The Portuguese Republic

The findings and recommendations of researchers and specialists in thinking-skill learning and teaching have important implications for classroom efforts to improve student thinking. This summary identifies various types of thinking skills and skill components recommended for classroom instruction. The author describes and cites research-derived features of effective, direct instruction in thinking skills and describes a framework for this instruction. He also describes researcherand specialist-recommended teaching techniques and lesson strategies for introducing any thinking skill, guiding continuing skill practice, and teaching students to transfer thinking skills to other contexts. He presents researcher recommendations of when, where, and why such direct skill instruction can be effectively provided. The research cited here suggests both students' academic achievement and their quality of thinking can be improved by using these techniques and strategies to teach thinking skills in subject-matter courses.     

Vitalizing United States History

The author shares the challenges faced in her social studies methods class due to the constraints of NCLB. By incorporating the jackdaw kit project within her social studies methods course, her candidates were able to connect what they were talking about in methods and apply it to their students teaching situations where there was little time for social studies instruction. The article details first-hand experiences and describes the contents of the jackdaw kits.     

Historical Experience and the Haitian Revolution in the History Classroom

The article examines a mainstream curricular unit on the Haitian Revolution, centered on a culminating role-play activity. Cultural studies, subaltern studies, and hermeneutics are applied as theoretical frameworks to read the curriculum unit and its activities. These theoretical lenses sharpen an understanding of what it means to experience history in the classroom. These lenses are used to consider the political relations of power within the historical moment being studied and the political notions of power within the production of historical knowledge itself. The author conducts an analysis of the epistemological and hermeneutic problem spaces within this curriculum, with particular attention to how this curriculum unit might be translated into an urban school setting that accounts for marginalized student positions.     

The Attitude of High School Pupils Toward History

Music has been a source of inspiration, of protest, of wisdom, and of emotion for millennia. In the United States, music became woven into the fabric of the culture well before it became a nation and it remains so today. Songs have expressed a range of emotions and informed listeners of historical, social, and political issues at every level of sophistication. Yet our passion for music, coupled with its significance as an artifact of history, has not found its way into classrooms in any prominent way. This article explores four models of using music in the history classroom, each of which ventures to encourage history teachers to consider music, its analysis, and even its creation as integral to history curricula. Each model uses various instructional strategies grounded in tenets of historical thinking and range from a teacher-centered Close Reading Model to inquiry and discovery-based approaches, concluding with a student-centered model of Creative Development.     

Integrating Computational Thinking into Social Studies

Abstract

Computational Thinking (CT) has recently been addressed as one of the key skills for the twenty-first century. Integrating CT into different subject areas of K-12 education is also now widely accepted to improve the quality of instruction. In that sense, it is important to enable educators and researchers to recognize how to integrate computational thinking into K-12 classrooms and to study how students learn to think computationally in social studies courses. Besides, providing good practice on CT helps to develop common ground for the teaching of computational thinking in social studies subject areas. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to provide a framework for social studies teachers with regard to how CT can be integrated into K-12 classrooms for social studies. Moreover, a practical implementation idea is also suggested based on this framework. This paper is expected to provide an insight to social studies teachers who want to integrate CT into their classroom in the future and support them in teaching context.     

Teaching Disability History: The Case of Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Abstract

This article addresses the teaching of disability history, specifically concerning the historical figure of Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR). Drawing upon literature from multicultural education, disability history and disability studies in education (DSE), the authors discuss historical content and teaching ideas for instruction about FDR. The authors present findings from a content analysis of six middle level and secondary United States history textbooks, noting unanimous coverage of FDR’s disability resulting from polio. These textbooks noted how he overcame his disability and strengthened his character, referenced his decision to conceal his disability, and quoted FDR directly regarding his disability. The authors follow this analysis with discussion of several middle and high school teaching ideas that might augment textbook coverage and representation about FDR. This article explores how teachers of United States history might further develop their teaching of history through the inclusion of disability history within the context of a famous historical figure.     

The History Mystery

Two social studies methods instructors created an assignment that places teacher candidates in leadership roles in partnerships with community organizations to plan and implement projects to increase student learning. This article outlines the project requirements, past project results, and student reflections on the collaborative effort. It provides evidence of the success and effectiveness of collaborative projects at increasing student learning, providing opportunities for leadership, and challenging students to become involved in community issues.     

The Function of History in an Americanism Program

This article discusses how local history can be used by teachers to help develop historical thinking skills such as source analysis, the collection of data, and the creation of historical arguments. Using New York City as a case study, this article argues that urban spaces and local communities provide historical evidence that can be read and analyzed. It uses different streets, buildings, and neighborhoods from New York City to show how historical conclusions can be drawn from those resources. It also discusses instructional ideas that teachers can develop in their classrooms.     

Conferring with Students in History Classes: Preservice Candidates Examine Instructional Practices Using Feedback Surveys

This article describes the use of student feedback questionnaires by history teacher license candidates in a classroom-based approach called “Conferring with Students.” During the past five years, at a large public university in Massachusetts, 125 teacher candidates wrote their own feedback surveys, received responses from more than 4,000 middle and high school students, reviewed the results, and used students' ideas and suggestions to consider and change classroom instructional practices. Surveys asked for feedback about two types of student-centered teaching methods, a “comfort” method (an instructional practice that the candidate was confident using to teach) and a “reach” method (an instructional practice the candidate was not confident using to teach). Initially, 90% of the candidates were reluctant, even afraid, to seek student feedback. However, after receiving comments about their teaching, the students' feedback propelled reflection and change of instructional practices with almost all of the candidates reporting that they would continue soliciting feedback from students as part of their development as full-time teachers.     

Notebooks as Projects in a History Course

This article focuses on high school students' knowledge and notions of citizenship after taking the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Naturalization Test. The students' test results and responses show emerging support for the need to make changes to the test as well as the students' limited conceptions of citizenship. In addition, this study's methodological benefits and challenges are discussed with implications for future research and practice.     

The Psychiatric Medication History

Abstract

This article presents The Psychiatric Medication History: An Interview Schedule, a 30-step semi-structured protocol designed to help practitioners understand how clients manage their psychotropic medications and interpret their effects. The critical perspective leading to the design of this interview schedule, its purposes for clients and practitioners, its divergence from traditional treatment histories, and its uses and limitations are discussed. The author contends that, in a safe space, taking a psychiatric medication history according to these suggested guidelines offers clients an opportunity to construct an independent, evidence-tested personal narrative about their medication use. To practitioners, taking such a medication history offers a person-in-en-vironment point of entry into the psychopharmacology scene.     

Historical Thinking and Sports History: A Case Study Using the Brooklyn Dodgers

Abstract

This article discusses how the history of sports can serve as way to understand abstract concepts associated with local history and social studies education. An introductory discussion outlines how sports can engage and interest students, focusing especially on ideas related to history thinking (such as change and continuity). A case study using the Brooklyn Dodgers’ move to Los Angeles is used to illustrate these ideas, focusing on themes associated with suburbanization and urban renewal. A lesson plan is also provided.     

Interviewing Skills and Computer Assisted Instruction

Summary

This paper describes the use of the Interviewing Skills for Human Services (I View Skills) computer program that was incorporated into two undergraduate social work courses. The goals and objectives of the I View Skills program are described as well as how the program was integrated into the course curricula. Findings on the students' perceptions of the I View Skills program based on a     

Unrolling the Map in American History

Cinematic feature films are a big part of youth popular culture. When blockbuster movies are about historical topics, it is reasonable for teachers to be drawn to using them in the classroom to motivate students interest. This article overviews research on film in the history classroom and describes three learning functions that history movies can have fact and ficion; constructing the past and the people in it; and reacting to the past.     

Recent Happenings in the Social Studies

This article details the “journey box” project process enacted by two elementary preservice teacher cohorts. Engaging in activities and projects that promote a sense of investment in not only consuming but producing historical narratives, preservice teachers potentially become interested in sharing this type of learning with their students.