In this paper, the author argues that sustained, discipline-specific professional development provides the key to transferring research knowledge base to the classroom, where it can lead to significant improvements in the quality of history instruction. To be successful, such professional development must--like good classroom instruction--begin…

"The History Teacher" originated in a movement to reform history education that grew up among historians in both schools and universities in the 1960s. The call went out to raise the intellectual level of history teaching by having students analyze primary sources in open-ended discussions and thereby, "become their own historians." Teaching with…

This essay examines Leo Strauss's pedagogical method in his teaching on rights. The goal in this essay is not to present Strauss's argument for or against any particular conception of rights. In fact, it is to dissuade readers of Strauss from seeking such conclusions within Strauss's texts, and to argue that readers' attention turn toward the…

Identifies the benefits of History Day for upper elementary through high school students and provides guidelines for helping students develop successful projects. (JDH)

Describes the Alberta Interim Revised Social Studies Curriculum. The framework uses selected topics about which students make value judgments. The author contends that this approach for history instruction is laden with dangers and that the curriculum has deemphasized the historical process. (Author/KC)

Maintains that the study of history must include the in-depth study of a topic and utilization of ideas in contemporary settings in order for history to be a more meaningful experience for young people. Provides an example to illustrate this point from the American Revolutionary War. (JDH)

Compares inquiry teaching practices with the more recent classroom approaches generated by scholarship on women and feminist theory. Develops the concept of feminist pedagogy and illustrates its practice in a unit on western settlement from a United States history course. (JDH)

An inquiry approach to history can be realized through the use of microcomputers. In a project at the University of California at Santa Barbara, teams of high school teachers and scholars have developed a series of computer programs whose contents are problems in U.S. history. A sample problem is described. (RM)

Student performance in U.S. history is poor because most history teachers have not studied history and textbooks present history as an incontrovertible story. The bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark expedition provides an opportunity for interdisciplinary history education that emphasizes inquiry and critical thinking. Primary documents, local…

Barnes, an educator and textbook author, was a pioneer in the use of inquiry to teach secondary school history. Her work is criticized for the indoctrination it entailed and for its failure to encourage students to identify and examine the spiritual and political premises underlying the historical framework Barnes presented. (IAH)