Abstract
Beginning with a distinction among families of explanations (common, disciplinary, self-, and instructional), this article describes research on two aspects of instructional explanations in history with the aim of contributing to research on explanations and on instructional discourse. The two aspects are: the different epistemic occasions that prompt an explanation and a model of goals and actions for instructional explanations in history. The occasions include events, themes, structures, and metasystems. The four goal states are: understanding the nature of the problem or query under discussion; completing in a coherent way the multiple verbal strands that comprise the explanation; using appropriate, accessible representations and analogies; and identifying fundamental disciplinary principles as they are used. Excerpts from the classroom discourse of an advanced history course provide two examples of instructional explanations that illustrate both the occasions being explained and the model of explanation.
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