TaylorHamblin

I have been reading The Education of Blacks In The South, 1860-1935 by James D. Anderson (1988) and have been thinking about one of Anderson’s arguments that southern Afro-Americans fought against deprivation and racism to promote and provide education for their young people. For instance, African Americans before, during and after Reconstruction often paid for the majority of school building construction and education materials, despite lack of resources and little aid from white-southern governments. Anderson …

Name Changes of Native American Events Read More »

In the last part, described the difficulties of assessing historical thinking. Now, I will make some conclusions over the entire article series. Conclusion Considering educators did not treat historical thinking seriously until the mid- to late-1990s, there has been an impressive amount of research in how we measure and define historical thinking, on what data can be lifted from research experiments, and in how inquiry motivates students to succeed. In this literature analysis, I found …

Part XI of The Current State of Assessing Historical Thinking: Conclusions Read More »

In the last part of this article series I described how National History Day motivates students through inquiry assessment. Now, I will answer the following question; Why is it difficult to assess historical thinking and inquiry based learning? Also, I will describe how a study over German students ability to think exemplifies the difficult of assessing inquiry. It is laborious to measure students’ cognitive abilities in history. When considering assessing historical thinking and inquiry, teachers …

Part X of The Current State of Assessing Historical Thinking: Why Is It Difficult to Assess Historical Thinking and Inquiry Based Learning? Read More »

In the last part of this article series, I explained how assessing inquiry can motivate students. Now, I will demonstrate how National History Day can both be used to measure students thinking and motivate them to succeed. Exemplar Article #1 David Wallace’s qualitative analysis of National History Day is an apt research study that demonstrates the power of motivation. Wallace was a professor of history at Cleveland State University in Ohio. In the mid-1980s, National …

Part IX of The Current State of Assessing Historical Thinking: How Does National History Day Motivate Students? Read More »

In the last article of this series, I describe what scaffolding exists for teaching historical thinking and how it can be improved. I will know focus on how inquiry assessments motivate students to succeed. A reason teachers scaffold a lesson or activity is because it motivates students to accomplish tasks which lead to mastery over skills, concepts, and information. In essence, if students believe they can climb the mountain, even if it is difficult, they …

Part VIII of the Current State of Assessing Historical Thinking: How Does Inquiry Assessment Motivate Students? Read More »