The teaching of history in school can be justified only if what is taught offers its recipients an introduction to historical thinking. This article attempts to identify briefly some of the more important elements in historical thinking, and to consider their implications for school teaching. (Editor/RK)

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…

Presents a case study concerned principally with the manner in which a given issue is dramatized, simplified, and offered for public consumption. Authors' point is that history must not overlook the contextual dimensions of political discourse. (DB)

History instruction should teach students about the processes through which history is made and understood. Students need to learn skills in historical analysis and interpretation, study people of the past and present involved in making history, and study historical principles that cultivate humane values. (AM)

Elementary children can be introduced to the historical processes of evaluating and interpreting materials within the existing curriculum. Activities for teachers and students are suggested. (AM)

Describes a history project that was used to teach students in grades one through six data interpretation and other methods of the historian. (AM)

Presents an historical analysis of the socialist revolution of 1917 which brought Lenin and the Bolsheviks to power in the Soviet Union and led to the establishment in Russia of a communist government. (DB)

Hypothesizes about the relationship between history and fiction. Discusses the contribution of history to understanding human affairs, stressing that history is true and fiction is not. Asserts that each generation uses the same materials to construct a new reality. States fiction gives only a partial view whereas history sees the world as whole.…

This document comprising of two essays, "Challenging Prospective Teachers' Understandings of History" (G. Williamson McDiarmid) and "Reflections of a Journeyman Historian" (Peter Vinten-Johansen), provides a uniquely detailed account of what students study and learn in a historiography course. The course described is unusual in its attention to…

This article provides practical insights into the writing of family histor ies in high school and college as a means for enlivening history study. (JH)

The author presents the dilemmas, as well as some solutions, for historians as they seek the relevance of their discipline in today's world and its relation to the social sciences. (JH)

Reviews and questions the traditional established interpretation that the French Revolution was about feudalism. Concludes that revisionist historians have cast doubt upon the orthodox theory but that they have not supplied an alternative explanation. (Author/DB)

Reports the results of a study which compared oral history and traditional history methods in the areas of cognitive achievement, affective motivation, and instructional preference. Concludes that oral history was effective in fostering greater cognitive achievement, and more positive attitudes. Recommends that oral history be added to traditional…

Examines the process whereby present-day meanings enter into judgments about the history of educational change. Argues that presentism is an unavoidable and perhaps a necessary condition for the study and teaching of history. Considers the foundations of presentism, the presentist implications of concept development, and educational implications.…

Shows how history instruction may be viewed as a part of a student's personal and social education by encouraging awareness of the historical aspects of many values issues. (JDH)