Reading problems related to use of primary source materials in the upper elementary grades are investigated. A major focus was the appropriateness of original versus rewritten versions of primary source materials with respect to readability. The sample consisted of 209 fifth and sixth grade students and seven elementary school classroom teachers…

Because students should not only know stories about the past, but also understand the interpretive nature of historians' work, this study sought to discover whether instruction can develop elementary students' ability to engage in some aspects of historical interpretation. The study focused on fifth grade students. The research consisted of direct…

This study examines the historical understanding of 22 fourth-graders and 11 fifth-grade students in two classrooms in a suburban community near Cincinnati (Ohio). The classes were homogeneous racially, with no students of Hispanic, African-American, Asian, or Pacific Island descent in either class. The school reflects primarily middle and…

This study examines the ability of students to develop empathy for peoples of the past and to avoid the belief that people in the past were no different than today. The paper reports the results of a year-long qualitative investigation of fourth and fifth graders' attempts to understand the values, attitudes, and beliefs of people in the past. The…

The present study tried to find out whether Saudi history textbooks for grades 4-12 contain global themes, in which grade levels global themes are introduced, the percentage of global themes, local history themes and Islamic history themes, and which global history themes are taught. A checklist of global history themes was developed. Those are:…