Teachers' beliefs about skills play a significant role in how they teach those skills. Similarly, students' mastery of a skill is influenced by their ideas about its value and what the performance of the skill exactly entails. In this study, 10 history teachers and 17 students in secondary school (age 16-17) were interviewed about their beliefs…

Imagining what it was like to live in the past may help secondary school students to understand historical developments and situations. In this case study, the opportunities of a drama task are explored by using a mixed-method approach. In small groups, Dutch 14-15-year-old students examined historical sources and produced a short film clip on…

The present study examined whether and to what degree empathy increased in adolescents who participated in a high-intensity writing program over the course of a year. Data for this study came from writing samples of a randomly selected group of middle-grade students (n = 61) collected at three different time points to answer whether: (1) it was…

Tasks which invite students to identify with historical actors and describe their perspectives are a common phenomenon in history education. The aim of this study is to explore the differences in students' answers when completing a writing task in first person ("imagine you are in the past") or in third person ("imagine someone in…

For a scientific educational approach toward empathy, this study newly defined empathy in science as "empathy with a problematic situation and other people." In 6 competency frameworks, content related to empathy was extracted, and exploratory factor analysis was conducted through an online survey of 150 teachers. Three factors of…

This article explores why we need to be intentional about the literature we explore in our English language arts classrooms. It explores the question of what literature should be considered and strategies for using democratic practices in support of literature circles. It also reinforces the importance of collaborative practitioner research to…

The importance of imagination in understanding sustainability has often been overlooked. This paper examines acts of imagining in teaching and learning that elicit and enable the emotive experience of empathy. I frame ways of thinking about imagination and empathy through theoretical perspectives of otherness. I report on research findings into…

This mixed methods case study examined middle school students' empathy with the environment within a critical place-based art classroom. The curriculum was informed by the ecological imagination, which calls for a new mode of education: education that embraces the arts as a way to conceive of pro-ecological perspectives, other ways of being…

This study investigated whether the types and amount of playful activity and thought exhibited from early childhood to adulthood are related to aspects of moral development, such as empathy, behavior, and reasoning. It explored whether the assertions of theorists such as Piaget, Vygotsky, and Erikson regarding the facilitative effect of games with…

To cultivate imagination and empathy among school students is a basic challenge for history teachers. This paper examines the relative roles of the teacher and student in nurturing imagination and empathy in the Singapore history classroom, specifically, through source-based studies. Both imagination and empathy are ways for students to think…