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ERIC Number: EJ893830
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2010-May
Pages: 5
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0018-2745
EISSN: N/A
Preventing "Back-atcha": Improving Secondary School Instruction by Introducing Prospective Teachers to Historiography
Blaszak, Barbara J.
History Teacher, v43 n3 p435-439 May 2010
The author is always looking for material to use in her campaign to end the educational "back-atcha" cycle. It is a multi-generational process, wherein unsophisticated fact-centered high school instruction turns out students resilient against understanding historical discipline despite their college courses; these students then go on to become secondary school teachers who produce more students like themselves coming "back-atcha" to college classrooms. In an effort to break this cycle, the author recommends to require a course that problematizes content--specifically, the course that Le Moyne College asks its history majors to take in the second semester of their sophomore year: "History 301, Methods of Historical Research." It is a course in historiography and critical thinking about source materials, taking students from the contributions of Herodotus to those of Hayden White. The course attempts to destroy students' faith in the existence of objectivity and to show them how perspectives shape the meaning drawn from the evidence that survives from the past. The author shares her experience in teaching the course to her students. (Contains 4 notes.)
Society for History Education. California State University, Long Beach, 1250 Bellflower Boulevard, Long Beach, CA 90840-1601. Tel: 562-985-2573; Fax: 562-985-5431; Web site: http://www.thehistoryteacher.org/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education; Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: New York
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A