Teaching for historical thinking: Teacher conceptions, practices, and constraints

Over the last century, many U.S. students have experienced history class as an exercise in memorizing names, dates, events and places. Recommendations and efforts to transform history education through integrating historical thinking into routine instruction have done little to dislodge this focus on memorization. Given that teachers are in charge of classroom activity and that they are the focus of contemporary public policies that aim to improve history education, researchers and policy makers need to know more about history teachers' conceptions, practices, and constraints in regards to historical thinking.; In this exploratory case study I investigated three teachers' conceptions of historical thinking, their instructional practices, and the relationships between the two. I observed two high school teachers and one university professor in their classrooms over several months, collected class documents and student work with teacher feedback, and interviewed the teachers. Each of these teachers held a degree in history, aimed to teach her students historical thinking, and had a strong reputation as teacher. I used their instructional representations and assessments to focus my observations of their practice. I also studied how each teacher's conceptions of history and historical thinking were formed and maintained.; Each case tells a different story of teaching for historical thinking, and in my cross-case analysis I extracted guiding principles to construct an historical thinking practice. These include making historical writing and reading central to instruction and the importance of considering whether curricular materials and sources offer data that students can analyze and argue about. I find that context matters to the shape of these teachers' conceptions and historical thinking practices. Significant contextual elements include readily available curriculum, professional expectations and colleagues, and state mandates. Additionally, I found that different aspects of historical thinking may be more supported and routine at the university than at the high school level. I conclude with recommendations for policymakers and practitioners regarding supporting teachers in teaching for historical thinking and building teacher capabilities for doing so, and for researchers to keep investigating the complex nature of teaching and learning historical thinking.