Epistemology is elementary: Historical thinking as applied epistemology in an elementary social studies methods class
Abstract: Developing students' historical thinking skills is a challenging instructional objective in social studies education. One of the barriers is the difficulty of developing teachers' understanding of the concept and tactics for including it in their instruction. This study describes an activity used in two elementary social studies methods classes to develop pre-service teachers' understanding of historical thinking, using epistemology as the framing concept. The study uses qualitative methods to conduct pre- and posttest measures of the students' understanding and application of historical thinking.
Presider: David Gore, Eastern Michigan University