This paper summarizes and discusses the findings from interviews of 10 fifth graders conducted before and after each of their six U.S. history units. Special reference is made to potential curricular and instructional implications from the findings. The 10 students began the year with little historical knowledge and they displayed numerous…

The study that is the subject of this document focused on how fifth-graders' knowledge and thinking about the westward expansion of the pre-Civil War United States was affected by students' participation in a curriculum unit on the topic. A stratified sample of 10 students was interviewed before and after they participated in the unit to…

In most elementary schools in the United States, students get their first systematic introduction to history as a discipline and to chronological treatment of U.S. history as subject matter in fifth-grade U.S. history courses. To develop information about the knowledge and misconceptions concerning U.S. history that fifth-grade teachers can expect…