Misconceptions about History: Reflections on Teaching for Historical Understanding in an Inclusive Fifth-grade Classroom

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to report about the presence of misconceptions in the historical thinking of fifth-grade children with learning disabilities (LD) and their normally achieving (NA) peers. We also sought to determine the effects of implementing an integrated instructional unit about 19th century U.S. Westward Expansion on children's historical misconceptions. This unit was taught over an eight-week period by a special education teacher (subsequently referred to as Ms. M) who had approximately two years of prior professional teaching experience. In addition to quantitative information about changes in children's content knowledge, we report interview data about children's understanding of historical content and historical reasoning. Furthermore, we captured on videotape approximately 12h of classroom instruction. Ms. M and the first author of this paper independently reviewed and then discussed these videotapes for the purpose of assessing the effects of her teaching practices on the development of children's historical understanding. The implications of our findings are discussed.

Citation

Ferretti, R.P., MacArthur, C.D. and Okolo, C.M. (2005), "Misconceptions about History: Reflections on Teaching for Historical Understanding in an Inclusive Fifth-grade Classroom", Scruggs, T.E. and Mastropieri, M.A. (Ed.) Cognition and Learning in Diverse Settings (Advances in Learning and Behavioral Disabilities, Vol. 18), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 261-299. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0735-004X(05)18011-2