Fulbright 1 Thomas Fulbright Dr.

Joseph OBrien Master Project Inquiry in the History Classroom To believe without any evidence at all is irrational; but to disbelieve against sufficient evidence is equally irrational. William Forsyth, The Rules of Evidence as Applicable to the Credibility of History, 1874

It is just now, in my sixth year of teaching, that I learn the epistemology of the word history and why its epistemology is significant to my teaching and learning philosophy. History comes from the Greek word historia, which means, "a learning or knowing by inquiry; an account of one's inquiries, history, record, narrative." As a student and as a lifelong learner I understand the allure of history, but as a teacher I am better understanding the pedagogical importance of history teaching. Through history teaching you are obligated to go beyond just disseminating names and dates to students, but you need to teach the proper skills involved in high quality inquiry work- which is what history is all about. As Forsyth explains in his essay from 1874, it is important to ask questions about the past, but when you do, you should be prepared to ask hard questions with a purpose and under the rule that if something is found to be true you cannot deny it just because you disagree with it. For my masters project I sought to develop both a justification and methodology for teaching a class based entirely around the concept of history inquiry. I ended upon this topic as a result of past ideas for a Masters project. When developing my first plan for a Masters project it was to design and implement a World History Course that would be taught using document based question activities to both teach the students the content and to assess their learning. This was driven by two different forces, first I believed it was a more authentic historical experience that I hoped would be more engaging and second because I thought it

Fulbright 2 would help my students on the district DBQ exams which were going to begin to be administered every semester in USD 501. This became the leaping off point for my masters. However, while simultaneously doing the research to justify my decision, gathering the materials needed to teach in such a way, in addition to trying to teach at the same time, my plans for the project evolved. I discovered a few things on my own that the research would show to me as well. These are best summarized by research done by Keith Barton. Bartons Primary Sources in History: Breaking Through the Myths on teaching with primary sources were some of the most disappointing to read, but also the most helpful in understanding some of the causes of my frustrations. I had become discouraged by both students lack of enthusiasm as well as their lack of understanding. Bartons Myths explained that, on their own, primary sources are neither fun nor help students build up an understanding of the past.1 I came to see that if I wanted to increase student engagement and improve their understanding I would have to adjust my approach. In fact I thought I should just start from scratch- I would make a whole new class.

Creating a class based entirely around primary sources did not seem as though it would be too difficult. After all, teaching with primary sources has quickly become a very fashionable teaching method. Historians such as Dr. Sam Wineberg and projects such his Stanford History Education group have become all the rage leading to a vast number of resources and justifications for teachers looking to teach with primary documents. Furthermore, not only are leaders in the social studies teaching content area on board with using Primary documents and the inquiry method used to interpret them, but now movements such as the Common Core and

Barton, Keith C. "Primary Sources in History: Breaking Through the Myths." PHI DELTA

KAPPAN June (2005): 745-53. Print.

Fulbright 3 college, career and civic life (C3 curriculum)) are pushing the importance of students using primary documents.

The purpose of my project was to design a class that would specifically address the need for students to learn the process of real inquiry.

The course description we submitted to the district, which they approved, read:

History Inquiry will be focused on developing key skills within the TPS Social Studies Philosophy Statement striving to help young people develop critical thinking skills to make informed and reasoned decisions for the public good as citizens of a culturally diverse, democratic society in an interdependent world.

It will also improve the students development of all the Social Studies Process Skills in Strand 1, for example recognizing and evaluating historical perspective, using primary and secondary source documents, inquiry, analysis and research skills.

The Program of Studies description would read

This course allows students to practice the skills required of and used by historians in their line of work. Students will (1) learn important methods of research; (2) develop domain specific reading skills and writing skills; (3) complete an assigned research project; (4) create their own cumulative research project; (5) apply and develop their historical inquiry skills while working on their project. Topics for the inquiry project could include comparing revolutions across time and place, terrorism, or the influence of social media in politics.