The study aimed to reveal the effectiveness of virtual tours to the archaeological sites in Al-Ahsa in developing historical concepts among kindergarten children and to identify the differences between males and females in acquiring historical concepts. To achieve these objectives, a quasi-experimental approach based on one group design was used.…

The purpose of this study was to examine the writing skills of 7th- and 8th-grade students with a high proportion of migration background in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The study was part of the SchriFT project (2017-20), funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. A writing task was given on the topic: "Why can we only…

Learning History in upper primary requires the development of at least two key skills: historical perspective and historical empathy. Picture books might offer one approach to supporting the development of these skills with these children. Informational Picture Books (IPB) indicate positive results linking the use of the IPB with improved critical…

Living history, and/or reenactment, brings the lives and experiences of a past age into the modern era to provide a contextualized interpretation of long-gone cultures. Academic literature suggests that presentations by properly trained living historians at historical sites and museums are connected to more positive visitor experience and…

This article draws on my reflections from a year-long study in a first-grade classroom in a Midwestern public elementary school during which the author read and discussed a total of fourteen Asian American picture books with the class. In this article, she discusses the children's interactions with Asian American stories and provides suggestions…

In this article, the authors examine one approach to teaching hard history using an Inquiry Design Model (IDM) curricular loop. A curricular loop allows students to build a deeper understanding of a complex idea and develop a greater facility with the tools of inquiry over a course of study by regularly engaging in an inquiry. The curricular loop…

Michael Bird has a longstanding interest in the power of classroom dialogue, not only as a means of eliciting students' prior knowledge or checking their understanding of new ideas and information, but also as a powerful tool for generating new knowledge through a collective process of meaning-making. In this article, he first uses two extracts of…

In Finland, history is taught in comprehensive schools at both primary and secondary levels. In primary schools, teachers are qualified class teachers who study one or two history courses during their teacher education. The amount of history taught in teacher education is limited, but student class teachers have studied history while at…

Elizabeth Marsay wanted to ensure that her students were not hindered in their causal explanations of the abolition of slavery by being exposed to overly categorical, simplistic, and monocausal narratives in the classroom. By drawing on both English and Canadian theorisation about causation, Marsay outlines how her introduction of competing…

Instructional time spent on elementary social studies is often marginalized due to the emphasis placed on other content areas. Therefore, social studies teachers must employ meaningful instructional strategies that will engage students while promoting content acquisition. This quasi-experimental study responds to this challenge by guiding a sample…

The passage of Washington State Senate Bill 5433 made the teaching of state tribal history, culture, and government mandatory in Washington's public schools and teacher preparation programs; requiring teacher candidates to show competence in demonstrating the intersection of cultural competence, equity, and pedagogy. This survey study aims to…

Few investigations of museums have examined the potential of varying displays as related to learning outcomes. This study focused on two museum spaces, presenting different historical events and featuring different objects' characteristics and arrangements, as related to seventh- and eighth-graders' learning and experiences during a self-guided…

This paper aims to raise awareness of the relevance of the philosophy of Charlotte Mason to primary school education today. First a biography of Mason, tracing her development from an orphaned pupil apprentice to an internationally influential figure, puts her philosophy in context. This is followed by an overview of her philosophy, with a focus…

The aim of this article is to problematise the use of visits to heritage sites in history education in primary school. The empirical basis is a questionnaire and interviews with teachers in Sweden. Theoretically, the perspective is linked to the discussion of affective practices. The results show the connection that some, but not all, teachers…

Frustrated by her students' glib use of catch-all terms such as 'militarism' in addressing causation, Alexia Michalaki wanted her Year 9 students to produce mature causal explanations of World War I. To encourage this to happen she went back into decades of pedagogical writing and research, teasing out the ways in which others have sought to…