This article explores the Digital Vaults and offers suggestions in introducing this site to students. The Digital Vaults, inspired by the permanent Public Vaults exhibition launched by the National Archives in 2004, is not just another website, but it designed to be an online exhibit and teaching tool, by offering both exposure to historical…

The growth of interest in historical research into the commonplace provides opportunities to explore the different means through which we can understand the everyday world of teachers. Unlike the "well-known" in education past, where significant traces of their lives remain in archives and official records, little such evidence exists of…

Many MBA classes, such as those in accounting and finance, require students to examine securities filings to perform financial analyses of companies. Often, however, students are unaware of the vast amount of additional information that can be obtained from a company's securities filings and other public information. Much of this information…

This case study examines a U.S. History class where a veteran teacher uses challenging primary source documents and a debate to encourage his students to think critically about history. The teacher is knowledgeable about the subject matter and articulates a clear purpose for teaching. Surprisingly, the author finds that the teacher's methods,…

Primary source materials are increasingly being thought of as curricular resources and archivists are being asked to play the role of educator. This article, based on the session "Archivists as Educators: Integrating Primary Sources into the Curriculum" looks at the role of the primary source in undergraduate and secondary school curricula and…

Genius-level achievement is a natural draw for undergraduate students, both as a cultural phenomenon and as a topic domain within the science of psychology. Yet within the teaching of psychology literature, the psychology of genius has been largely ignored. I designed a course that combines primary source material drawn from existing empirical…

In her commentary Danielle J. Ford mainly focused on three issues that highlight the promises and challenges for the use of Adapted Primary Literature (APL) in science curricula: the possible contribution of APL to authentic experiences in secondary schools, implementation issues of APL including the support required for the teachers, and the…

Primary source material found in documentary film has the potential to richly inform college teaching. This article describes using 2 historically significant documentary-style films to teach concepts in the psychology of persuasion. Exemplary clips taken from "Triumph of the Will" (Riefenstahl, 1935) and "Fahrenheit 9/11" (Moore, 2004)…

"Teaching History to Adolescents: A Quest for Relevance" is an exploration of research, ideas, trends, and practices for educators who teach American history to adolescents from the middle grades through high school. Higher education faculty in history and professional education will also find the book germane to their work. Topics within the…

Recent studies advocate careful selection of local historic sites and recommend collaboration between stakeholders to create meaningful learning experiences for students. The author describes the efforts of a historical society, a university professor, and a local school district to develop an integrative field trip to a one-room schoolhouse.…

At the end of secondary education in The Netherlands, students have to pass a final examination, consisting of an internal school-based assessment and an external national assessment. According to the Dutch inspectorate, to ensure the quality of final examinations, the discrepancy between both assessments must be less than 0.5 points (on a scale…

The traditional approach to the education of newcomer students separates English language development from content instruction. It is assumed that English language proficiency is a prerequisite for subject-matter learning. The authors take the alternate view that the integration of historical thinking and digitized primary sources enhances English…

Newcomers are a special subgroup of the student population designated as English Language Learners (ELLs). The research project described in this article investigates how a teacher integrated language and content in a single subject area, social studies, in a high school newcomer classroom. Three extended lessons were presented to newcomer…

"Learning to think is the real goal of educators," said Lauren Resnick, internationally known University of Pittsburgh professor of cognitive science, in mid-March at the Library of Congress (LOC). "The real pedagogical conflict is over what comes first: content or thinking skills?" According to Resnick, new brain research leads to the answer:…

This article draws attention to the language used by fourth and fifth grade teachers during social studies instruction and discusses the implications of how this language frames non-dominant groups, as in this case. Via the discussion of segments of instructional conversations, the authors point to the pervasive use of language that perpetuates…