Education Commons^™

We’Ve Come A Long Way (Baby)! Or Have We? Evolving Intellectual Freedom Issues In The Us And Florida, L. Bryan Cooper, A.D. Beman-Cavallaro

Works of the FIU Libraries

This paper analyzes a shifting landscape of intellectual freedom (IF) in and outside Florida for children, adolescents, teens and adults. National ideals stand in tension with local and state developments, as new threats are visible in historical, legal, and technological context. Examples include doctrinal shifts, legislative bills, electronic surveillance and recent attempts to censor books, classroom texts, and reading lists.

Privacy rights for minors in Florida are increasingly unstable. New assertions of parental rights are part of a larger conservative animus. Proponents of IF can identify a lessening of ideals and standards that began after doctrinal fruition in the 1960s …

Teaching The First American Civilization Recognizing The Moundbuilders As A Great Native-American Civilization, Jack Zevin

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

The Moundbuilders are a culture of mystery, little recognized by most Americans, yet they created farms, villages, towns, and cities covering as much as a third of the United States. Social studies teachers have yet to mine the resources left us over thousands of years by the native artisans and builders who preceded the nations European explorers came into contact with after 1492. Several of the Moundbuilder cities grew to sizeable proportions and one in particular, Cahokia, Illinois, not far from East St. Louis became a kind of center for the many peoples inhabiting the surrounding tributaries of the Mississippi …

Feature Films In History, Bryan Jack

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

This essay discusses the use of feature films as historical sources and introduces readers to the ongoing debate among professional historians about films as history, highlighting the strengths and weakness of films as teaching tools. The essay also includes the author's experience with developing a class using historical films.

Gaming In The Gilded Age, Brian Mullgardt

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

This article presents both a lesson on and research about using a video game to teach history, specifically the game Railroad Tycoon 3 and its use in teaching about the Gilded Age.

Engagement In The History Classroom: Problem-Based Learning And Primary Sources, Lauren Seghi

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

Too often today, students have to sit idly in a history classroom listening to a lecture or reading out of a textbook which is why many people in society (adults and children alike) do not like or understand the complexity of history. This article argues that in order for students to be engaged in "doing" history in the classroom, they need to take part in problem-based learning (pbl) activities using primary sources from the past.

Preparing History Teachers And Scholars?: Content Exams And Teacher Certification From The Progressive Era To The Age Of Accountability, Richard Hughes

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

In recent decades states have mandated brief, multiple-choice exams to assess the content knowledge of history teachers for certification. Despite the efforts of college professors to assess student learning through research papers, essay exams, and other assignments, the ability of college students to graduate and become certified to teach history depends on a passing score on a small number of multiple-choice questions. The overlooked story of how standardized testing came to shape the certification of history teachers began at least 80 years before federal legislation such as No Child Left Behind (NCLB). Used in almost every state, such exams undermine …

A Time For Change: Transforming A New Generation Of Students Into Historical Thinkers, Lauren Seghi

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

This article describes the advantages of teaching students how to think historically in the classroom. I contend that teaching students how to think historically and "do" history as historians do will help them understand better both the past and the present world around them. It also provides insight into the work of Stanford University clinical psychologist Sam Wineburg and educators and authors Frederick D. Drake, Sarah Drake Brown and Lynn R. Nelson. Especially important is my analysis of Drake's 1st-, 2nd-, and 3rd-Order document approach. My hope is that this article gives history and social studies teachers a new perspective …