"Getting It Better": Using Historic Sites and Public History to Enhance Students' Historical Understanding

• In Event: 14.044 - Roundtable Session 2
  In Roundtable Session: 14.044-17 - The Importance of Active Learning Environments: Toward Greater Student Engagement

Abstract

This case study of a multiracial group of 47 students, ages 13-17 years old took place at the 2013 Indiana Youth Summit. It provides evidence that alternative learning environments such as historic preservation sites and museums provide students with a unique historical learning experiences. The students expressed that this type of learning was by their description “doing history” and different from history in their traditional classroom. Guided by Epstein (2009), investigators found that students of different racial backgrounds and lived experiences had different perspectives on historical understanding and developed a different historical narrative from the same information presented to them.

Authors

• Karen L.B. Burgard, Texas A&M University - San Antonio

• Michael L. Boucher, Texas A&M University - San Antonio