Expertise or Inspiration? What Teachers Take Back to the Classroom From Historic Site–Based Professional Development

• In Event: New Directions in the Teaching and Learning of History

Abstract

This is the second data-set from a 3-year IMLS National Leadership Grant project to develop a broad-based assessment for understanding what teachers learn in historic site-based professional development. The centerpiece of this project is an assessment tool based in Q-methodology. This round of study focuses on 28 teachers, in a history-focused institute, and how they see their work at historic sites affecting their professional development once they have returned to their classrooms. Results indicate that only a small number of participants who specifically set out to seek historical disciplinary expertise and analysis retain those dispositions in the classroom. While the reverence for the numinousness of the historic site and fine tuning existing declarative knowledge are more likely outcomes.

Authors

• Christine Baron, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Sherri Robyn Sklarwitz, Tufts University

• Hyeyoung Bang, Bowling Green State University

• Hanadi Shatara, Teachers College, Columbia University