This study describes and analyses the conceptions of primary teachers and secondary teachers of Physics-Chemistry, Biology-Geology and Geography-History with respect to the concept of heritage and its teaching and learning, taking the model of teacher-researcher as the theoretical referent. The data collection instrument used was a questionnaire,…

Literacy is a basic element of the discipline of history and of traditional secondary history instruction. However neither the growing body of research on learning with texts nor modern learning theories support the traditional literacy practices that are taking place in many secondary history classrooms. Nor are classroom literacy practices a…

The field of social studies is unique and complex. It is challenged by the differing perspectives related to the definition, goals, content, and purpose of social studies. Contemporary Social Studies: An Essential Reader discusses the contemporary issues surrounding social studies education today. Contemporary Social Studies: An Essential Reader…

This article challenges the tradition in much history education research of privileging teachers' content knowledge--and within this area, their understanding of evidence and epistemology--in explorations of the knowledge shaping their pedagogical reasoning and practice. Moving away from the normative statements that often follow from this…

This paper discusses the results of empirical research examining history teachers' opinions on teaching recent history, and on the revocation of a moratorium on teaching former Yugoslavia's recent history in Serbian minority schools in the Croatian Danube region. The research was conducted in 2003, involving a sample of 29 primary and secondary…

Facing the trend and pressure of globalisation, the history curricula of Hong Kong and Shanghai have been undergoing reforms in order to better equip the youth for coping with rapid contextual changes. At the same time, there have been attempts to reposition nationalism in the changing contexts. This paper aims to compare and contrast how the…

Since 1997, Hong Kong's reintegration with China has been founded on the principle of "One Country, Two Systems", which serves to guarantee the sustainability of the capitalist system in Hong Kong under the rule of the socialist motherland. This paper is an intra-cultural and inter-regional comparative study of the curricula of two…

The nation's recent preoccupation with reshaping academics and raising academic performance has all but overpowered a task of vital importance--educating our young people to become engaged citizens of their communities. Traditionally, students are taught citizenship skills in either a civics education class or through citizenship courses in the…

Using mobile games in education combines situated and active learning with fun in a potentially excellent manner. The effects of a mobile city game called Frequency 1550, which was developed by The Waag Society to help pupils in their first year of secondary education playfully acquire historical knowledge of medieval Amsterdam, were investigated…

When teachers ask upper middle school and high school students what they know about the Westward movement, the students usually draw on their experiences with simulation games. Rather than rely on simulation games or texts to help students understand that era, these authors advocate moving middle or high school students from a simplistic to a…

In this article, the authors explore the effects of Virginia's high stakes history tests on beginning teachers' "notions of historical thinking," and briefly consider the literature on historical thinking, high-stakes testing, and beginning teachers. Data sources for this study included interviews, observations, and classroom documents…

This paper examines the different dimensions of scaffolding for online historical inquiry based on a case study of two secondary-two history classes from a neighborhood school in Singapore. The data collected for the study include video and screen captures, focus group interview, digital artifacts, and students' survey. Using sample transcripts…

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…

For students of history, the acrimonious and contentious 1876 presidential canvass came to mind during the 2000 election imbroglio. Democrat Samuel J. Tilden won the popular vote, but to the dismay of outraged Democrats, an electoral commission of eight Republicans and seven Democrats decided along strict party lines to give twenty disputed…

Middle school history teachers confront the same challenge every day: how to convey the breadth and depth of a curriculum that spans centuries, countries, and cultures. In "Making History Mine", Sarah Cooper shows teachers how to use thematic instruction to link skills to content knowledge. By combining thought-provoking activities and rich…