Teaching for historical understanding

Abstract

This qualitative study examined the issue of history education and its failure to understand and implement the most effective teaching and learning strategies for the discipline. It did this by conducting interviews, observations, and a focus group with a group of history teachers in a suburban high school in New England. While aiming to explain how history teachers' beliefs about teaching history affect their instructional practice and how much those beliefs have been shaped by their knowledge of current instructional theory, it also defined what constitutes teaching for historical understanding, elicited instructors' knowledge and beliefs, and compared the two as they are applied in practice. This study highlighted the contextual nuances that both hinder and help the application of best practices by asking the following three questions: (1) How do history teachers in a largely middle class, suburban high school think about the teaching and learning of history? (2) What has shaped their beliefs and understanding of the teaching and learning of history as reported by them? (3) To what degree is there an alignment between these teachers' stated beliefs about the teaching and learning of history and what is observed in their lesson plans and practice? In the end, the study identified that there are numerous contextual complexities associated with the teaching of history having to do with teachers' knowledge of history, understanding of pedagogy in the context of teaching history, and their personal belief systems concerning the proper instruction of students.