Living history, and/or reenactment, brings the lives and experiences of a past age into the modern era to provide a contextualized interpretation of long-gone cultures. Academic literature suggests that presentations by properly trained living historians at historical sites and museums are connected to more positive visitor experience and…

Historical thinking, a term that encompasses a diverse set of definitions and competencies, calls on students to replicate the work and cognitive processes of historians by analyzing and interpreting evidence and making logical conclusions based on this evidence. Given this emphasis on discipline-specific skills, "sources" (especially…

Our social studies classrooms are filled with students from many different backgrounds. This article aims to help middle grades (grades 6-8) social studies teachers consider how trade books that feature the global South can be paired with primary historical texts in order to help students develop perspective consciousness. Social studies educators…

For a long time, Advanced Placement and other advanced-level U.S. history courses at the high school level were modeled after the collegiate survey course. However, the last two decades or more have seen some significant changes in the teaching of U.S. history at undergraduate and high school levels. Many of these changes at the high school level…

Why do people who claim the same epistemological beliefs interpret and express these beliefs in ways that seem diametrically opposed? And how can the author understand tensions in the classroom that arise from such divergent expressions of religious faith, especially in the context of history? There are a number of ways to examine these questions…

Students of history are expected to be able to interpret visual images as a source of primary evidence for historical inquiry, yet history teachers may not always place sufficient emphasis on pedagogies that consistently and specifically target the skills of visual interpretation. Developing understanding of visual evidence is sometimes left to…

This article presents a story about eighty-six ninth-grade World History and Geography students who authored a "how-to" book, while pretending that they were experts who lived in the past and had to explain how to do something relating to that time period. These students attended a large high school in the Midwest; the school's…

Although most teachers believe that "students should write at least one in-depth paper during high school," the independent research paper is disappearing from high school curricula in the face of two competing pressures: the need to prepare for high-stakes tests and student "senioritis." In many high schools, the senior year has become "a…

Raising attainment has become an over-riding concern for politicians and educational administrators on both sides of the Atlantic. The public perception, often generated by adverse reports in the media, is of declining educational standards. However, it is often difficult to compare standards across time and between countries since assessments do…