History teachers are perhaps more concerned than those in other disciplines to make their classroom material "come alive." Students tend to perceive that learning history means memorizing facts, more so than in other disciplines. Historians consequently use a range of active learning pedagogies--handling unique archival sources, role…

Explores the use of simulation and role playing activities to teach students about lifestyles, ideologies, and political relationships in Asia. A short-term role playing technique and a long-term foreign policy simulation are described. (Author/DB)

Procedures and evaluation of a simulation designed to reenact the British-Chinese Opium War negotiations are described. (DE)

Participants in an undergraduate oral history project interview Vietnam veterans in their locality as primary source material for a course in Southeast Asian history. (DE)

Improving critical thinking--defined by one expert as "reasonable reflective thinking focused on deciding what to believe or do"--has been a frequent topic in the writing of history educators at least since the early 1970s. Attitudes and interests do support higher-level thinking and, most importantly, knowledge used in carrying it out…