Struck by what he saw as the complexity, artistry and cognitive achievement of historians' narrative accounts, Robin Kemp decided to explore ways of teaching his pupils to write narrative and to analyse the role of such writing in developing various kinds of historical thinking. Working with Year 8 and Year 10 he designed a research project that…

In this article, the author describes the first lesson for his Chicago History Workshop, a course designed to take students beyond the Gradgrind memorization of facts approach and to introduce them, through a series of critical reading exercises, to the ways that historians actually work. In this lesson, the students begin to see that history is…

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, have had tragic effects for history teachers and students in Canada, the United States, and abroad. Yet, despite increased educational research in historical thinking, very little is known about students' historical understanding of terrorism. This exploratory study looks at some Canadian, but…

If history teachers' aim is to teach students how to think, why not ask: What forms of thought do historians use, and what specific techniques will inculcate these forms? In this article, the author proposes a fundamental shift, from courses with a focus on the mastery of data to courses with a priority on learning the historian's craft. The…