Chapter 49: EXPERTISE AND THE TEACHING OF HISTORY.

The article presents a research related to the expertise and the teaching of history. This research focuses not on the failures of history teachers, but on their successes. It looks not only at the results of large-scale standardized tests, but at real teachers and real students in the act of teaching and learning. It is research that examines the practice of real historians, using them as role models for the kind of thinking and habits of mind to which students should aspire and teachers should nurture. When one turns to this emerging body of research, a picture of what the master history teacher looks like begins to take shape. It is here that one diverges from popular culture's myths and icons. This is not the movies, nor is it golden memories of schools remembered. This is real life, a topic all too often ignored by film-makers and media critics. This research reveals pedagogical approaches far more varied and complex than any simplified icon can capture. Though it may be impossible to fit the master history teacher into a single, made-to-order icon, a few standard characteristics can be discerned.