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The article discusses various aspects of disciplinary literacy, also referred to as historical literacy, within world history, and how such literacy informs a particular approach to K-12 history education. It attempts to define world historical literacy and how world history teachers must define the parameters for becoming literate in world history.

This article analyzes the social representations of a group of undergraduate students in preschool education, regarding the methodology for teaching social science. The analysis is centered on these students' conceptions of: a) the way children learn, and b) the way social science is taught. The results show why methodology is valued more, during initial professional training, than the objectives, contents, and goals of teaching social science and history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article looks at the U.S. Department of Education's Teaching American History (TAH) grant program, with a particular focus one grant recipient, the Model Collaboration: Rethinking American History (McRAH) program, which included a high-needs school district, a liberal arts college, and an urban historical society. Topics discussed include teaching strategies, teachers' attitudes towards the study and teaching of history, and the sustainability of teaching methodologies.

This article presents an interview with Spanish historian Joaquim Prats. He discusses role of teachers, particularly history teachers, in the modern-day era and comments on the changes involved in the profession since the 20th century in Spain. He also considers the relationship between history education and historical research.

This article presents the results of a Canadian study of prospective history teachers conducted in 2012-2013. Using an online questionnaire to assess a broad range of questions pertaining to their knowledge of history, their trust in historical sources, their experiences in high school and university classes, and their views about school history, it offers new empirical evidence on how the growing generation of Canadian teachers are prepared for the teaching profession. Implications of this study for teacher education and practice teaching are also presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research on history teaching has begun to focus on political motivation. This paper is the result of the author’s dissertation, which investigates Latvian history teaching under the authoritarian regimes of Ulmanis and Stalin. It reveals the effects of authoritarianism on goals, curriculum, teaching materials and methods, and the teacher’s position in the classroom. The research undertaken attempts to discern how authoritarian political rule manipulates the teaching of national history to further its political goals, and the resulting effects. The article focuses on the teaching of Latvian history under the Soviet authoritarian regime in Latvia (1934–1940, 1940–1941/1944–1991), but includes discussion of the Nazi occupation and periods of democracy in Latvian history as a source of comparison in order to analyse the teaching of Latvian history in democratic and authoritarian societies and define the traits characteristic to authoritarian regimes. Authoritarian traits are revealed through comparisons of the purpose of history teaching as determined by the ruling order, the goal of history teaching, curriculum, methodology and materials, and teacher status under authoritarian regimes and democratic regimes. Results indicate that goals of history teaching become contrived under authoritarianism – politicised curriculum marginalises some groups, textbook authorship and choice is limited, and teachers become transmitters of the regime’s agenda resulting in marginalisation. This study deduces that two cultures of history teaching emerge – official history in school and unofficial history acquisition that helps maintain a sense of national identity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article examines why California secondary school teachers rarely include units on the Middle East in their classrooms despite the importance of the region in the world today. In order to explain this gap, it will consider the massive knowledge demands on history teachers, state and federal testing practices, content standards that define what teachers must cover and how the students and parents themselves all limit a teacher's ability to include the Middle East in the public school classroom from kindergarten through grade twelve. After an examination of the issues involved, a few solutions are offered to assist in increasing education about the Middle East. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Framing history/social studies textbooks as a social construction designed to create a public memory of a national history and history of the Other, we investigated how U.S. history is represented in South Korea's social studies textbooks and what images and ideas of the United States are encouraged for South Korean students to take. To answer this question, we conducted a content analysis of the presentation of U.S. history in middle school social studies textbooks used in South Korean schools. Our findings show that (1) South Korea's textbook accounts of U.S. history predominantly portray the United States as a world leader in democracy and peace building; (2) the textbook accounts of U.S. history generally miss the events and figures that have historical significance for U.S. domestic contexts; and (3) the history of controversial U.S.–Korea relations as well as learning opportunities for historical thinking are also missing in the textbook accounts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the age of accountability, there is increased pressure to deliver high-quality education in a limited time period is greater than ever before. Teachers are often left to struggle with issue of determining what knowledge is necessary, and to what depth it may be explored in the classroom. There is a need for strategies to both incorporate the best forms of historical knowledge and to cope with the increased demands on our teachers. The purpose of this article is to examine the idea of what constitutes 'historical knowledge,' the issues of breadth and depth, and to suggest strategies for history teachers on how to deal with the challenge of finding the 'right' balance between breadth and depth in their history courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The question 'what if?' has been asked by historians for generations. This article explains how history teachers can use students' own what-if questions to enhance their historical knowledge and understanding by offering educators a step-by-step plan for utilizing counterfactual history into their classrooms. Additionally, the author offers a brief discussion concerning the genre of counterfactual history, its use by historians and educators, and an examination of the counterfactual history sources that have been created for student use. Finally, a lesson plan is provided that uses widely accepted educational strategies such as K-W-L charts and 'chalk talks' and combines them with the unique tactic of using counterfactual history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using first-hand documents in history lessons is very important. One of the targets that the history lessons is to achieve is the comprehension and interpretation of those documents by students. In this study, 132 primary teacher candidates are asked to read and interpret various documents. Doing a descriptive study, data is gathered by hermeneutic method. In the analysis of the data, frequency charts of the clauses are composed. It has been noticed that hermeneutic approach has positive effect in history lessons. It is understood that the teacher candidates are fairly successful in interpreting clues, events and documents, filtering opinions, making inference and paraphrasing what they understood. That should be useful to do studies like this and similar to this. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In spite of calls for increased literacy instruction in secondary content classes, there appears to be little change in practice. One reason for this may be that content area literacy courses inadequately prepared teachers to teach literacy skills specific to their content area. This article describes a program that embeds content area literacy instruction in a methods course taken by preservice history teachers. In this course, teaching candidates explore issues of literacy specific to history classrooms. Candidates' written reflections, examination responses, and course evaluations reveal the development of knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary to include literacy instruction in history classes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an examination of the role that history teachers play in cultivating students' imagination and empathy in Singapore. It discusses the importance that imagination and empathy have in engaging students to think critically about history. It explores how teachers can design a curriculum that allows students to understand the context of an event and bring them closer to the past. The article examines the history of housing development in Singapore and discusses a lesson that promotes classroom imagination and empathy.

The article discusses an alternative approach to teaching the traditional history survey to future history teachers. The author states that history teachers must understand how historians frame historical problems, select and organize factual details, and construct historical stories. The author talks about a course he designed for future history teachers at the University of Northern Colorado. The course is entitled "Advanced Overview of American History." The article also discusses approaches to teaching World War II.

This paper examines prospective history teachers' thinking about ethnic and cultural diversity and their experiences of learning to teach about history in multicultural classrooms. The paper reviews the findings of a follow-up study of 22 Finnish student teachers during their nine-month teacher education programme. The data consist of questionnaire data and various written assignments of this sample, plus interviews with nine selected persons. According to the results, signs of continuity and transformation are apparent in the student teachers' thinking. The informants frequently described problems related to diversity, although most of them did not see diversity as changing their way of teaching history as such. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will undertake a critical review of the impact of virtual reality tools on the teaching of history. Virtual reality is useful in several different ways. History educators, elementary and secondary school teachers and professors, can all profit from the digital environment. Challenges arise quickly however. Virtual reality technologies show great pedagogical promise in the presentation of research. It is also asserted that these technologies provide real-world immersion in the 'historical past' in a way that was previously not possible. Can these systems truly take the place of classrooms, elementary and secondary, and the research projects of graduate studies? Ultimately, technological optimists argue that these technologies create an 'alternate reality'. Can history educators agree to such an 'alternate reality'? The principle conclusions drawn in this paper include a need for further development of virtual simulations, both in terms of their realism and the immediacy of the classroom experience. Further practical experimentation by history educators in the research environment is also key. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human history is often shaped by the outcomes of arguments, not only in the sense of disputes between people or governments, but in the sense of the more rational pursuit of trying to convince others to accept or do certain things by offering reasons that are presented as compelling for so doing. Yet history teachers have done little to help students learn how to identify arguments in this sense, figure out what the arguments being offered are, and evaluate them. This article shows how a generic instructional technique—infusing direct instruction in skillful thinking into content instruction—can be used in the teaching of American history in ways that help students develop and use these thinking skills and that enhance their deep content understanding of the history being taught. The context is a secondary school classroom studying American history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teacher historical consciousness influences pedagogical practices in the national history classroom. Its study within the context of societies with ambiguous ethnic dominance like Quebec fosters a better understanding of how teachers signify past inter-group relations for knowing and orienting themselves toward the "Other." Quebec's blurred majority/minority demarcations between Francophones and Anglophones, as well as its common but non-consensual history program for its parallel school system, provides innovative and productive ground for such research. This article discusses a study conducted on inter-group attitudes and mutual in-class treatment between Francophone and Anglophone history teachers when teaching the Secondary Four, History of Quebec and Canada course in Montreal. Whereas most Francophone respondents displayed an indifference to the social realities and historical experiences of Quebec Anglophones, all Anglophone respondents demonstrated a sense of empathy toward the former. As this discrepancy reflects each group's sociological status, it also implies a dissimilarity in how research participants historicize the "French-English conflict" in Quebec's past. In this context, the non-recognition of Anglo-Quebecois moral and historical agency possibly explains the prevalent indifference among Francophone respondents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When teachers in elementary and middle school classrooms portray history as an immutable sequence of certain facts, dates, and events, young learners tend to view the past, and by extension the future, as something fixed and inevitable. Learning about the past through investigating biographies can help counter this tendency by teaching students to recognize that individuals and groups have the agency to make history and shape the future. In this article, the author presents three instructional strategies in which learners make use of graphic organizers to investigate the historical contexts and chronologies of individuals' lives. Students learn how people have effected historical change and worked together to preserve continuity with the past. They also learn that the values and attitudes that motivated individuals and groups to act as they did were in large measure the result of historically specific social structures and institutional arrangements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article arose from a series of workshops with practitioners in early years teaching. The workshops addressed how history could be taught to very young children, three- to five-years-old. The authors were aware that there was a widely held belief that history was inappropriate for the very young child. The authors felt that this was because of a common view that history was solely concerned with facts. There was also a prevalent view that, as history was about chronology (time), it was too difficult a subject for very young children, for whom ‘yesterday’ and ‘tomorrow’ had little meaning. This article argues that successful teaching of history is possible with very young children if the teaching concentrates on interpretation and enquiry. Through using story, young children are able to interpret the behaviour, motivation and intent of the characters. The practitioners are able to question the child as to why s/he interprets the character's actions in the way that s/he does. In other words the practitioner asks for evidence: the essence of history. When considering time, the authors' note that young children have a subjective understanding of time and this can be used to develop a growing awareness of chronology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses a strategy designed to improve students' knowledge of historical content and competence in historical thinking, for beginning and experienced history teachers and history teaching method professors. Conventional practices in using primary sources; Information on the use of primary sources in teaching; Examples of the use of first-, second- and third-order primary documents in investigating the period of Cold War; Ways of assessing the affective dimensions of students.

The article offers information on "Methoden, Inhalte und Techniken im Umgang mit Streitgeschichte," a conference that focused on various methods of teaching and studying the history of conflicts and wars. It took place in Lutherstadt Wittenberg, Germany from August 4-7, 2011. Papers presented at the conference discussed topics such as audio-visual methods for teaching history, information on the internet that is a useful historical source, and how to make learning history more interesting.

The author offers his thoughts on teaching historical analysis and thinking through the Internet. He said that historical thinking and historical analysis are essential themes within the ranks of social studies educators. He underscored the use of websites in furthering the study of history. He also mentioned how Samuel S. Wineburg's "Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts" made impact on historians, history professors and social studies methods instructors.

The article discusses how music can help American history teachers in their teaching tasks. According to the author, using songs to teach history is a way of training future generations to hear the voices communicating across time. The use of music, according to the author, will help build students' appreciation of their country's history. The author also discussed the uses and functions of music and how the use of music in communication gave rise to music's most important values for teaching history.

The article underscores the topic on history in the Wikipedia entitled "Historical Thinking." It states that the article has links to The National Center for History in the Schools at UCLA. This also includes a five-part definition of historical thinking. These are chronological comprehension, historical comprehension, historical research capabilities, historical analysis and interpretation, and historical issues-analysis and decision-making. Moreover, the article has other links to good information resources for teachers and methods of teachers in teaching history.