In this article, the authors explore the nature of film that is both "about" and now more often made "for/by" indigenous peoples and its potential as a medium for introducing and engaging students in the study of indigenous history and perspectives in secondary classrooms. As a framework for analysis, the authors examine to…

Role-play is viewed by scholars as an effective active learning strategy: it encourages participation among passive learners, adds dynamism to the classroom and promotes the retention of material. But what do students think of role-play? This study surveyed 144 students after a role-play activity in a history course and asked them to identify what…

As the demographics of the Australian population changes, it is essential for the public education system to not only cater for the needs of the new community groups that form but also to help ensure that education is used as a vehicle to facilitate social harmony, understanding and equality. The link between disadvantaged and marginalised…

As in many countries, such as Germany, Turkey, the United States and Japan the history/culture wars of the past two decades have increased public interest in what is taught in schools. This has resulted in rigorous debates in the general community, encouraged and sustained through regular media coverage. Partly as a response to this, History has…

This article discusses values education in schools and offers pre-service teachers with an insight as to why values education should be incorporated in classroom teaching. The list of current values in the Australian Curriculum and the importance of values education are discussed. Suggestions are made on how to improve values education, with a…

Historians often evaluate sport exhibitions as simply transplantations from the pages of books to the walls of a museum. Not surprisingly, on this basis many sport exhibitions fall short of the criteria demanded by historians. This paper specifically explores this issue by examining the exhibition, "Between the Flags", that traveled…

This article reports the investigation of change in preservice teachers' conceptions of effective history teaching across a secondary history methods course in a postgraduate diploma of education program. Using concept mapping to plot shifts in their expressed reflections, data were obtained that indicate personal constructs of effective history…

It's time for teachers to consider themselves as learners in ICT-rich learning environments and to become more aware of factors that enable their learning in such environments. The notion of teachers as learners in ICT-rich environments is not new but the focus is usually on school teachers and formal professional development, rather than teachers…

Australia has decided to include history with English, mathematics and science as a core subject in a new national curriculum. Straight comparisons between Australia and New Zealand are not helpful because of differences in curriculum structure, national and federal organisation and in the histories of respective Indigenous peoples. Australia has…

This research focuses on how the interactive whiteboard (IWB) can be effectively used to teach higher order thinking skills to primary preservice teachers in the history classroom. The case study finds that skills such as analysis, evaluation and inference constitute a valuable metalanguage that needs to be explicitly taught to preservice…

The teaching of history has attracted more controversy and media attention than any other subject in the ongoing reform of the curriculum in Scottish primary and secondary schools, "A curriculum for excellence." This gives head teachers increased powers to decide on the curriculum as long as it satisfies four general capacities rather…

This article reviews the relationship between the conservative newspaper "The Australian" and the development of a national history curriculum in Australia. The lead author surveyed the major Australian press in the five-year period between 2007 and 2012 and found clear patterns of difference between "The Australian" and other…

Holocaust education can play a role in countering the ongoing problem of prejudice and incitement to hate that can lead to racial tension and violence. This article examines the beliefs of Muslim school children towards Jews in Sydney, Australia. It then discusses efforts to use Holocaust education to combat racist beliefs and hate language, and…

Successful curriculum development in any school subject requires a clear and established set of elements: agreed and widely appreciated goals; effective criteria for the selection of important knowledge content; and an explicit and well-integrated explanatory base for authentic problem-solving related to the subject goals. The article shows that…

This article explores how teaching about identity in Australia has been framed by the recent historical and political context. It analyses the influential characterisation of Australian identity during John Howard's period in office between 1996 and 2007. The findings of Australian education researchers relating to young people's sense of what it…