Hilary Cooper

How do the Brits make history come alive? Should we care? The editors present an analysis of a number of inquiry-based, constructivist, and real history cases at the middle and high school age level and reading them is like a page directly out of 21st century learning skills examples in the U.S. and Canada. The emphasis is on both the topic of history but also the development of historical thinking, and as the cases rise in grade level so does the sophistication level. One gets the sense that students are prepared by the end of their experience in secondary school to study history and use their sophisticated research skills to attack topics that will be presented in college history classes. Let us assume that the teacher librarian has been invited to the history teacher’s professional learning community where the discussion is centering on how to engage students in real history. It would be fascinating to give the groups one of the cases from this book and compare and contrast the Brit approach with the local approach. What are the differences? How does real history, inquiry, learning skills all combine to engage, motivate, and produce very high level learning? The ensuing local discussion is sure to be enriched as both history teachers and teacher librarians honestly pursue excellence. Bottom line: This one is definitely worth a look if your faculty are really serious about moving away from just covering material.… (mehr)