Cognitive studies researcher, Samuel Wineburg, has conducted empirical studies over the past decade to compare the way historians think about primary and secondary sources with the thinking processes of high school students and teachers. Wineburg's research demonstrates the importance of domain-based or subject-specific thinking in the teaching…

This ERIC Digest suggests that traditional assessment techniques must be complemented by new methods that can reinvigorate and improve the teaching and study of history in the schools. Teachers and researchers agree that recall of discrete information and traditional forms of assessment emphasize low-level cognition without challenging students to…