Assessing the factorial structure of high school history teachers’ perceptions on teaching American history

Abstract

The purpose of the research reported in this paper was to develop a preliminary factorial structure of high school history teachers’ perceptions on the most important elements of successful history teaching. The 54‐item Teaching American History Perception and Behavior Questionnaire was developed and administered to high school American history teachers in a Midwest state. Three hundred twenty‐five teachers completed and returned the questionnaire. Exploratory factor analyses with Varimax and direct Oblimin rotations were conducted to identify the initial factorial structure of high school teachers’ perceptions and behaviors in teaching American history. The results support a preliminary structure of six factors. The six factors are: (a) basic historical thinking (BHT); (b) intensive historical thinking (IHT); (c) reading and understanding subtext (RUS); (d) understanding cultural assumption and moral ambiguity (UAA); (e) comparing cultural perspectives (CCP); and (f) teachers’ professional development (TPD). The study indicates that the lowest teaching performance scores and the biggest gap to the perception scores are the reading and understanding subtext (RUS), and understanding cultural assumption and moral ambiguity (UAA). It suggests that high school American history teachers need to pay more attention in their teaching practice to encouraging students in reading and understanding subtext (RUS) and understanding assumption and ambiguity (UAA) of historical events.