In Search of America's Past

Bruce VanSledright shows how young students can benefit from an investigative, inquiry-based approach to the study of history, as called for by the national standards. Addressing important questions about the teaching and learning of history in today’s diverse classrooms, this volume:

• Conveys the results of an innovative teacher-research project, using engaging stories of VanSledright’s classroom experiences.
• Provides examples and guidelines, developed from the author’s own fifth-grade classroom, for teaching novices to engage in historical investigations (in contrast to memorizing details in a textbook).
• Offers strong evidence that children do have the intellectual capacity to judge the validity, reliability, and perspective of historical documents and images.
• Wrestles with a number of issues facing history teachers who wish to embark on ambitious projects with their students that can take them against the grain of policy mandates (such as recall-based, high-stakes testing).

Bruce VanSledright is Associate Professor at the University of Maryland, College Park, and researcher on the teaching and learning of history in public schools.

“A landmark book…I believe that it will contribute immensely to improved teaching of history in elementary schools and, for that matter, in secondary schools. What a tribute to the author and his immensely innovative and thoughtful research and practice!”
—O. L. Davis, Jr. University of Texas, Austin

"VanSledright’s experiences should be invaluable for any teacher who has already tried, or is contemplating moving towards, a more inquiry-oriented approach to history teaching and learning."
—Linda Levstik, University of Kentucky

“Bruce VanSledright’s study of fifth graders doing history adds nicely to the work of historians, educational researchers, and schoolteachers. . .who believe that citizenship is best cultivated when students learn the critical skills of historical investigation. . . .”
—From the Foreword by Larry Cuban