National History Education Clearinghouse

What does a curriculum designed to foster historical understanding and thinking look like? This research brief discusses a groundbreaking curricular innovation in the UK that left an indelible mark on history instruction in that country and throughout the English speaking world.

The curriculum favored depth over breadth, engaging students in research projects and thrusting them into focused inquiries. As a lasting contribution, the program modeled how adolescents "get better at history."

How do students learn to think historically? Robert Bain, a history teacher with 26 years experience, used a unit on Columbus, exploration, and the idea of the flat earth to show how principles of learning are put into practice.

First, Bain asked students what they knew about the voyages of Columbus. Then he asked them how they knew what they supposedly knew. What was the evidence for their Columbus stories? This question forced students to confront the uncertain status of historical accounts.

Research shows us that most high school and middle school students do not spontaneously read or write historically. But few studies tackle the question of whether students can learn to read and write historically in real classrooms.

Who says that elementary students can’t think historically? A researcher from University of Maryland College Park challenged that assumption in a recent study.

Through direct instruction in historical analysis skills, Bruce VanSeldright's students not only showed marked improvements in their work but also became excited about a subject in which they had previously expressed little interest.

Historical feature films are a popular tool history teachers use to engage their students. But what is it that students actually learn from the films they watch?

Peter Seixas, a historian and professor of education at the University of British Columbia, showed that while students often empathize with the past they see on the screen, they also approach film history uncritically. In a landmark article, Seixas described the difficulty students have in analyzing films for historical accuracy.

Most educators use test results to measure student learning, but what are the connections between how students perform on tests and what goes on in their classrooms?