Is Historical Inquiry Critical?: A Quantitative Content Analysis of US History Lessons

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Friday 9:45 am - Gold 3
  In Roundtable Session: Accessing Historical Content: Analyzing Materials for Learning History

Abstract

As historical inquiry made inroads in the teaching of history in the elementary and secondary classrooms, the criticality of history pedagogy has come into question. The goal of this paper is to examine this tension through a quantitative content analysis of 112 US history lessons developed by the Digital Inquiry Group. While previous intervention studies have examined the effectiveness of historical inquiry on students’ critical thinking skills, no systematic studies have analyzed the structural and pedagogical components of the lesson plans that produce criticality as an outcome. Using a researcher-validated 4-point rubric, we found statistically significant variations in critical historical inquiry lessons across US history units.

Authors

• Eric Claravall, California State University - Sacramento

• Elizabeth Isidro, Western Michigan University