This volume is a direct result of an international conference that brought together a number of scholars from Europe and the United States to discuss their ideas and research about cognitive and instructional processes in history and the social sciences. As such, it fills a major gap in the study of how people learn and reason in the context of particular subject matter domains and how instruction can be improved in order to facilitate better learning and reasoning. Previous cognitive work on subject matter learning has been focused primarily upon mathematics and physics; the present effort provides the first such venture examining the history and social science domains from a cognitive perspective. The different sections of the book cover topics related to comprehension, learning, and instruction of history and the social sciences, including: *the development of some social sciences concepts, *the teaching of social sciences -- problems and questions arising from this cognitive perspective of learning, *the comprehension and learning from historical texts, *how people and students understand historical causality and provide explanations of historical events, and *the deduction processes involved in reasoning about social sciences contents. This volume will be useful for primary and secondary school teachers and for cognitive and instructional researchers interested in problem solving and reasoning, text comprehension, domain-specific knowledge acquisition and concept development.

Research on history instruction and learning is emerging as an exciting new field of inquiry. The editors prepared this volume because the field is at an important moment in its development -- a stage where there is research of sufficient depth and breadth to warrant a collection of representative pieces. The field of research on history teaching and learning connects with both traditional research on social studies and with recent cognitive analyses of domains such as mathematics and physics. However, the newer research goes beyond these activities as well. Where traditional research approaches to social studies instruction and learning have focused on curriculum, they have avoided the study of purely disciplinary features, the textual components of history and the concomitant demands, as well as the nature of various learners. Where recent cognitive analyses of mathematics and physics have dealt with misconceptions and knowledge construction, they have avoided topics such as perspective-taking, interpretation, and rhetorical layerings. The new work, by contrast, has been concerned with these issues as well as the careful analyses of the nature of historical tasks and the nature of disciplinary and instructional explanations. The lines of research presented in these chapters are both compelling and diverse and include a range of topical questions such as: * What affects the quality of teaching? * How are historical documents interpreted in the writing of history? * How is history explained? * What are the classroom demands on an elementary school social studies teacher? * What does text accomplish or fail to accomplish in educational settings? * How do teachers think about particular topics for history teaching? Although much of the research reflects a grounding in, or the influence of, cognitive psychology, not all of it derives from that tradition. Traditions of rhetoric, curriculum analysis, and developmental psychology are also woven throughout the chapters. The editors envision this volume as a contribution to educational research in a subject matter, and as a tool for practitioners concerned with the improvement of instruction in history. They also anticipate that it will contribute to cognitive science.

This Handbook outlines the current state of research in social studies education – a complex, dynamic, challenging field with competing perspectives about appropriate goals, and on-going conflict over the content of the curriculum. Equally important, it encourages new research in order to advance the field and foster civic competence; long maintained by advocates for the social studies as a fundamental goal. In considering how to organize the Handbook, the editors searched out definitions of social studies, statements of purpose, and themes that linked (or divided) theory, research, and practices and established criteria for topics to include. Each chapter meets one or more of these criteria: research activity since the last Handbook that warrants a new analysis, topics representing a major emphasis in the NCSS standards, and topics reflecting an emerging or reemerging field within the social studies. The volume is organized around seven themes: Change and Continuity in Social Studies Civic Competence in Pluralist Democracies Social Justice and the Social Studies Assessment and Accountability Teaching and Learning in the Disciplines Information Ecologies: Technology in the Social Studies Teacher Preparation and Development The Handbook of Research in Social Studies is a must-have resource for all beginning and experienced researchers in the field.

In clear, concise language, this book deals with fundamental issues that must be addressed if teachers are to construct coherent and powerful history curricula, including: What are the purposes and goals that different types of teachers establish for their history teaching?, and What do children know and think about history, and what are the teaching implications for our schools? This book represents a major advance in developing a knowledge base about children’s historical learning and thinking that applies to history teaching some of the principles involved in teaching for understanding and conceptual change teaching, methods that have been so successful in other school subjects.

Teaching for Historical Literacy combines the elements of historical literacy into a coherent instructional framework for teachers. It identifies the role of historical literacy, analyzes its importance in the evolving educational landscape, and details the action steps necessary for teachers to implement its principles throughout a unit. These steps are drawn from the reflections of real teachers, grounded in educational research, and consistent with the Common Core State Standards. The instructional arc formed by authors Matthew T. Downey and Kelly A. Long takes teachers from start to finish, from managing the prior learning of students to developing their metacognition and creating synthesis at the end of a unit of study. It includes introducing topics by creating a conceptual overview, helping students collect and analyze evidence, and engaging students in multiple kinds of learning, including factual, procedural, conceptual, and metacognitive. This book is a must-have resource for teachers and students of teaching interested in improving their instructional skills, building historical literacy, and being at the forefront of the evolving field of history education.

The third volume in this international review takes "raising standards" as its central theme. Raising standards is no simple matter, either conceptually or empirically, whatever politicians might think. If it is to happen, it must draw on research and practical experience from other countries.

This volume consists of the proceedings of an international conference on cognition and instruction in history. The papers cover several areas: historical narratives and history teaching; the use of texts, documents and images in learning history; and historical explanation and understanding.