The Persistent Issues in History Network
Promoting Historical Understandingand Critical Reasoning
Challenges in Promoting Lasting History Learning
• How do we stimulate students’ interest in history subject matter?
• How do we encourage students to think deeply about history content?
Problem-Based Historical Inquiry
• Students as Active Problem Solvers
• Learning Organized around Enduring Societal Questions • Problem Solution Requires Using Knowledge in Novel Ways
PIH Project Goals
• Active student exploration & construction of knowledge
• Application to persistent problems of democratic citizenship
• Integration of ethical questions into policy positions
• Cooperative work; shared expertise; civil discourse
• Development of thoughtful dispositions
Supporting PBHI
Clear Unit Focus: What strategies should be pursued in 1968 to continue the struggle for a more just, equal society?
• Intro to Project: P. 73
Supporting PBHI
Authentic Culminating Student Products :
• Group multimedia presentations to civil rights leaders
• Individual essays: p. 31
Supporting PBHI
Collaborative Expert Groups
• Phase One: Data-gathering Teams • Phase Two: Decision-making Teams
Decision Point!• Database of content resources related to the
African-American Civil Rights Movement
• Scaffolding tools to assist students with
analyzing and evaluating historical
evidence and presenting conclusions
• Tools to assist teachers with authoring
activities and guiding student investigations
Supporting Thinking about Content
Conceptual Scaffolds
• Three Thematic Strands: Change Strategies
Supporting Thinking about Content
Conceptual Scaffolds
• Civil Rights Events Grouped by Change Strategy• Primary Documents Classified by Type
• Decision Point! database– 24 Events
– Interactive essays
– Newspaper, personal accounts, opinion, artifacts, images, video clips
Decision Point Learning Components
Supporting Thinking about Content
Conceptual Scaffolds
• Interactive Essay for Each Event
• Timelines
Decision Point Learning Components
• Interactive Essays– Overview of the event
and links to relevant documents
– Help students contextualize evidence as a historian would
Supporting Thinking about Process
Strategic Scaffolds
• Data Gathering Guides
• Models
Decision Point Learning Components
• Student Guides– Scaffold to assist
with data collection and organization
– Designed to allow students to analyze an event similar to a historian
Supporting Thinking about Process
Accountability
• Data Gathering Roles
• Expert Investigator
• Fact Checker
Supporting Thinking about Process
Feedback For Data-Gathering Phase
• Self-Assessment through Journals
• Socratic Meetings with Teams
• Interim Feedback on Data Synthesis Charts
Off-line Activities to Support Thinking
• Interactive Slide Lectures & Film Clips
• Socratic Meetings with Student Teams
• Synthesis Discussions
• Thematic Timeline
• Feedback on Progress
The Commons Socratic Meetings
Teacher-mediated
INSTRUCTION
Technology-mediated
In-Class Multimedia Media Center
M T W TH FDiscussion & Mini-
Lectures
Socratic
Meeting
Multimedia Station
Media
Center
Discussion & Mini-
Lectures
Media
Center
Socratic
Meeting
Multimedia Station
Multimedia Station
Media
Center
Socratic
Meeting
T-1
T-2
T-3
Supporting Thinking about Process
Decision-Making Phase
Supporting Thinking about Process
Decision-Making Phase
• New Roles
• Synthesis of Information
• Consider Alternatives
• Construct Persuasive Dialectical Argument
Supporting Thinking about Process
Feedback For Decision-Making Phase
• Presentation Rubric
• Storyboard
• Model Presentation
• Socratic Meetings/Interim Feedback on Storyboard
Decision Point Learning Components
• Presentation– Provides
generative tools for using multi-media evidence to present a persuasive argument about the unit problem