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In this study, researchers used a longitudinal multisite qualitative cross-case study to examine the beliefs and practices of five beginning teachers related to critical historical inquiry. They collected interview, observation, and classroom artifact data over a 5-year period, from teacher preparation through the teachers' 4th year in the classroom. Using critical theory as the frame, the researchers found that the beginning history teachers tended to move along two pedagogical continuums: one related to the criticality of content and the other related to didactic- or inquiry- based instruction. Teachers were more successful in engaging in critical historical inquiry practices if they had well-developed conceptual and practice tools and had opportunities to teach within school contexts that supported the use of critical historical inquiry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores how the Crash Course video series are being used as a content-focused resource in the social studies classroom. It argues that the Crash Course series, alongside its YouTube competitors, has significantly stepped in to fill a vacuum left by criticisms and the unpopularity of lectures, textbooks, and feature films. With over 15 million subscribers and accumulated views over 1.9 billion, Crash Course has become an important and ubiquitous force in history and social studies classrooms and represents a new genre of educational media found on YouTube. However, the dramatic rise in the popularity of educational videos online has not coincided with a growth in educational research, particularly in social studies and history education. This article explores the findings of a mixed-methods study that examines how and why history and social studies teachers are using Crash Course videos in their teaching and planning. In particular, it analyses descriptive statistics derived from the results of a teacher survey (n = 181) and semi-structured interviews with seven social studies teachers who have used Crash Course in their classrooms. The authors found that teachers in the study are regularly using the Crash Course video series to deliver content which is clearly meeting a need many social studies teachers have. The videos-short, easily accessible, and fun-fit nicely with demands to keep students engaged, reduce reliance on textbooks, and explore new content that teachers have little time to learn themselves. This study also found that rarely, if ever, are teachers inviting students to evaluate or assess the content, trustworthiness, or perspective of Crash Course videos. This article discusses what is gained and what are the risks of embracing Crash Course in the social studies and history classroom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The digital revolution has widened the array of curriculum materials available to history teachers. Given the variable quality of these new materials and the deeply contextual nature of teaching, educators need better tools for selecting among the vast options available. This study aimed to validate a device designed for that purpose, called the Curriculum Materials Evaluation Tool (CMET). Using a questionnaire and think-aloud interview, the study examined how four social studies teachers evaluated a novel material set for potential classroom use, and how the CMET mediated their analysis. Findings showed that the teachers preferred when materials are readily accessible and adaptable for their specific teaching context, in contrast to "one-size-fits-all" resources that dominate the Web. The CMET appeared to foster a deeper and broader analysis of the given material set, especially regarding its political and cultural orientation. The study suggests that teachers' role in vetting and adapting digital materials be recognized and embraced. The CMET can contribute to that end through its use in district adoption committees, teacher professional development, and collaborative curriculum research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores how to enact justice-oriented pedagogy and foster students' critical engagement in history classroom advocate for cultivating activist thinking in the history classroom. Topics include teachers can use "Teaching History for Justice" to show students how activism was used to seek justice, how past social movements connect to change society; and justice-oriented teaching practices with history pedagogy for the history and social studies K-12 classroom.

The author reflects on her experience teaching present-day students about life under totalitarianism. Forty years of Communism is a long time; attitudes and opinions matured and shifted -- even (if we examine Havel's essay) those of his greengrocer. And what should be the focus of the teaching: the terror, the heroism, or the everyday business of living? How can one convey the different levels and subtleties of a world that history presents in black and white? The past could disappear in a hazy memory, but young people, once provoked, ask direct and practical questions that do connect the past to the present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal for this study was to better understand how an ambitious teacher uses pedagogical content knowledge while planning learning environments that focus on disciplinary, inquiry-based practices in world history. We used Monte-Sano and Budano's (2012) framework for pedagogical content knowledge for teaching history to examine the teacher's planning over the course of a year. Through interviews and analysis of artifacts, we found more specific sub-categories that represent the various ways that the teacher thought about transforming, representing, framing, and attending to students' ideas about world history. Additionally, we found a hierarchical relationship in the aspects of the teacher's pedagogical content knowledge that aligned with her phases of planning (skeletal, unit planning, reflective) throughout the year. These findings highlight contentspecific issues in planning world history courses--particularly those focused on the earliest eras--including questions about how teachers can find appropriate resources, organize world history content for teaching, and help students understand world historical narratives. We conclude with a discussion of these issues and implications for teacher education, curriculum design, and further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades we witnessed ongoing debates about the objectives of history education, with different underlying epistemological perspectives. This qualitative study explored prospective history teachers' beliefs about these objectives of history education. Prospective history teachers of six universities starting a teacher educational programme were invited to answer an open-ended questionnaire about history education. Six objectives were found: (1) memorising; (2) critical/explanatory; (3) constructivist; (4) perspective-taking; (5) moral; and (6) collective-identity objectives. Almost all prospective teachers mentioned several of these objectives. A distinction between two epistemological perspectives on historical knowledge representation (factual or interpretive), was used as a framework for categorising the different objectives. More than half of the respondents mentioned objectives of history education that represent history as factual and objectives that represent history as interpretive. We propose that in actual practice most history teachers are combining epistemologically opposing objectives for pedagogical, political and religious motives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Much research has been done on the factors that influence teachers' work. Yet the nature and scope of those factors, and their impact on teachers, remain unclear. Indeed, different literature bases on teachers' work present different and often contradictory conclusions. For example, some researchers claim that mandated accountability testing exerts the greatest impact on teachers' work. Yet other researchers claim that teachers' knowledge and beliefs have an equally strong impact on their work, as does mandated testing. These contradictory findings in the research seem to happen at least in part because most research into teachers' work only looks at one or two influences on that work and ignores how multiple factors work together to influence teachers' work. Purpose: Recognizing this background, this study examines three factors that influence teachers' work: mandated accountability testing, teachers' knowledge and beliefs, and teachers' milieu. The article examines each factor, both individually and collectively, for their combined influence on teachers' work. Setting: This study was conducted at a public middle school in south Texas. Population: Four social studies teachers participated in this study: 2 eighth-grade U.S. history teachers, 1 seventh-grade Texas history teacher, and 1 sixth-grade world cultures teacher. Research Design: The study encompasses 5 years of weekly interactions with social studies teachers at the school. I logged approximately 450 hours of nonparticipant observations, made field notes and audio recordings of regular classroom activities, conducted 13 semistructured interviews and had numerous informal conversations with the teachers, and attended teachers' department meetings. Open coding was used to closely analyze research texts. Findings: The analysis finds that these three factors do not influence teachers' work in isolation. Instead, they combine to form a complex "web of influence" on teachers' work. The article crafts a narrative of these teachers' experiences with these different factors and illustrates how the factors combine to impact their work. Conclusion: This article holds implications for school leaders, policy makers, and teacher educators. In short, it offers evidence about the unintended consequences of not taking a holistic approach to school leadership, educational policy, and teacher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores preservice and practicing teachers' conceptions of historical significance generally and for the history classroom. Using think-aloud interviews and cardsorting data, we engaged in qualitative analysis of how four preservice and five practicing teachers answered two questions related to determining significance: what events are most significant in world history and what events are most important for students to learn? Results showed that (a) participants answered the two questions differently, and (b) both practicing and preservice teachers added considerations when responding to the question about what events are most important for students to learn. Through these analyses, we developed the term instructional significance to describe an aspect of pedagogical content knowledge that serves as a lens through which teachers view the content they teach, and think about that content in preparing to teach students. We use these findings and research on student and teacher conceptions of historical significance to propose a preliminary framework for instructional significance for teaching history. We conclude by suggesting the utility of the framework to history classrooms and to future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the narrative structure used by Israeli history teachers in their lessons. The investigation makes use of the analytical tools of narratology, employing the constitutive narratological distinction between fabula and szujet. It becomes clear that the narrative structure which teachers of history commonly use impedes their ability to prepare lessons which interest their pupils. The article proposes that history teachers adopt a different narrative structure, which may captivate their pupils and arouse greater interest in learning history. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This case study examines a teaching candidate's completion of a major assessment project, including his approach to lesson planning and assessment design, the creation of rubrics, and the crafting of narratives to analyze his students' work. Qualitative data analysis suggests that this beginning teacher, who excelled in planning and teaching for historical thinking, needed additional support in honing his skills with respect to discipline-based assessment. In his analysis of students' work and his reflection on the assessments, the teaching candidate retreated to generalist stances that made no references to thinking historically. The teaching candidate demonstrated an ability to design discipline-based assessments and an inability to use a discipline-based framework to assess and describe his students' work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A causal-comparative, mixed methods design was used to study a partnership between a university and school district formed with the goal of improving history teachers' United States history content knowledge to raise student engagement and achievement. Data were collected from middle and high school history teachers including teacher interviews, classroom observations, and student work. Student engagement surveys and academic performance data were also collected. Student academic performance was positively impacted and changes in classroom practice were found in the treatment group. However, differences in student engagement between groups were not found to be statistically significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Context: How students develop a capacity to examine and imagine the past impacts how they think about the present and imagine the future. This study contributes to research about teachers' beliefs and practices about teaching United States history through cultural encounters and nontraditional historical narratives. Although there is a small but growing body of research concerning teachers' beliefs and practices regarding historical thinking and inquiry, little research exists on teachers' beliefs and practices about history teaching from a cultural encounters perspective. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: The study examined teachers' perspectives of a professional development effort designed to promote their students' historical thinking within a cultural encounters curriculum. This curriculum emphasized the role of perspective and historical narrative. The research questions were: (1) What were the K-12 participants' specific examples of lessons and units related to historical cultural encounters? (2) How did they conceptualize their teaching for historical cultural encounters? (3) How did they begin to reconceptualize their views about a cultural encounters history curriculum? Research Design: The study used a qualitative design to examine perceptions of 21 K-12 teachers. A conceptual framework about history teacher thinking and reconceptualization informed the design. Three forms of data -- surveys, individual interviews, and lesson plans--were collected about teachers' perceptions of practice and their applications of those perceptions in their classrooms. The surveys were administered throughout the 3-year program cycle and at the final evening colloquium. Interviews were conducted with the 21 teachers approximately 3 months after the end of the project. Lesson plans that teachers constructed at different points in the professional development project were analyzed after its conclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The teacher who is the focus of this interpretive case study, uses primary sources regularly with her students in ambitious ways but does so less from the current reform efforts, recent history education scholarship, or the climate of accountability and more from her individual goals for history education, most significantly, to prepare her students for informed citizenry. In this study, I use Barton and Levstik's (2004) work, Teaching History for the Common Good, as a framework for making sense of one middle school teacher's purpose for teaching history with primary sources. One implication of this study suggests that when a teacher closely aligns her pedagogical goals with her practice, she is more likely to teach ambitiously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines online messages in a discussion forum that a group of K-12 history teachers used to discuss curriculum implementations as part of their professional development. It has 3 main research foci. First, it focuses on identifying the types of assistances provided to the teachers in an online forum. Second, it examines teachers' cognitive thinking levels exemplified in their online messages. Third, it investigates the relationship between the assistance provided to teachers and the thinking levels they exemplified online. In addition, the study presents data from interviews with forum users to help validate findings attained through examining the online messages. Findings show that various assistance types and forum users' perceptions of online communication may have influenced teachers' levels of thinking during online discussions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A study of how middle and high school American history teachers adopted and maintained the use of research-based instructional practices is described as a model of professional development for social studies teachers. The teachers participated in a three-year project funded by the U.S. Department of Education's Teaching American History grant program. Teachers were observed, interviewed, and surveyed concerning their use of and feelings about twelve new strategies that were developed with a focus on pedagogical content knowledge. A variation on the Concerns-Based Adoption Model was used to measure the levels of use and stages of concern of the teachers over the three-year grant period and one year following the conclusion of the grant. Results indicate an increasingly high level of adoption and sustained use of the strategies, as well as the developmental nature of the process. Implications for professional development activities in history teacher education are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the author's discussion of her high school history students' reactions to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. She considers if it is possible to "teach" character in a history classroom given the second-class status of social studies in high schools and she believes that it can be done. She describes her experiences of using the terrorist attacks on that day as an influential landmark historical event. She relates the students' complaints regarding the history that they learned about was through reading and not by living through it. How the students' essays differed in tone when writing about the attacks and then writing about recommendations on how the U.S. government should respond is discussed.

This study investigates how high-achieving Latino adolescents at an urban high school designate significance to events, people, and documents in American history. Survey and interview data of 70 high school students and their advanced placement history teacher document how students attach their own meanings to the history of the nation and employ concepts of freedom and unity as criteria for attributing significance. Unlike other ethnic minority students, however, these almost exclusively Cuban American students complemented and reinforced the official narrative of national uniqueness and progress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article sketches out a comprehensive approach for preparing history teachers. It argues that grounding in historical content knowledge is necessary for success in the classroom, but such grounding is not enough to ensure that success. For beginning teachers, the problem is not merely acquiring content knowledge but acquiring it in ways that facilitate teaching subjects to young people of varied backgrounds and abilities. In short, teachers need to understand content in the context of teaching, meaning prospective history teachers must have a robust understanding of history's details, ways in which historians acquire and structure those details, and how teachers can make the subject accessible and worth knowing for students. This approach demands that teachers also know how their students understand history and the assumptions they make about historical events and developments. Finally, prospective teachers need to know how to offer content-rich, engaging instruction within a standards-based, high-stakes testing context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article I explore what it means to read a historical text. In doing so, I draw on my research with historians and high school students, who thought aloud as they reviewed a set of texts about the American Revolution. I begin by providing an overview of what I learned from historians, sketching in broad strokes an image of the skilled reader of history. Next, 1 compare this image to what emerged from an analysis of high school students' responses to these same documents. I then speculate about the source of differences between these two groups, arguing that each group brings to these texts a distinctive epistemological stance, one that shapes and guides the meanings that are derived from text. I end by outlining the implications of this work for bow we define reading comprehension and bow we define the place of history in the school curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the responsibility of the American Historical Association for the teaching of history at all levels in American educational institutions in the U.S. The American Historical Association has established a Service Center for Teachers of History. The author points out that the Service Center will prepare and supervise the preparation of various types of pamphlets to aid secondary teachers. One of the function of the Center will be to facilitate cooperation between teachers of history at all levels.

The article discusses the concept of training history teachers. Teacher-education institutions have the responsibility to prepare teachers who are equipped to handle local historical materials. Teachers were required to attend seminar in the social studies with emphasis on local materials. They must also see to it that students are exposed to the practice of using local materials to illustrate and make more meaningful. Institutions working on the graduate level have their role in increasing the effectiveness of the teaching of local history.

The author responds to the comment made in her article "Preparing Effective History Teachers: The Assessment Gap" which outlines the progress of one student through a student teaching project called Learning Assessment Model Project (LAMP). Topics discussed include the author's argument on the discussers' claim that they do not understand the study findings, her conclusion that the LAMP is faulty, and the respondents' criticism of the rubric of beginning teacher named Nick.

The authors comment on the article "Preparing Effective History Teachers: The Assessment Gap" by Sarah Brown which outlines the progress of one student through a student teaching project called Learning Assessment Model Project (LAMP). Topics discussed include Brown's conclusion that LAMP as an assessment is faulty, the advantage of the project for teacher candidates, and some flaws in teacher preparation highlighted in the article.