Digging into History: Authentic Learning through Archeology

Abstract

FACTS, OR SKILLS? Content, or process? Teachers of history and social studies teachers often lock horns over these questions, trying to define the nature of their field and its role in secondary education. The question is one of both method and purpose. Teachers of history often focus on content, presenting the past as a series of important people and events, an accumulated cultural lore that should be mastered by all students. Teachers of social studies, on the other hand, tend to approach the past more thematically, drawing on students' own experiences in order to promote social awareness, multicultural perspectives, and academic skills. The dichotomy between history and social studies, emphasized in current journalism (e.g., K.M. Manzo, History Invading Social Studies' Turf in School, Education Week, January 22, 2003) seems to boil down to this: should students learn about the past, or how to learn about the past, or both? As a fairly traditional teacher, I had always been solidly in the history-as-content camp, until a recent experience teaching archaeology at the secondary level changed my outlook and methods dramatically. Initially, as I planned the course at Germantown Friends School in Philadelphia, I had no idea that archaeology would spark such enthusiasm among students, or be such an ideal pedagogical subject. In retro-