The objective of this study is to better understand the process by which K-12 school districts select curricula materials in four critical subject areas: Mathematics, English Language Arts, Science, and History and Social Studies. This research has two primary goals: (1) to understand the process by which K-12 school districts select and adopt…

This article advances a continuing line of inquiry into an innovative teacher-support program intended to help in-service history teachers develop professional teaching knowledge for inquiry-based history instruction. Two prior iterations informed our design and use of professional development materials; they also informed the implementation…

Biography is a popular approach to history education in the younger grades, especially when teaching units of study during Women's History Month, which is March. A biography-centered approach, however, can be problematic when such lessons are not tied to any context, promoting the misconception that individuals create social change in isolation.…

This article describes the findings of a study involving a professional development program that prepared middle school teachers to integrate content on the earliest eras of world history and world geography. In particular, this study focused on participants' (n = 37) use of geographic resources to integrate geography and history and to encourage…

The post-World War II era in the United States, which ran from 1945 to 1970, has long been divided into two distinct periods; the late 1940s and 1950s and the 1960s. Out of this separation has come a view of the late 1940s and 1950s as a time dominated by a conservative conformist culture that did little to rival pre-war norms. On the other hand,…

Immersion education, a variant of content-based instruction, is characterised by the dual curriculum goals of content and language learning. The content and language learning goals become increasingly complex and challenging at the late immersion level. One way to help students achieve these goals is by planning content and language learning…

While AP (Advanced Placement) Art History may be taught within the art department in many schools, social studies teachers are equally capable of teaching the course well. They have the historical background to discuss the reasons for changes in art styles. A teacher's preparation is similar to teaching a course stressing political history,…

Background/Context: The Common Core State Standards Initiative reveals how little we understand about the components of effective discussion-based instruction in disciplinary history. Although the case for classroom discussion as a core method for subject matter learning stands on stable theoretical and empirical ground, to date, none of the…

This white paper describes instructional approaches that apply to successful teaching with the Smithsonian "Learning Lab." After defining its use of terms such as "deeper learning" and "authentic resources" the authors review the research basis of three broad approaches that support integrating digital resources into…

Teaching about the Holocaust is mandatory in many societies. This prescription is justified by authorities with many reasons: educating pupils for a better understanding of human rights, peace, war, genocide, critical thinking, historical thinking, racism, etc. The Holocaust can carry a very strong moral and emotional charge. But why do teachers…

This paper describes the effects of different methods to enhance students' understanding and learning from a text. We compared the efficiency of a text revision procedure ("from the text") and inferential activity engagement "toward the text") in the comprehension and recall of a History text. A total of 338 undergraduate…

In recent years, educators in the USA have emphasized disciplinary literacy as an essential path forward in cultivating adolescents' understanding of subject matter in tandem with literacy practices. Yet, this agenda poses challenges to teachers who have been tasked with its implementation. Here, we examine two expert US history teachers' efforts…

The COVID-19 Pandemic impacted world society in many ways. The virus rode our interconnected transit systems and exploited a globally connected world where a person can traverse the planet within a day; far shorter a time than the incubation period. The virus challenged our assumptions on communicability of disease and transmission vectors. It…

The COVID-19 Pandemic impacted world society in many ways. The virus rode our interconnected transit systems and exploited a globally connected world where a person can traverse the planet within a day; far shorter a time than the incubation period. The virus challenged our assumptions on communicability of disease and transmission vectors. It…

Recent reports on the media saturation experienced by the twenty-first century student have brought about an increased interest in focusing attention on the issue of visual literacy in today's schools. Concepts such as instructional personalization, where approaches to curriculum design and instruction are created to concentrate on the…