With contributions from leading experts across disciplinary fields, this book explores best practices from the field's most notable researchers, as well as important historically based and politically focused challenges to a field whose impact has reached an important crossroads. The comprehensive and powerfully critical analysis considers the…

Guided design involves an instructor in developing a problem that students are expected to solve and then leading them, step by step, through the problem to its solution. This teaching method was used to help students explore how individuals, small groups, and then larger numbers of people in larger areas interact to form the Muncie (Indiana)…

This article outlines a conceptual framework for a high school or college level unit on local history and demonstrates use of the framework through a case study of Whitehall, Georgia. Information is presented on planning the unit, selecting a community, teaching methods, collecting data, and identifying likely sources of information on community…

Recommends that students conduct ethnographic studies of language in their own communities. Emphasizes that the focus ought to be conventions of speaking and writing, as well as conventions that govern the conduct, the "texts," of a culture. (RAE)

Described are two approaches for using newspapers to teach local, regional, or state geography courses to college students. In the first approach, the instructor developed a manual to supplement an introductory geography course which examined spatial patterns of various phenomena as they are found in the Cincinnati (Ohio) metropolitan area. He…

Describes a college-level course in psychology in which students study community issues and problems. Outlines how students work in community program internships and participate in individual and group research projects. Includes course objectives, recommended instructional resources, and evaluation strategies. (CFR)

In this paper, a college economics professor shares his ideas and experiences related to teaching a regional economics course for seniors at Bucknell University. In an attempt to depart from the traditional content and the passive teaching procedures prevalent in such courses, the professor implemented a course in a regional, political, economic…

This publication discusses oral history, its potential as a teaching tool, and its application in a variety of different classroom situations from the elementary through the post-secondary levels. The purpose is to show the great variety of uses and possibilities for using oral history in the classroom. There are six major sections. The articles…

A guide to the assembly of local, oral history information for future historical research is provided. Since the relatively new field of oral history is the tape recording of reminiscences about which a narrator can speak from firsthand knowledge, it is necessary for the interviewer to have background knowledge of the subject matter and…

Intended to engage students in a comparative look at local history in two upper Mississippi river towns (Winona, Minnesota and Dubuque, Iowa), this paper describes the computer-assisted component of an upper-level American Studies course. With emphasis on the 19th century, students examine the transition made by the United States from a…

Essays in this special issue of the "Journal of Family History" focus on the teaching of family history by using artifacts. The articles were written by the staff at Old Sturbridge Village (OSV). The first article discusses how family history is taught at OSV. Students study a real family using demographic information and artifacts such as…

This bibliography identifies over 100 articles from 1973 to 1978 printed in the "Journal of Geography." The compilation provides an overview of recent concerns as well as methods of incorporating environmental education into the classroom. Subjects covered include atmosphere, energy, climate-vegetation, field studies, future studies, land-use…

This booklet discusses and offers solutions for some of the educational problems growing out of the diverse nature of schools in the United States. Chapter I describes the society as a multicultural one in which a wide discrepancy exists between ideals and practices. A multicultural society is made up of many groups with varying degrees of common…

Eighteen award winning, teacher-developed programs, projects, courses, and materials in economic education are presented in condensed versions. The case study projects are designed to be used in primary, intermediate, junior high, senior high, and college, and are organized into five chapters by grade level. Chapter I suggests ways to teach…