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This study focuses on a successful Professional Development Program for improving students’ understanding of historical time, consisting of a training and the implementation of Timewise, a teaching approach in which timelines were used consistently. The PDP was carried out with 16 elementary school teachers in grades 2 (ages 7-8) and 5 (ages 10-11). Results indicate that the highest student learning gains were reached by teachers who successfully implemented the instructional behavior aimed at, while using educative curriculum materials. The clear structure of Timewise and the user-friendly materials, which included room for autonomy, supported teachers in their learning and teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study investigates a training program aimed at preparing pre-service history teachers for organizing inquiry-based learning (IBL) in class. This program consisted of a workshop and an assignment during the teaching internship period. Pre- and posttests indicate that the workshop had a significant effect on self-efficacy and attitude toward IBL, but also that most student teachers' attitudes had again changed after the assignment. Related to this, student teachers' lesson plans revealed three different templates, representing distinct interpretations of ‘inquiry’. An analysis of reflection papers and interviews describes how the context of the teaching internship further shaped student teachers' thinking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study provides a comprehensive picture of history teachers' conceptions of inquiry-based-learning (IBL), based on interviews with 22 secondary school teachers. The results indicate that, although most teachers' beliefs about the nature of history were conducive to teaching historical reasoning, their conceptions of IBL often remained limited to critically evaluating information, instead of using the available information to conduct inquiries into the past. Furthermore, teachers' conceptions of IBL appeared to be strongly connected to the context in which they worked. Based on these findings, several implications for supporting history teachers' adoption of IBL are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While worldwide policy attention turns to mentoring to develop new teachers' practice, researchers have not investigated mentoring exchanges that support novices' teaching of historical reasoning and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) development. Drawing on case studies of U.S. mentor–novice pairs, authors ask: How, if at all, is the teaching of history represented in mentoring conversations? How, if at all, do mentoring exchanges support novices' teaching of historical reasoning? Authors illustrate how mentoring conversations can support PCK elements through guided conceptual and practical representations of disciplinary history instruction; and reveal a form of mentor PCK for diagnosing and supporting novices' PCK development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]