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Concept- and Strategic-Knowledge Development in Historical Study: A ComparativeExploration in Two Fourth-Grade ClassroomsAuthor(s): Bruce A. VanSledright and Lisa FrankesReviewed work(s):Source: Cognition and Instruction, Vol. 18, No. 2 (2000), pp. 239-283Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd.
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COGNITIONNDINSTRUCTION,8(2),239-283
Copyright 2000,Lawrence rlbaum ssociates,nc.
Concept-andStrategic-KnowledgeDevelopmentnHistoricalStudy:A
Comparative xplorationn Two
Fourth-GradelassroomsBruceA. VanSledright
Departmentof Curriculum ndInstruction
Universityof Marylandat CollegePark
LisaFrankes
Departmentof TeacherEducation
EasternMichiganUniversity
This studyexploredhow historicalconceptsandresearchstrategiesweretaughtand
made sense of by students n 2 fourth-grade lassrooms.We examinedtheteachingandlearningof auniton Native Americans ntheChesapeakeTidewaterarea n each
classroom.In 1classroom, he teacher ntentionally oughtto enhancestudents'con-
cept and strategichistoricalknowledgethrough ntegrationof historyand research
strategies basedin reading-languagearts),andin theother, he teacherdid some in-
quiry-based tudyof historybutexpressedno direct ntentionof using it to enhance
studentconceptualor strategicknowledge.Daily observationsof teachingpracticeswere conducted hroughout he units. The teacherswere interviewedboth formallyand informallyabout whatthey were tryingto accomplish.Six studentsfrom each
class were interviewedin depthdirectlyafterthey studied Native Americans and
againat the endof theschoolyearto get theirperspectiveson whatthey thought heyhadlearned,and to assess differences n concept developmentandstrategicknowl-
edge aboutresearchpractices.These data were augmentedby informants'descrip-tions of theirattitudesaboutdoingresearch.Resultssuggestthat the differencesbe-
tween theclassroomswithrespect o
theways
theteachers aught
he unitswere rather
Requestsorreprintshould esentoBruceA.VanSledright,niversityfMarylandtCollege ark,
DepartmentfCurriculumnd nstruction,ollegePark,MD 20742.E-mail:[email protected]
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240 VANSLEDRIGHTAND FRANKES
obvious.However,hedifferenceseportedythe6 studentsrom ach lassroome-
gardingconcept-and strategic-knowledgeevelopmentwere quitesubtle.The
teachernthe irst lassroomoted ppearedartlyuccessfulnhelping er tudents
develophistoricaloncepts ndstrategic nowledge bout esearch ractices. he
teachernthesecond lassroomlsopromotedomedevelopmentfconceptualnd
strategicnowledge. hepartialuccessesnboth lasses swellasthebetween-class
differencesre he ocusofthediscussion. ased nthestudy esults,ommentarys
offered bout owto improve oncept nd trategy evelopmentnhistoricaltudy
alongwitha considerationf thesubjectmatter nowledge emandsuch mprove-mentswouldmakeonelementarychool eachers.
It has been suggestedthatdevelopingconceptualunderstandingsn studentswho
studyhistory s importantnmovingthemawayfromrotememorization f histori-
cal facts(Brophy,1990;Gagnon,1989;NationalCenter orHistory ntheSchools,
1994).The argumentgoes that the commonpracticeof askingstudents o memo-
rizedecontextualizedhistoricalevents lnhingedfrom student nterestsoonresults
in forgetting.Proponentsof teachingforunderstandingn social studiesmaintain
that, f studentsaretounderstand nd rememberwhattheyhavestudied, heyneed
to dealwith,amongotherthings,meatier deas suchas the conceptsthatorganizeand structure acts.
CONCEPTSANDSTRATEGIESN
HISTORICALHINKING
In historicalstudy, if conceptsare addressed n classroomsin the United States,
the ones usually consideredare such thingsas culture,democracy,commilnism,
capitalism,warfare,change, continuity,and the like. However, because they re-
late to learningto thinkhistorically,anothergroupof concepts is equally impor-tant-those involving evidence, assertion,point of view, source validity and
reliability,and so forth.They arise in the act of doing history.These conceptsoften are ignored in historical study (see Barton, 1997; Stahl, Hynd, Britton,
McNish, & Bosquet, 1996;VanSledright& Kelly, 1998;Wineburg,1991). This
is a consequenceof the typical ways in which U.S. studentsstudyhistory. Stu-
dents usually are asked to read and then commit to memorythe arrayof dates,
names, and events surroundingparticularhistoricalperiods (e.g., the American
Revolutionandthe Civil War).Fromtheseparticulars r "facts,"students(occa-
sionally) are invited to constructunderstandings f concepts such as cultureorfreedom or democracy. Seldom are students asked to actually do history by
readingandresearchingprimaryandsecondarysourcematerials, udging the va-
lidity andreliability,assessing theirsignificance,addressing heirpointof view,and then assemblingtheir own explanationsof events based on assertionswar-
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DEVELOPMENTNHISTORICALTUDY 241
rantedby the evidence.1If they are asked to do history, it frequently akes the
form of gathering nformation names,dates, event details) and arranginghem
in ways that retell a common textbook story in oral or written report form.
Despite this fairly common approach o concept understandingn historical
studyin theUnited States(in which some conceptsareaddressed,whereas others
often are ignored),some analysts(e.g., McGowan,Erickson,& Neufield, 1996;Tunnell& Ammon, 1996)reported he increasinguse of multiplereadings(biog-
raphies,historical iction,short nformational ooks, Cobblestone exts,somepri-
mary accounts)as sourcesof historical nformation or studentsengagedin beingasked to do researchabout the past. By some reports,even studentsas young as
fifth gradeare beginning to employ these sources (e.g., VanSledright& Kelly,1998).Using multiplesources for research asks canraise seriousquestionsabout
concepts such as the natureof evidence, reliabilityand validity of sources, and
point of view, because sources can presentconflicting evidence and differing
viewpoints. Using multiplesourcesforresearchalso involvesquestionsaboutstra-
tegic knowledge at children'sdisposal,suchas how they search out sources,use
textorganizational ids(tablesof contents, ndexes)to locateevidence,assess and
corroboratehistoricalclaims, and constructsituationmodels based on evidence
chains.
Despite thecentralityof thisarrayof conceptsto thedevelopmentof historicalunderstandingand thinking, with a few exceptions (e.g., Barton, 1996, 1997;
Seixas, 1994;VanSledright& Kelly, 1998;Wineburg,1991), little attentionhas
beenpaidby researchersnNorthAmericaas tohow historicalconceptsaretaught
(if they are),what sense studentsmake of them,andwhatmeaningsstudentscon-
struct n the process of doingresearch hemselves andwhatthey learnabout that
process.This is especiallytrueat theelementary evel. Researchers n GreatBrit-
ain(Ashby& Lee, 1996;Dickinson&Lee, 1984)havedone far moreworkinthis
area.2
TEACHINGAND LEARNINGHISTORICALTHINKING
How do elementary eachers eachandstudentsmakesenseof theseinquiry-based
conceptsastheyencounter hem?How are heyconnected or not)totheteachingof
andsensemakingaroundconceptssuch as culture,democracy,religiouscustoms,
'Thisslessthecase nGreatBritain, here tudents-evenquite oung nes-are frequentlysked
to earn istory ydoingtthemselves. oth etsofconceptshus ome ntoplay.ThishasresultedromthesignificantnfluenceheSchoolsCouncilHistory rojectseeLee,1995;Shemilt, 980)hashadon
teaching nd earning istoryn England. tudies here uggest hatstudents'oncept ndstrategic
knowledgendhistoricalhinkingsmoredevelopedhanAmericantudentounterpartstequivalent
ages(e.g.,Ashby&Lee, 1996;Shemilt, 987).2SeeFootnote .
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242 VANSLEDRIGHTAND FRANKES
and conomicystems?felementaryeachers orrownd each,orexample,ead-
ing-languagerts esearch
trategiesstrategicnowledge)nd
ntegratehem nto
historicaltudy,howmight his nfluence tudents' istoricaloncept- nd trate-
gic-knowledgeevelopment?hisarticle eports studyhat xploredheseques-tions nthecontext f twofourth-gradelassroomsn theUnitedStateswhere tu-dentswerestudyingtatehistory.ThetwoclassroomettingswerepurposefullychosenoprovideontrastStake, 995).The irstwasselected ecause he eacher
said hewould tress oncept evelopmentnd trategicnowledgebout istorical
researchprocessesintegratediareading ndlanguagerts) ndtheecondbecausethe eacher lsoengaged er tudentsnhistoricalesearchut ndicatedhat hedid
notpush oncept evelopmentremphasize evelopingnowledgebout esearchstrategies er e.Theclassroomontrastrovidednavenueocompareheoppor-tunitiestudentsad olearn bout onceptualnd trategicnowledgenhistorical
studyandwhat ensestudentsmadeof thoseopportunities.
METHOD
Settings
Theclassroomettingswere ocatedndifferentchoolsbutwithinhesame arge
Marylandchooldistrict. s aresult, oth lassroomsperatedromhesameover-allcurriculumoliciesanddemands.nfourthrade,eachersrerequiredo teach
about hehistory fMaryland,eginningwithNativeAmericansnthearea typi-
callythe firstsocial studiesunittaughtn thefall)andmovingchronologically
throughhe CivilWarperiodandsometimeso the20thcenturyf timeallowed.
The socialstudies urriculumuidecallsforstudentso learn hechronologyf
eventsaffectingMarylandnd,generally,omeawaywith heabilityo recall he
facts, vent,names, nddetails f itshistory.Both eachersonoredhesecurricu-largoals.
Generallypeaking,heschooldistrictn which hestudy ccurredanbechar-
acterized ythree ypesof schoolsettings.The firstareschools hatare ocated
close toa largeurban rea,whosepoliticalborder djoinsheschooldistrict. or
allintents ndpurposes,heseschoolsarepartoftheurbanandscape. heydraw
verydiverse tudent opulations.Many tudents, ften he dominantopulation,areminorities ndpoor irst-generationmmigrants,omespeakingnlytheirna-
tivelanguages.Thesecondclusterof schoolsare ocated artherwayfrom he
center ityin whataretraditionallyeferredo as the suburbs. tudentsn theseschools also are diversebut moremiddleanduppermiddleclass. Forthese
schools, t is notuncommonor themixof studentso be approximately5%
White,30%AfricanAmerican,25%Hispanic,and 10%AsianAmerican.In some
of these schools, there also are first-generationmmigrants.Schools of the third
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DEVELOPMENT N HISTORICALSTUDY 243
type inthis districtarelocated nveryrecentsuburban ubdivisionssurrounded y
farmland,distantlylocated from the center
city.Their
populationsare
typicallymiddle anduppermiddle class andpredominantlyWhite. The studyof the first
classroom mentionedwas locatedin a school that looked like this latter ype.The
otherclassroomsettingandschool fit the characterization f the secondtype.
Participants
Both teacherswereveterans,havingtaughtover25 yearsbetween them.Bothen-
joyed teachingMarylandhistoryandthoughtof social studiesas one of theirfavor-
ite subjects.The teacher from the firstclassroommentioned,Pamela Derson(allidentifyingnames arepseudonyms), aught26 studentsof whom25 wereWhite, 1
was AfricanAmerican,11wereboys, and 15 were girls.Inthe secondclassroom,the teacher,Judy Costello, taught27 students, 10 boys and 17 girls. Ten were
White,9 were AfricanAmerican,5 were Hispanic,and3 were Asian American.
Theteachersactedas informants bout heirplansfortheirclasses,theway theywouldteacha ChesapeakeTidewaterNativeAmericansunit(thefocusof thedoc-
umentationprocess), their goals and purposes,and the students in their classes
(e.g., reading evels, ethnicbackground).Each teacherwas asked to helpin these-
lection of students hatcould act as informants or comparativedata to be gener-ated abouttheirperspectiveson what they learnedfrom experiencesduringthe
unit.Derson was asked to select six students n threepairsthatrepresented ener-
ally averagereaders,with one pair just slightly above gradelevel, one at grade
level, and one pair ust slightlybelow level, a male studentand female student n
eachpair.Derson selectedAndy, Jason,and Steve (themale students)andKaren,
Stella,and Terri(the femalestudents).As it turnedout,Jason and Terriwerejustabove grade evel as readersandtheother4 were all atgrade evel, a consequenceof ourinabilityto get all theparents o consentto their child's participation.
To matchthereadingcharacteristics f the informants,we adjustedour criteriato alignwithDerson'sselection andthenrequested hatCostello choose like infor-
mants from herclass. Costello selected Zani (Hispanic),Gina(AsianAmerican),and Shana AfricanAmerican)asthefemalestudentsandJoel, John,andMack(allthreewere White) as the male students.The above-level readerswere Gina and
John.Unfortunately, t themidpointof theyear,Gina andherfamilymoved outof
theschool district,and we lost her as aninformant fter hein-depth irst nterview
session.
Procedures
Observations. To documenthow the teachers aught he NativeAmericans
inMarylandunit,we observed ntheirclasses for the durationof theirtreatment f
thatunit, andtape-recorded ach class session as a method of augmenting he ob-
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244 VANSLEDRIGHTAND FRANKES
servations.Detailed fieldnotes were compiled of daily classroomevents, docu-
mentsused inteaching
andstudentassignment amples
werecollected,
booksstu-
dents used for research were noted and recorded,and descriptionsof students'
classroomactivities weregenerated.Dersontaughtsocial studiesfor 60 to 90 min
onaverageabout4 daysa week. The unitwas dealtwithin 18 lessonsoverapproxi-
mately4 weeks. Costellotaughtsocial studieson average2 days perweek for 90
min eachtime,usually ntheafternoon, ftenalternatinghedayswith science.For
the Native Americansunit,Costellotaught12 lessons acrossalmost5 weeks.
These fieldnotesalso were used as a methodof triangulating atawe collected
from talking with studentsin the in-depthinterview sessions (describednext)
aboutthe sense theywere makingof experiences n class. Thatis, we closely ob-served the activities andtalk of the subsampleof student nformantsas they"did
research"ntheclassrooms.Thisallowedusto developa broaderunderstanding f
howthe informantswent about heirresearch asks,how muchapparent uccess or
difficultytheyhadin doing so, how each discussedtheprocesswith fellow class-
matesand with theirteachers,andhow theywent aboutseekingassistance n de-
veloping their knowledge of concepts and inquiry processes. The fieldnotes
informed he interview dataand vice versa,enablingus to drawinferencesabout
informant ense makingfrommore than one data source.
Interviews. Theteacherswere interviewed nformallybefore theunit to ob-
tain a senseof theunit'sdirectionandtime frameandthroughoutheunitas anef-
forttounderstandwhattheyweredoingandwhy ona lesson-to-lessonbasis. Often
after heytaughta lesson,we wouldaskquestionsabout he conductof thelesson,
whattheybelieved was itsgoal,andhowtheythought tudentsweredoing.Follow-
ing theunit,both teachersalso were interviewed ormallyusing a structured, ut
open-endedprotocol.We askedthemto talk abouttheirperceptionsof the six stu-
dentswe interviewed anattemptobetterhelpus understandhestudents);how theNativeAmericansunit was different romand similar o othersocial studiesunits;what historicalconceptstheywereattemptingoteachandwhy;whattheythoughtwas the purposefor teachinghistoryanddoinghistoricalresearch;andhow theyfelt aboutefforts at integrating chool subjectssuchas languagearts,reading,and
social studies(an important edagogicalintentionexpressedby Derson).These formal nterviewstookplace afterwe hadinterviewed heirsix students
directlyfollowing the unit and afterwe had transcribedhe students'responses.
Theyweregiven copies of thetranscripts ndasked to read hemprior o the inter-
view. Therefore,a portionof the formal nterviewwas used to exploretheirper-ceptionsof their six students'responsesto ourinitial student nterviewprotocol.Ourquestionsto the teachers were used to test our inferencesaboutthe student
data in light of the teachers' interpretations s a form of datatriangulationand
memberchecking.We tailored he questionsto fit theresponsesof each groupof
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DEVELOPMENT N HISTORICALSTUDY 245
six students.The questionsexploredtheirview of patternswithinthe studentdata
and how students dealtwith issues or concepts such as conflicting source evi-
dence, history as interpretation, eliabilityand validity of evidence, and Native
Americanculture.
Studentswere formally nterviewed wice, once directlyafter he unit(midfall)andagainatthevery end of theschoolyear(June) n anattempt o assess how stu-
dents ideas about historicalconcepts and researchstrategies changedacross the
spanof time from the fall interviewsto June.The interviewquestionswere struc-
turedbut remainedopen ended. We encouragedstudentsto tell as much as theycould in responseto ourquestions.
As a comparative tudyof students'conceptualandstrategicknowledgeandat-titudedevelopment,the interviewprotocolswere structured round ourgeneral
categories: a)conceptual deasaboutNative Americanculture,customs, anguage
structures,nstitutions e.g., divisionsof labor,religion,economicstructures), nd
cause-effect relations(e.g., effects of European olonizationon Native American
culture); b) conceptual deas abouthistoryas interpretation, alidityandreliabil-
ity of sources, and the natureevidence; (c) ideas about researchproceduresand
strategies;and (d) attitudes about doing research.Conceptswere derived from
conversationswith theteachersconcerning hekey ideastheywerestressing nthe
units andthroughdiscussionsbetweenourselvesas researchers bout heteachers'key ideasandwhat we knewaboutcrucialhistoricalconcepts (e.g., thosethatarise
in the act of doing researchabout the past).These conversationsand discussions
were usedas a methodof delineatingandrefiningtheconceptsthatwouldbecome
a partof the studentinterviewprotocols.Here we describemore abouthow the
concepts,categories,andquestionsevolved.
For analytic and metaphoricalpurposes,we divided conceptual knowledge
taughtby the 2 teachersand conveyed in the student data into two categories:
"foreground" nd "background"oncepts.We referred o knowledge developed
aroundresearch-inquiryproceduresas strategicknowledge(e.g., searching o lo-cate information, eading, akingnotes,writingreports, ynthesizing nformation,
using sources,handling nformation onflicts).We describeattitudesaboutdoingresearchnext.
By foreground oncepts,we werethinkingof thosethatareoften usedtoanchor
writtenhistoriesandstructureheirexplanationsof pastevents.Exampleswould
include culturalcontinuityand change; linguistic, political, economic, and reli-
gious structures nd nstitutions e.g., democracy,capitalism,pantheism,divisions
of labor); culturaldifferences; and cause-effect relations (those that structure
manyhistorical extbooknarratives).We use thetermforegroundhereas a meansof representing he relationof these types of concepts(a) in part,to how they ap-
pearprominently n textbook histories of the past but, (b) more importantly, o
whatstudentswere expectedto learnas theprimary ocus of their encounterwith
thestudyof Native Americans,according o the teachers' nterpretationf district
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246 VANSLEDRIGHTAND FRANKES
curriculumbjectives.Forexample, tudentsn bothclasseswere asked o re-searchTidewater
hesapeakeribes
ndigenouso
Marylandnaneffort ounder-
stand he historical ontextof theircultures;heirnationandtribalsystems,customs, ndreligion; ndhow thesethingschanged vertime as theyencoun-teredEuropeanxplorersndcolonizerscause-effectelations). tudyingndat-
temptingo understandheseconceptsandthe detailsandfactsthatgavethem
substance asintheforegroundf schooldistricturriculumbjectives,hepri-
mary arget fclassroomnstructionnd tudent esearchctivity, nd n thefore-
ground f theconcepts tudents eadaboutnthesourcesheyexplored.In eachclass,however,he stressplacedondifferentoregroundoncepts ar-
ied somewhat. n constructinghe interview rotocols,we varied hequestionsslightlyomoreadequatelyit theecologyofdifferentlassroomontexts.Wedid
not askquestions bout oregroundonceptsurroundinghestudyof Tidewater
NativeAmericanribesntheyear-endnterviews,hoosingnsteado focusour
attention n backgroundoncepts,knowledge f research rocedures,ndatti-
tudes aboutdoingresearch,understandingshat coulddevelopandpossibly
change crossheschoolyearregardlessf socialstudies nit.Table1depictshe
foregroundonceptswe exploredwithstudentsn eachclassby question.
Backgroundonceptswere hose hatnevitablyrisentheactofdoinghistori-
cal research. heseconceptsnclude uch hingsas sources f evidence, alidityandreliability f thatevidence,andhistoryas interpretationf others'perspec-tives.It should e noted hat heboundarieseparatinghesebackgroundonceptsfrom heir oregroundounterpartsre luidand uzzyandcanseemperhapsrbi-
trary.However,eparatinghem ervedusefulanalytic urposesn thisstudy.As with foreground oncepts,we employed he termbackgroundn two
senses: irst,as a generalmethodof noting heroletheyplayin doinghistory,
appearings a consequencef research ractice ndbeing epistemicn nature.
As inquirersdo" esearch,heyoperate nimplicit ssumptionsbout vidence,
itsvalidityandreliabilityn relation omaking ssertions,nd heroledifferenttypesof sourcesplayin theprocessof interpretinghepast.Theseassumptionsare seldomdiscussedn history exts.Second,andmore mportantorourpur-
poses,we usedthe termbackgroundo denote heroletheseconcepts layed n
the classroom.That s, studentsn bothclassroomseceived ittleexplicit n-
struction n how to understandheseconceptsas theywent aboutscouring
sources,ooking or informationn NativeAmericans.f, forexample, tudents
encounteredonflicting videnceon thePiscatawayndian ribe,raisingques-tionsabout hevalidityandreliabilityf the sourcesheywereusing a frequent
problemn doinghistorical esearch),tudents ncounteredittle assistancendealingwiththeconcepts nd, herefore,ftenhaddifficultyorting utthe con-
flictingdata.Developing onceptualnowledgeurroundinghe act of doingre-
searchwasbackgroundedn theseclassrooms,or themostpart,becauseother
typesof concepts customs, anguage, eligion,and economic tructures) ere
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DEVELOPMENTN HISTORICALTUDY 247
TABLE
ForegroundConceptsby Initial rotocolQuestions
Questions:nitialProtocol
Tidewaterative ultureNation ystems
Iangiage systems
Hunting-gatheringStructures
TransportationToolsand echnologyoradaptionDivision f labor
Money-exchangeystemFateofNativeAmericans
Religiousonversion
Americanization
ReservationsDecimation
Cause-effectelations
You ustfinished uniton NativeAmericansn Ms. 's class.Tellmeeverythingoucanaboutwhatyou earnedbouthem
(both amples f students).
Imagine ouwerea Nanticoke r a Potomackndian.Whatwould
daily ifebe likeforyou(Derson's tudents)?
Wedon'toften ee NativeAmericansroundereanymore.What
happenedo themdoyouthinkboth amples)?
aAfter eachers aughtthe units.
foregroundedand targetedfor study. Table 2 depicts the backgroundconceptswe asked students about at each interview point.
Strategicknowledgeaboutconductingresearchwas the focus of a thirdcluster
of questions hatencompassedboththeinitialandyear-endprotocols.Thetypesof
strategicknowledgestudentswereaskedabout ncluded(a) locatingevidence, (b)
using text aids(indexesand tablesof contents), c) usingevidenceto constructex-planations (i.e., reportsandpresentations),and (d) dealingwith conflicting evi-
dence. Questionsthat asked about these forms of knowledge were identical for
bothgroupsof six students.Table3 depictsthetypesof knowledgeasked aboutby
questionat each interviewpoint.Table4 shows thequestionsasked nboth classes thatwere focused aroundatti-
tudes andperceptionsstudentswere developingaboutdoing research.We ques-tioned the studentsabout their view of the importanceof doing research, its
purposes,whether hey liked the researchprocess,andhow they thoughtof them-
selves as researchers.
Analysis. Ina rotation ycle, bothresearchers bserved n each classroomon
a regularbasis andcompileddetailedfieldnotes,allowingfor the sharingof inter-
pretationsof classroomevents and teacherdata as a reliabilitycheck.Fieldnotes,
Concepts
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248 VANSLEDRIGHTNDFRANKES
TABLE
Backgroundoncepts yProtocol uestion sked o BothStudent amples
Questions
Concepts InitialProtocolQuestions' Year-Endrotocol
Interpretation Doyouthinkhat t'spossibleo have wosetsof
informationbouthesame hing hatdon'tagree ndhavebothof them tillbe accuratexplanations?fyes,how's hatpossible?fno,whynot?
Validity When ouaredoing esearch ndreadingogetinformation
fromabook,howdoyouknow ftheauthors givingyou
factsorgivingyouanopinion?ReliabilitySources f evidence Where o authorsf thehistory ooksyoureadgettheir
informationrom?
Validity Howcouldyoutellif
youcould rustwhata
sourcewastellingyou?
ReliabilityEvidence
"Directlyfter heunit.
documents,and formalandinformal eacher nterviewdatawere studiedby each
researcherndependently.Wemetperiodicallyduring he datacollectionphaseand
afterward o compareournotes,analyticmemos,andgeneralperceptionsof what
we thoughtwent on inthe classroomsandwithregard o the teachers'purposesand
approaches.We used fieldnotesand teacher nterviewdatato test andtriangulateour inferences Stake, 1995).We werein generalagreementaboutourperceptionsof each classroom(the few, minorinterpretivedisagreementswere resolvedby
workingout commonunderstandings sing collected data as an arbiter).The de-scriptionsof the teachersandgeneralclassroomeventsthatfollow were writtenby
VanSledrightand checked for interpretive greementby the Frankes.
The studentinterview responseswere audiotapedand transcribedverbatim,
then editedsparselyforpunctuation ndclarity.Responseswerethen clusteredbythe fourgeneralcategoriesdescribedearlier.In the case of foregroundandback-
groundconcepts,we independently odedresponsesto each of the questionswith
respectto the presenceor absenceof expressionsaboutthe conceptand,if it was
present,assessed itby usingoneof threecodingcategories:nascent,descriptive,or
facile. Forknowledgeof researchprocedures,we codedthose questionresponsesby noting the presence or absence of ideas about locating evidence, using text
searchaids,usingevidenceto construct xplanations,anddealingwithconflictingevience. If suchideas werepresent ntheresponses,we againcodedthemusingthe
threecategories ust noted.
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DEVELOPMENTN HISTORICALTUDY 249
An absent responsewas one in which the student said thathe or she did not
know how to address hequestion,
saidthey
wereguessing,conveyed
noideas,
or
displayedone ormoremisconceptionsabout heconceptsorstrategies,or all of the
preceding.A response was coded as nascent when a student(sometimes hesi-
tantly)addressed he importof the questionbutdid not mentionany concepts bynameand indicatedonly a initialemergingsense of thenatureof conceptsor strat-
egies asked for in the questions.A responsewas codedas descriptivewhen a stu-
dent could describe the conceptualterrain(usually by identifying a concept'srelatedfacts)ora strategy byidentifying ts details orprocedures,orboth)butdid
not specifically use a concept or give name to a strategy tself. A responsewas
coded asfacile when a studentwas able to employ language fluidlyto discuss insome detail a concept(s)orresearch trategy,as thoughhe orshe was accustomed
to using the term andwas able to employ, for example,a conceptas a cognitiveconstruct o tie facts, events, details, andprocedures ogether.Here, the student
TABLE
StrategicKnowledgeby ProtocolQuestionAskedto BothStudentSamples
Questions
Strategies InitialProtocoP Year-Endrotocol
Locatingvidence Ifyoustillwantedo learnmoreabout hese
Checkingources NativeAmericans, herewould ougotofind nformation? hywouldyou ook here?
Using extaids Howwould ouknowwhere o look n thisorthese ources?
Usingevidence YoudidresearchnNativeAmericansuringtoconstruct theunit.Tellmewhatyouknowabout oing
explanations research.
Dealingwith Whatf one source rbookyou ooked tsaidconflicting onethingabout heIndiansnMarylandndevidence another ook aidsomethinglseabouthe
(corroboration) samegroup, ut he deasweredifferentromeachother?Whatwouldyoudo then?
Locatingvidence ExplainomehowyouwouldgoUsing extaids about esearchingtopic n
Usingevidenceo social tudies
construct
explanationsDealingwith What idyoudo whenyouwere
conflicting doing esearchna social tudiesevidence topicandone source ouwere
(corroboration) readingaidonethingandanother
source aidsomethinglse?
aAfterunitsweretaught.
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250 VANSLEDRIGHTNDFRANKES
TABLEAttitudesboutResearch yCategoryndQuestion skedo BothSamples
Questions
Categories InitialProtocoP Year-Endrotocol
ImportanceDoyouthinkt is importanto be able odo researchonatopic ikeNativeAmericans?Whyorwhynot?
Purposes What oyouthinks thepointof doing esearch?
How aboutyourreflection ournal?b
Purpose Youdida lot of researchnsocial
studies hisyear.What oyouthink
thepurposewasfordoing hisresearch?ImportanceAttitude Didyoulikedoing esearchnsocial
studies?
Viewof What oyouthink fyourself sa
self researcher?
aAfternitswere aught. Theeflectionournalwasusedonly nDerson'slass.
frequently butnot always)mentioned he conceptor strategy tself (e.g., culture,
religiousbelief structure, conomicsystem, transportationystem,divisionof la-bor, evidence,reliability,usingtablesof contents) n the contextof anexplanation
about,forexample,daily life in a NativeAmericanvillage, interpreting vidence,or in dealingwith thatevidence in constructing xplanations.
Once we hadcompletedourindependentanalyses,we conductedan interrater
reliabilitycheck of ourcodings. Overallinterrater eliabilitywas 85%(r = .85).We worked out differencesby agreement,using studentresponsesandclassroom
fieldnotedata as arbiters.
Whatstudentssay does not alwaysdirectlyreflect whattheyknow andcan do.
However, verbal use of and facility with particular oncepts (andthe facts thatstructurehem)andresearch trategiesdoes say somethingabout hedevelopmentof a specializeddiscourse arounda subjectmatter.Thatdiscoursereflectsknowl-
edge of theconceptualandstrategic andscape nquestion.Particularasksthatask
students o work with conceptsandengage in inquiryactivitiesis anothermethod
of identifying henatureof theirknowledge.To thatend,we frequentlywentback
to fieldnotes andtape-recordings f classroomactivitiesto triangulatehecatego-rization of interviewresponseswith what informantswere doing and saying as
they engagedin researchactivities.Thisprocedureallowedus to use those datato
furthercheck the robustnessof our categorizationscheme. In several cases, theclassroomdatapermittedus to adjustourcodings of given responsesto betterfit
what we inferredto be a student'sconceptualor strategicunderstanding e.g.,
recodingan interviewresponseas facile rather handescriptiveor vice versa).
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DEVELOPMENTNHISTORICALTUDY 251
In hecaseof students'ttitudesndperceptionsfresearch, anSledrightom-
piledanalytic escriptionsfthe12students'
esponsesothe
questions,nnotatingthemwithquotationsrawnrom hetwo setsof interview ata.Frankes heckedthisanalysis gainsthe actual esponses sing heverbatimranscripts.tudents'
responsesotheattitude ndperceptionuestions ere traightforwardnddescrip-tive.As aresult, urassessmentsf thestudents'esponseswerecongruent.
RESULTS
Derson'sUnitGoals
Conceptualand strategic knowledge. Derson's rimaryoals or heNa-tiveAmericans nit nvolveda)teaching erstudentso understandheculture ftheTidewaterndians o that heywould earn o appreciatehat hosepeople nsomewaysweremore imilaroEuropeanshanheyweredifferent;b)providinga forum nwhich anguage rtsandreadingresearchtrategies,eadingo locate
evidence) ouldbe asfully ntegratedspossiblewitha social tudies-historyur-riculumich nsubstantivenowledgeforegroundoncepts);nd c) teaching er
students owto beeffective esearchers,nowledgeablebout ollectingnforma-tionfrom ources, singmultipleources, btainingacts,and oforth.Regardingthesegoals,Dersonput tthisway:
Iused[theuniton NativeAmericans]o teachanguagekills ncontext, othat hestudentsetexcitedandmotivated. here rea lot of materialsheycanaccess.It'sgreatas aresearchool.I alsothink t is importantoteachthem o accessfactsor teach hemsomestrategiesoraccessing acts,be-cause heyhad aid hingsome ike,"Well, readnthisbookand t said his,
and hen read nthisbookand t said hat,and hen readn thisherebookand tsaid heopposite."said,"Yes,wellwhydoyou hink hat s?"Wetalkaboutheauthor'sointofviewand hatkindofthing. fyouareonlyrelyingon onesourceandoneperson o give youtheinformation,hat's rouble.Factsarealways hanging. hereflectionsjournal]elpedhem ocus n onthemetacognitive,ikewhat trategymIusing?
AlthoughDersonalksmuchhereaboutacquiringacts,she also wentontonotehowcompilingactswasnecessaryogiving ubstanceoconceptsuchasTidewa-
terculture,ribal ustoms ndeconomictructures,nd heroleusingeffective e-searchtrategies layedn theprocess.However,hesaidvery ittleaboutheback-
ground onceptshatwouldarisewhenstudents onsulted variety f sources oaddressheir esearch uestions.Althoughheacknowledgedhat tudents sked
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252 VANSLEDRIGHTNDFRANKES
her aboutreliability ssues(dealingwithconflicting nformation),we neededto ask
heradditionalquestions
oexplore
hergoals
withregard
oteaching
heseconcepts.Concepts uchasevidence, nterpretation,eliability, ndvaliditysurfacednher
response o ourqueriesabout hem.Here showDersonexplainedherperspective:
I tell themthattheyhave tohavefactsthatsupportwhattheyarewriting.But
those factschange,even whenyou're talkingaboutscienceandtechnology,the information hatwe know. That s something hat s trueforhistorytoo.
There are always discoveriesbeing made or differentslantsbeing put on
things.Ialwaystellthem,whenever heywrite,theyneedtosupportt and he
factshave to be actual,as we know them.The factsmustbe accurate.
Asked abouthow reliable she thought he textualmaterialwas, she said:
Oh,I'd say maybe70 percent.... One of thereasonswe doso muchresearch
isbecausefacts arealways changingandyou justcan'trelyon a lot of memo-
rizinga body of facts.You arealwaysgoing to have situations hatcome upwhereyou aregoingtohavetogetnewinformation rbetter nformation nd
it's constantlycoming.
Responding o a questionaboutaskingstudents o trust hebooks,but at thesame
time assumingthat30 % of the contentwas untrustworthy,Dersonreplied
It is like what we knownow;this is it. Yes, you mustuse factsto document
whatyou have butI amcertainlynotgoingto send themto the archives o gooverprimarydocuments .. Even if youuse aprimarydocument,youhaveto
know whatpeople thoughtat the time,whatwas going on at the time. You
have to havesuchabig picture.Theymaynotbe tellingyou exactlythetruth,
but this is thebest we have to go on rightnow-but don'tbe surprised f itchanges.
Dersonnoted heproblematic ature fobtaining acts,thequestionable ccuracyof
text materialsusedinhistoricalresearch,andtheneed toaccept naccuraciesn his-
toricalresearch,alldifficultconceptual ssuesfacinghistoryresearchers.However,
shedid not saymuch abouthow shetaughtherstudents o wrestlewith andunder-
stand hesebackgroundoncepts,despiteherstressontheimportance fengaging n
researchpracticesthat would bringthem into view. Backgroundconcepts were
de-emphasizednfavorofteachingresearchprocedureshat ocusedondevelopingforeground-conceptual nowledge. Teaching strategies for dealing with back-
groundconcepts and about the conceptsthemselveseffectively were kept in the
background.The orderingof prioritiesregardingwhattypes of knowledgewould
become most important or studentswas borneoutby eventsin the classroom.
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DEVELOPMENT N HISTORICALSTUDY 253
Purposeof studyinghistory. Derson escribederrationaleor he mpor-tanceof
studying istoryhisway:
Ithink istoryssuchalargepart fcurriculumor he uture,ndalsoIthink,
personally,t is so importantorunderstandinghatevershappeningntheworld. t slikemyreligion-youneed o knowwhathasgonebeforenorderto understandhat s happeningow.You can'tknowwhatyouareunless
youknow romwhenceyouhavecome.
Theanimatedature f thewayshe aught istoryo her tudents emonstrateder
enthusiasmor hesubject. healsobelievedhathistory llowed ignificantoomto wedlanguage rtsandreadingtrategieso it.Researchinghepasthelpedher
achieve his ntegrationfsubjectmattersnd, headded,motivate erstudentso
understandistory'smportancehewayshe did.
ResearchingNativeAmericansnDerson'sClass
Lesson 1. The irst essonof theunitwasan ntroductionoresearchroce-
dures.Derson eganbyaskingherstudentsoclosetheir yesandmentallyisual-ize theEasternWoodlands ativeAmericanribes he oftencalled heTidewaterIndians. hen heasked tudentso draw picture fwhat heywere"seeing"n a
pieceofpaper hepassedout.
Derson: Thousandsfyears go-we aregoingback-you are upposedobe
listening, eyes closed, imagining ... imaginethe state of Maryland
500yearsago.Peopleivedherebutnotsettlers romEurope. eopledid ivehere. amsureyouare magingNativeAmericans. ocuson
oneperson.Whatweretheywearing?Drawa picture f whatyousaw.Howdid hesepeoplegethere?Therewereno tribes roundurschoolarea.By the timewe finishstudyingNativeAmericansouwillknowwhy.Youhave5 minutes o drawyourpicture.
While tudents eredrawing, ersonwalked roundheroom,monitoringndivid-ualstudents ndaskingquestionsuchas"Howwastheirhair?Didtheywearew-elry?Whatwere heirhousesike?" heretrievedomechart aperromhebackoftheroom, apedapiecetothechalkboard, nd hencontinuedoroam heroom.
Derson: Okay, topdrawing.Doesthisremind ouof anotheraskwe havedone?
Student:Theresearchhing?Derson: How about hatresearch hing-that wastohelpfocusyourthoughts.
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254 VANSLEDRIGHTAND FRANKES
Derson sked tudentso turn ver hepaper n which heyhaddrawnheNativeAmerican.On twas a KWL hart. he nvited tudentso writedown
everythingtheyknewaboutNativeAmericansnMaryland.hepromptedhemwithseveral
questions: What idtheyeat?""Whatheydrink?" nd"What amesdidtheyplay?"Once heyhad inishedwriting,heclasssharedwhat heyknew.Studentsdemonstratedeneral nowledge f theTidewaterndians asedon somepreunitreadingheyhad done.Students oted hat heNativeAmericansworefringedclothing, untedwithbowsandarrows,ived nwigwams, sedcanoeso travel ywater,grewbeansandcorn,painted heir aces withberryextracts, nd,theyclaimed,used every partof the animaltheykilled.
ThenDerson sked,"Howdoyouthink heygothere?Anytheories?"
Student:Europe?Student:Africa?Derson:TheycouldhavecomefromAfricabutwouldhavehad ocross he
ocean pointso amaponthewall).Student:Greenland?Derson:Well, herewas no oneliving nGreenland.Student:SouthAmerica-therewereNativeAmericansnSouthAmerica,ut
theydidn't omefrom here.Student:Asia?Derson: (pointingothetopof themapnearBeringStrait)Russia s partof
Asia-see this ittle iny trip?twouldbeeasier ogoacross his hantosailacrossheocean. think t's about 0 miles.Think bout latetectonics.Could heyhavebeencloser?What bout he ceage?Do
yousupposef therewas an ceage,whatwouldhavehappened?Student:Itwouldhave roze.Derson: Wouldtbeeasyforagroupowalkrightacross?
Students:Yes.Derson: That sthegeneralheory-theywentdownheWestCoastpointso
themap),hen anned utacrossCanada ndntoMaryland.ouwillseesimilarities etweenAsianculturendNativeAmericanulture.That s howwe thinkpeoplecame olive here.
Dersonheldupa boundbooklethatreadReflectionsournal cross he frontn
largeetters. heexplainedhat hiswas heir eflectionsook, hat veryweek heywouldworkonresearch,nd oreveryactivityheywould illoutapage nthere-
flections ook.Shethenmoved rom he front f theroom othebulletin oard ttheback.Sheasked,"Have ouever ookedatthisbulletin oard?Whatdoesit
say?"A studenteadt out oud,"A,G,O,P."Derson,whohadmovedback othefront f theroom,wrote he etters n thechalkboardertically. henoted hat he
acronymndicatedheproceduresheywould ollow ndoing esearchboutTide-
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DEVELOPMENTNHISTORICALTUDY 255
water ndians. he hen xplainedhathe etterA tood orassign, eferringohow
topicsorresearch ere
provided.he etterG
referredo
gatheringnformation,stood ororganizinghe nformationathered,ndP indicatedhepresentationfthat nformationo theclass.
Derson:Open our eflectionook opageone.Just ookover hebook.Lookatthetableof contents.Whatpartof theresearchrocesswereyouworkingntoday?Eachdaywe willtakeabout 5minutesofill outa
page nour eflection ook.Everydaywedoresearch,willalsodoa
languagertsmini esson:Howcouldyouuseheadings,ableofcon-
tents,usinganencyclopedia?willbuildmylessons ormwhatyouwrite nhere.Nowfliptothetableof contents. ynumber ,pleasewrite his:Tidewaterndians.Write ournames nthecoverand akethenext10minutes opersonalizeourbooks.
Thereflectionsournalsontained 0pagesofthesame1-pageormanda tableofcontents age o be filled nbythestudents stheyproceededhroughheunit.Atthetopof each denticalorm, tudents ere oindicateheirnameand hedateonwhich heyengagedna researchask. tem1asked tudentso select he ypeofre-
search rocesshat heyhadworked nthatday roma list of 13possibilitiese.g.,formingesearchuestions,aking otes,drafting,ublishing,valuating).tem2
providedwoboxes nwhich tudents ereasked o writehow heywentabouthe
process. tem3requestedhat tudentsdentifyhedifficult ndeasyaspects f the
particularesearchrocess, nd tem asked ora sentence escribing hat hestu-dent hought goodtopicwouldbe forthefollowingday'smini esson.
Lesson 2. This lessondealtwiththequestion, owdowe knowwhatwe
know? twasprimarilynintroductiono thebackgroundonceptsnterpretationandevidence, utreliabilityndvalidity oncepts nd ssuesalsodanced bout hebackof the classroomtage.Dersonbeganby posing heepistemologicalues-tion-how do we know what we know?--concerninghe natureof historical
knowledge.Hergoalwas ohelp tudentsnderstandhathistoricalnowledge asindeterminateecause istoriansad orelyontraces f thepast hat eftonlyapar-tialpicture f lifelongago.
Once heaskedhequestion bout owwe knowwhatweknowabout hepast,studentsmmediatelyespondedy referringoarcheologicaligsand heartifacts
that suchdigsunearth.This,they thought,providedhe windowhistorical e-searcherssed orepresenthepast ifeof, forexample,Tidewater ativeAmeri-cans.Studentsalkedaboutarrowheadsndbroken hardsof pottery ound nexcavations.Dersonpointedout that herealsowereotherwaysof findingoutabout hepast,namelyhroughookresearch,ieldsurveys, ndoralhistories.All
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256 VANSLEDRIGHTAND FRANKES
methods,she noted, gave researchersonly a partial dea of past events and cul-
tures,implyingbutnot
statingdirectlythat,n the act of
doingresearch, nquirersneeded to confrontseriousquestionsaboutmissingdataand thereliabilityand va-
lidityof the sourcestheydid have. With indeterminate istoricalknowledgeas the
crucible,Derson toldherstudents hattheythereforeneededto researchcarefullyand consulta numberof sources.Havingmadeherplea forcarefulresearchhow-
ever,shestopped he discussionshortof delvingmoredeeplyinto howresearchers
deal with the difficultepistemological ssues such as decidinga source'svalidityandreliability,adjudicating onflictingevidencewhen it was found,andhandling
gaps in evidence trails. Studentswere left to theirown strategiesfor sortingout
thesemattersandunderstandingheir nterrelatedoncepts.The classendedwithavideotapedescribing he lives of severalTidewater ribesnativeto Marylandand
the ChesapeakeBay region. Studentswere asked to take notes as a prologueto
thinkingabout a tribe on which theywould focus theirresearch.
Lesson 3. Thislessonwas devotedto showingstudentshow to access com-
puterdataaboutNative Americans.Students'missionwas to learn o use the com-
puterprogramand its database o explorecustomsand anguagesof Native Ameri-
can tribes ntheMarylandidewaterarea.Essentially, heexercisewasa search askthatwould laterbenefitstudentsastheydidresearchonatribe heywouldstudy.
Aftergroupsof three studentshad rotated hrough heir 10-min ntervalsat the
computer,Derson calledtheirattention o thefrontof the room.She hadbrought o
class hercollection of EasternWoodlandsIndians'artifacts arrowheads, ottery
shards,beads,anarrow,an Indiandoll, andseveralobjectsthatappearedunidenti-
fiableto the students).She held themup, showedthemoff, andthenpassedthem
out one by one. As she did this, she askedstudents o think aboutwhat eachwas
andhow itmighthave been used.Thensheusedtheremainder f class time for the
purposeof having studentswrite a storyabout one of the artifactsandspeculatewhat it mighthave been used for.The lesson revolvedprimarilyaround eachingresearch trategies computer earch ask)andwriting,an efforttomorefully inte-
grate languageartsand social studies.
Lessons 4 through 5. Both these lessons centered on mounting the re-
searchprojects hatwould consumemostof whatremainedofthe unit.The focusin
Lesson4 wasonlearning o ask whatDersoncalledgood questions, hose thatwere
researchableand could generatea sizable collection of conceptualinformationaboutthe cultureof theNativeAmericans.She illustratedwith,"What ortof life
did aparticularribe ead?"Overthe courseof the twolessons,Dersonhandedout a
stapledresearchpacketthat asked students o answerquestionson food, clothing,
shelter, language,customs, and technology (space to write answersnext to the
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DEVELOPMENTNHISTORICALTUDY 257
questionswereprovided)withreferenceo the tribes tudentswereresearching.Derson lso
explainedowstudents
mightse tables f contents nd ndex
ystemsin themanybooksshehadbroughto classassourcematerialsoquicklyind heinformationheyneeded oransweringuestionsntheresearchacket.She llus-trated ypicking ooksoff thepileofsources ndpointingo the ables f contentsand ndexes.Shethenhadstudents ickbooks rom hesourcepileandbeginex-
ploring.Theclassendedwithselections f researchopics atribal roup, rapar-ticular spect ftheTidewaterribes uchastheirechnologyrfoods)and hedivi-sionof theclass ntosmallresearchroups f twoor three tudents ach.
Lesson 6. Students ook a briefvocabulary uizon whattheyhad been
studyingboutNativeAmericanustoms nd ribalifeto date.ThenDerson ntro-ducedanddiscussed he NativeAmerican raftproject.Studentswere asked othinkaboutwhat heymightiketodo forthisproject,hat s,themaking f a fac-simile onghouse rwigwam,heconstructionf adollNativeAmerican hildrenintheTidewateregionmighthaveplayedwith,orthepreparationfsome ypeofauthenticribal oodsuchassuccotash. hisprojectwould erveas oneof thecul-
minatingctivities f theunit.
Lesson 7. Dersonbeganwith a minilessonon researchtrategies. pe-cifically he talkedmoreabouthow to locate nformationntextsusing extaidssuchastables fcontents,ubject ndnamendexes, ndalphabeticalrdering.healso ndicatedhat hiswouldbe thefirstday hat tudents ouldbe asked o writeintheir esearchournalsnd hat hefollowing ayshewouldbegin eachingminilessons hatwereresponseso issuesstudents aisednconductingesearch. tu-dents henwere reed obegin heir esearchctivitiesngroups, mployinghecat-
egoriesandresearch uestions rovidedntheresearchacket.
Lessons 8 through11. These essonswerespentdoing esearch,sing he
computeratabasend he booksDersonhadbroughtoclass.Students sedthe
computern grouprotation, onsultedmanyof the tradeand nonfiction efer-
ence-type ooksonthesource ile,andoccasionallyonsultedheclassroomncy-clopedia etastheysystematicallyddressedhe researchacketquestionse.g.,"Whatropsdid heIndians lant?"Howdid heycatchish?" What id heIndi-
ansuse formoney?" WhydidtheIndians uild heirvillageneara stream rariver?").
InLesson9, Derson'smini essoncentered nproblemstudents ncounteredin usingindexes o locate nformation.pecifically,he focusedonhow to use
pagenumbersistedadjacento asubject rnameheadinge.g.,thedifference e-
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258 VANSLEDRIGHTAND FRANKES
tweenpages 46, 48, 51 andpages 46-51). Derson also provideda shortexplana-tion of the
foreground onceptof
gendereddivisions of laborfound n a numberof
Tidewater ribes(mentypicallyhuntedandfished,and womengathered,cooked,and were primarychildcareproviders)and noted that some tribes practiceda
matrilinealsocial organizationthat put women at the head of the tribal deci-
sion-makingprocess.InLesson 10,the mini lesson involvedhelpingstudentsplanfortheircraftpro-
ject. She returned o the KWL exercise she hadconductedearlierand askedstu-
dents to thinkabout whatthey wantedto know, or whatthey were interested n.
Theywereto use this as a basis fordecidingthenatureof theircraftproject.After
10min of brainstorming ifferentpossibilities,in which both Dersonandherstu-dentsoffereduppossibilities,students eturnedotheirresearchpacketwork.Dur-
ing that time and also duringthe same post-mini lesson period in Lesson 11,
Dersonmet withgroupsof students o identifycraftprojects.A numberof students
had decided to makefood dishes nativeto theTidewater ribes,thanks n part o a
seriesof recipesDerson hadbrought o class fromher home collection. Onegroupof boys decided to make a tomahawkand anothergroupanaddle addle.Themini
lessonheld as theprologueto Lesson 11involved Dersonin teachingher students
procedures or organizingandcreating heircraftprojects.By the end of Lesson
11, studentswere to have finishedaddressing he questions n theirfive-pagere-searchpackets.This marked he end of the formalresearchactivityfor theunit,the
dailywritingin thereflection ournal,andthemini lessons thatbridgedfromstu-
dents'researchdifficulties of theprecedingday.
Lessons 12 through 15. These lessons were consumedwith craftprojectwork.Moreresearchwas done, recipes anddatafrom the researchpacketswere
consulted;chartswere made on posterboard;a tomahawkwas carved;and sev-
eral students workedon buildinga longhouseout of toothpicks, popsicle sticks,andgrass.For fourclass periods, the roomwas filled with animatedvoices and
sometimes franticenergy as studentshurried o constructandprepare heirpre-sentations.
Lessons 16 through 17. These two class periodswere spentmakingoral
presentationsof craftprojects.With some relish, small groupsof studentstook
turns llustratingwhattheyhad done.Becausea numberof studentshadprepared
food,theroomwas filled withinteresting romas.Students ampled he foodsinter-mittently.After a numberof recipefoodprojectshadbeenpresentedandthe class
was busy tastingthe fare,Dersonsaid,"Nowisn't history ust delicious?"
At theendofthese two classperiods,Dersonhadthe studentsengageinwritingletters to a sister school in the district.Studentswere to explain in their letters
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DEVELOPMENTN HISTORICALTUDY 259
aboutdoingresearch n NativeAmericansnMarylandndespecially bout henature f their eflection
ournals,what
heywroten
them,andhow
heyservedo
helpDersonunderstandhedifficultiesheyencounteredn doinghistoricale-search e.g.,troublewithindexing, agenumbers,ndunhelpfulablesof con-
tents)andpreparemini essons.The etterswere ustthat,descriptiveccounts fhowtheresearchournalworked nd hepurposest served.
Lesson 18. This was test day.Studentspent1 hr working hroughhe
four-pageest. It consisted f five true-falsetems,sevenmatching, three-part
short ssayquestion, vocabularyection,andamap-labelingctivity.The temsonthe testweredrawnrom tudents' esearch orkand heir esponsesoques-tions ntheresearchacket.The estwasaneffort o assessstudents' ecallofkeyculturalustoms ndnorms ommonotheTidewaterribes hathadbeenstudied.Theessayquestion sked tudentsochooseacustomoundn 17th- ndl8th-cen-
tury ribal ulturee.g.,building omes, btainingmeat,and ransportation)romalistprovidedndcomparettotheways nwhichweengagenthesame ustom o-
day,aneffort o address istoricalhange.Onaverage, tudents idreasonablywellon thetest-all attained5%orbetter orrectesponses.
Costello'sUnitGoals
Cultural ppreciation. Costello'smainunitgoalshinged nhelping er tu-dents ome oappreciateheculturefNativeAmericanssimportantnd nterest-
inginits ownright.Shesaid,"Iwant hem students]oappreciateheir ife and
customs,orespectheirntelligence,nd o understandowindustrious,reativeand nventiveheywere."When sked bout hecentraloncepts nd trategieshe
would tressntheunit,Costello eiteratedhis mportantheme fculturalppreci-ation.Forher tmeanthat tudents oulddig nto hepast researching)o findoutwhat heycouldabout heseculturallyifferenteople.Thepurposewouldbe forherstudentsolearn smuchastheycouldabout arious spects f Indianulture,
includinguch hings s theirood,clothing,helter,eligion,echnologynd ools,art,and anguage ystems.
Although hearticulatedhemdifferently,n manywaysCostello hared hesame oregroundonceptualedagogical oalsas Derson.However,orCostello,research ppearedmoreasapractical edagogical pproachimedatgenerating
informationbout,and evokinginterest n, conceptual nowledgeof NativeAmericansn Maryland,ather hanas an importantet of strategiestudentsneeded o learnaspartof theirbroader ducation ndas a wayto integratean-
guagearts,reading, ndsocialstudies. n thisway,DersondistinguishederselffromCostello's pproacho,andmore imited tresson,teaching trategicnowl-
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260 VANSLEDRIGHTAND FRANKES
edge.Usuallyon aone-to-one asiswhen heyaskedher,Costellohelpedherstu-dents
navigatehetext aids found n
thebooks.However, he did little directteaching bouthow to readanduse different istoricalources,manipulaten-dexesand ablesof contents, ndgenerally nderstandhefinerpointsandprob-lems involved n doinghistorical esearch.These lessons were reserved or
language rtsandtaught s general esearch kills notdirectly onnectedo re-
searchinghehistory fNativeAmericansnMaryland.tudents ere eftto makethetransfer.
Because hestudy ocused nboth eachers' iewsabout ackgroundonceptsandstrategiesorunderstandingnddealingwiththem,we alsoaskedCostello
aboutherview of thepastandhow sheunderstoodoncepts uch as evidence,proof,validity, ndreliabilitynhistorical esearch.
Regardingerview ofhistory,Costelloaid,"Thenature f historicalvidenceis constantlyhanging.Ourpresentmethods f researchmake t easier oobtainandverify nformation.pecialization,orexample,n aspecific ieldofstudy an
providenewandmoreaccuratenformation."earchingut andpossessingn-
creasingly ccuratenformationeemed o be at the centerof Costello'sviewofhistorical ork.However,hedidrelate hatuncoveringccuratenformationasa difficult ndproblematicask,notinghatittleofwhatwe know"is 100% ccu-
rate."Later hestated, I ry oimpress ponmystudentshathistorysnotalwaysfactual, hathistorians reconstantlyrying o makemoreaccuratenterpreta-tions." hedidnotdiscuss hebackgroundoncepts xplicitly, nd hedidnotex-
plainwhatcorrespondingtrategieshewould eachherstudentso assist hem n
sorting utaccurateromnaccuratenterpretations.sinDerson's lassroom,it-tle timewouldbespent eaching bout trategieselatedobackgroundoncepts.Suchconcepts evidence,nterpretation,ndvalidity)andstrategiesordealingwith hemwouldremainn thebackground.
Purposes of studyinghistory. Costello's iewson thepurposesoraskingfourthradersostudyhepastwerebound p nherculturalppreciationoalsandinherdesire oexcite tudents bout ocial tudies ndhistory.Returningo theap-preciationheme, hesaid:
Just o appreciatehelife thatwentbefore hem. t'speople. t is peopleandhowtheylived,theirpersonalitiesndwhat hey iked.Butthenyoulearna lotabout theraspectswhenyoulearnaboutpeople. think t is moreof anorienta-tion.Because think heyareat theagewhere heycanappreciatet-it isjustan
appreciation. lot of it is abstract ut heycanappreciatet.I thinktis importantbecause f that. t is abeginningoward ppreciatinghatpeoplehavedone, n-
ventions, ow far heyhavecome.With espectoexciting tudents bout istory nd ocial tudies enerally,he
noted:
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DEVELOPMENTN HISTORICALTUDY 261
I find hat his sthe ime ogetthem. fyoucangetthem nterestednlearn-
ingabout
istory,heywillcontinue.thinkhat'srue ora lotofthesekids.
find hem aying,"Arewehaving ocial tudiesoday?" might ayno,butIknow hey ike tbecausehey'reasking.
Askingstudentso do research ndgathernformationbout hepastwas a keymethod orengagingheir nterests.
ResearchingNativeAmericansnCostello'sClass
Lesson 1. Costello ntroducedheunitonNativeAmericansnMarylandyexplainingowstudents ouldbeengagednconductingesearchnthese ndige-nouspeoples.TheMarylandndians,henoted,were he irstAmericans nownoinhabitheTidewater hesapeakeayarea.Shewentonto describe owhistoriansbelievethatAmericanndians riginallyamefromAsia andhadcrossed land
bridgenwhat s today heBeringStrait. he llustratedypullinga largemapoftheworlddownacrosshechalkboardndpointingo theBeringStrait. he urther
explainedhathisareamayatonepointhavebeenconnectedyland, llowingmi-
gratoryAsians o cross,perhapss longagoas 10,000years.The fourth radersseemed urprisedo hear his.
Costellopassedoutathree-pageandouthe andanothereacher t herschoolhaddesigned, alleda ResearchOutline,hatcontained uestions boutNativeAmericansnMarylandtudentswere o research singa textbookCostello hen
helduptitledOurMaryland;aten&McGinnis,987),romwhichstudentsoulddrawmostoftheir esponsesothequestions.This esearchutlinewasvery imilarinformat ndquestionso theresearchacket sedbyDerson.)Costello hen aidthat hewouldbebringingeveral ther ooks o class orstudentso use.Shewent
throughheresearchutlinewith tudentsriefly.Then henoted xcitedlyhat tu-dentsalsowouldgetopportunitiesuringheunit o do somesandpainting,nan-cientNative ormofcommunicationndartisticxpression,ndmakewampum,form fNativeAmericanmoney.Finally,hedescribedstory tudents ouldneedtowriteabout MarylandativeAmericanribe hat heywould henpresenti.e.,read)o theclassat heendof theunit.Students ouldusethe nformationheycol-lectedntheiresearcho writeheir tories.The esson ndedwithCostello assingoutcopiesof the extbook ndaskingtudentsolook hrought,find hechapternNativeAmericansnMaryland,nd kim t.
Lesson 2. This essonopenedwith hepassing utofpocket olders o eachstudent.Costello old studentsoputtheirnameson themand abel hemNativeAmericansnMaryland. hesefolders, heexplained,wouldserveas theplace
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262 VANSLEDRIGHTAND FRANKES
where tudentstored llthematerialsheywould egivenand ollectacross f the
unit.Costello henaid,
"Asanexample,
'mgoing
ogiveyouamap holding p
a
copy] hat want ou oworkontoday.Youprobably on'tgeta chance ofinisht,sokeep t inyour olders orournext ocial-studiesesson.Then oucan aket out
and inish t."She henpassed ut hemapactivity ndexplainedo studentshat t
wasamapofMaryland.hewanted tudentsousetheir extbooknd everal ther
books hat hehadputontheshelfnearhebackoftheroomo locateheTidewater
tribes istedonthereverseideof thesheet.Thatistcontainedbout12 ribes. tu-
dentswere o findamapnthebooksand henwrite he ribe ver heplace hat he
bookssaidthat heywereknown o inhabit. tudents ulledouttheirbooksand
spentheremaininglass ime illingntheirmaps.Near heendoftheclassperiod,Costello oldstudentswhowerealmost inishedwith heexercisehat heycould
use markersrcolored encils o"decorate"heirmaps.Shecautionedhem obe
carefulnot to usecolors hatwereso dark hat t becamempossibleo read he
namesof thetribes.As theclassended, tudents ereaskedoplace heirmapsn
their olders longwith heir esearchutlines.
Lesson 3. Studentssed he firstpart f thisclass ofinishupworkon their
maps.Costello oted hat hosewhowere inishedhould etout heir esearchut-linesandbegin heir esearch nthequestionst contained.hemoved otheback
of theroomand,onebyone,helduptheadditionalnformationalooksshe had
broughtoclass(e.g.,Maryland istory;Michael,1983), xplaininghat tudents
shoulduse themas well.Shealso heldupthetextbookOurMarylandEaton&
McGinnis, 987)andnoted hat tudentsould inda listof all themajorribesn
theTidewater hesapeakeegionby turningopage27.Activity n themaps on-
tinued orsomestudentswhileothers roceededn tocollectingnformationnd
answeringhequestionsn the outline.
Lesson 4. Costello eganhis essonbypassing utafive-pageollection f
informationndifferentspects f Tidewaterndianulture. he opics overedn
thehandoutsncludednformationnfoodpreparationnd ypesof toolsused or
thatpurpose,ources f meatand oolsused o obtainhem,gamesNative hildren
played,andhowtheycreatedanoes or ravel.Thepagescontainedrawingse-
signed oillustratehe activities escribedythetextsurroundinghem.Costello
alsopassedout a three-page ritten extthatreiterated uchof theinformation
containedn the otherbooksstudentswereusingfortheir esearch. hetoldstu-dentso consult hesehandoutsstheyansweredhequestionsntheoutline.None
of thesesourceswerereferenced.Before allowingstudents o pursuetheirtask of collecting nformation,
Costellodescribednmoredetailhestory tudents ouldbewriting fterhey in-
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DEVELOPMENT N HISTORICALSTUDY 263
ished heir esearch. heexplainedhat tudentswouldbepickingatribe,assum-
ing theywerea childor adult n that
ribe,andthen
writinga
storyabout ife
experiencenthatNativegroup.Shetalked bouthowtheywouldwritean initialdraft f their tory,howshewould ead t andhelp hemdonecessary diting, ndthen heywouldwriteafinalpolished ersionhatwouldbe read o theclass.All ofthiswritingwouldbedoneon thecomputer. oneof thestudents skedquestionsabout heword-processingask,buttheydidhavequestions boutwhich ribes
theymightchoose romandhowtotell thestory e.g.,"Can be a childand alkabout he gamesI played?").Afterspending everalminutesaddressinghese
questions,Costelloasked tudentsobeginworkcollectingmore nformationor
theiroutlinesandsuggestedhat ome studentswho were finishedwiththeirre-searchbegincraftingheir tories.Costellobegancirclingheroom, toppingoaddress uestions,monitoringtudent ctivity, ndhelpinga female tudentwhohad mmediatelyoneto thecomputerobegincomposing story.Occasionally,shewould nterruptlassroom ctivity o address pointshethoughtheentireclass shouldbeprivy o. Here s anexample:
Costello: Class,class!Letme haveyourattentionoraminute.Didthese ndi-ans nMarylandive intipis?
Students:[several]No!Costello: Whatwere heirhousescalled?Student:Wigwams.
Costello: Yes. And wigwamsand tipis are not the same.Wigwamsare
longhousessedbyIndiansnMaryland. ood.Now,whatdid heyusethebonesof thedeer or?
Student:Needles.Necklaces.Costello:Yes,good.Ijustwantedo make ureyouweregettinghis.
Althoughheirwereno formalizedroups orthe researchask,students' eskswerearrangednclusters f fourand ive.Effectively,heseclusters ecamework-
inggroups nd tudentseated tthem reely harednformationheywere ogginginto heir esearchutlines.
Lesson 5. Over hecourse fteachingboutNative mericans, ostello addoneafairamountf researcherselfnanefforto locate ources hecoulddeployintheclassroom. saresult,hehadbecomentrigued ithseveral spects fNa-
tiveNorthAmericanulture:heir rtand anguage.hewasparticularlynterestedinNativeAmericanignand ymbolanguage.hebeganhis essonby attemptingtobaither tudents'nterests swell.Shecirculatedhandouthehadpreparedhatcontained storywrittennacombinationfEnglishwordsandNativeAmerican
symbols.TheNativeAmericanymbols orrespondedoEnglish ouns n thesen-
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264 VANSLEDRIGHTAND FRANKES
tence hathelped ellthestory e.g.,symbolsorboy,forest, ish,etc.).Theclassreadand tudiedhe
story ogether.henCostello skedhem o makeasetof their
own NativeAmericanymbols, onstruct storyaroundhemwithsomeoneat
home,andbringt to classtoshareduringanguagerts ater hatweek.Studentsthenwere toldto flipthepageandexamineheNavajoalphabetwrittenhere.Costellouggestedhat tcouldbeusedas anexample.Theremainderf class imewasspentworkingnsearchingourcematerialsnd illingntheresearchutline.
Lesson 6. Several ayselapsed etweenLessons and6,duringwhich ime
Costellohadcollected ndexaminedwhatstudents adbeenwriting n their e-search utlines ndontheirmap xercise.The irstportion fthis essonwasspentina reviewofwhatCostellohad oundand, npart,markederattemptocorrect
misinformation.
Costello: DidanyoneeadnthereadingshatMarylandndiansived n caves?Students:[several]No.Costello: Whatdidthey iveinthen?Student:Longhouses.
Costello: Yes. But someof youputcavesand ipis.Didyouread hissome-where?Well,other deasabout helter?
Student:Loghouses?Costello: Didanyone lseread his?Students:[several]No.Costello: Makesureyoucheck hisif youwrotedowncavesortipisorlog
houses.Someof youputcorn orfood?Anyotherusesof corn?
Student:Beadsonclothing.Student:Baitforfish.
Costello: Yes. Howdidtheyfish?Student:Witha weir.
Theclasscontinuednthisvein oranother 0min.ThenCostello iscussedheduedate or hestory tudents ereworkingn.Theclassvoted omakeheduedateon
the ollowingFriday,bout1 2weeksaway.Studentspenthe astpart ftheclass
timeontheir esearchfforts.
Lessons 7 through8. These essons nvolvedanactivityCostellocalled"sandpainting."ostellogaveeachstudent pieceof sandpaperndsomeglue.She laid out small dishes containingdifferentcoloredpieces of stone andplastic.She demonstrated o studentshow to draw a commonNative Americansymbol
(e.g., aneagle or a deer)on thesandpapernpencil andthenhow to use theglue to
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DEVELOPMENT N HISTORICALSTUDY 265
coatcertain ortionsf thedrawingnorder oplacecoloredtoneorplastichere.
By alternatingolors,tudents ould reat rilliant
esigns,henoted.Shealsoex-
plained hattherewas no evidence o indicate hatthe Tidewaterribesmade
sandpaintingsut hat ribesn thewest(Navajo) addoneso. She hensuggestedthat,becauseherewassand nmanyplaces ining hewater reas roundheChes-
apeakeBay,itwaspossible o imaginehat heTidewaterribesalsoengagedn
sandpainting.tudentspentheclassdecoratingheirpiecesofsandpaper,singaseriesof sheetscontaining varietyof NativeAmericanymbolscopiedfrombooksby Costelloandhanded utto students. hefollowing lass involved tu-dents akingurnsdescribingheir andpaintingymbolsandwhytheychose he
colors heyhad.
Lesson 9. This essonwasspentn aquestion-by-questioneviewof there-
search utline.Students ereasked otakeout he extbookOurMarylandEaton&McGinnis, 987) ouseas aquick eferenceuringhereview.Costello alledon
various tudentswhowere asked o reada research utlinequestion ndsupplywhat heyhadwritten.Occasionally, ostellowouldaskstudentso use their ext-books oprovide vidence ndproofofparticularlaims heyweremakingnre-
sponse o outlinetems.Here s anexample f thedialogue:
Student:[reading tem9] "Compare ative Americawomen's obs with
women'swork oday." responding]ook,do thelaundry,omegotowork,bothdo childcare.
Costello:Anyothers?Student:Gogetgroceries.Student:Childcare,cook,makeclothing.Student: Sew andwashdishes.
Costello: How dothe obs compare?Student:Bothcook, bothdo childcare.Student:Both akecareof thefamily.Student:Bothsew.
Costello: DoIndianwomenwashclothes?Didthey?Students:[several]Yes.Costello: Canyouprovet?Showme.Inscience,fyouhavean dea,youhave
toprove tand nhistoryoyouhave oprove t too.Inourbook, tdoesn't ay.Youwouldhave o find t in another ook oget proof.
Didanyonedo that? silence)Costello: [readinghenext tem]"ComparendevaluateheNativeAmerican
food o thefour oodgroups."responding] as here nythingmiss-
ingfrom heNativeAmerican iet?Whatdidtheyeatmost?Student:Meat.
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266 VANSLEDRIGHTAND FRANKES
Student: Vegetables.Costello: How aboutbreadand
grain?Corn s a
grain; heyalso ate rice. What
aboutdairy?Theyhad none.Theyusedbeargreasefor fat.
Costello hadstudentsuse theremainingclass time to begin workon a homework
assignment. twas calledaResearchPage andwas to assiststudents n selectinga
tribeaboutwhichtheywould write theirstory.The sheet containedninequestionsthataskedforbasic information bout he tribe tself.Thelastitemaskedstudents o
drawa pictureof a person n thetribein theirNativeAmericanregalia.Manystu-
dentsbeganwith this last item.
Lesson 10. Studentsengaged ntheactivityof replicatingNativewampum,aformof currencyusedby Tidewater ribes.Costellobeganby explaining he vari-
ety of ways wampumwas used as a vehicle forexchange.She describedhow she
originallyhadmany questionsaboutwampumand consulteddifferentbooks as a
formofresearch oanswerherquestions.Shesaid shephotocopiedaseriesofpagesso she couldhandthemoutinclass. Studentswere to usethemasguidesforcreatingtheirwampum acsimiles. Students ook turnsreadingaboutwampum n thephoto-
copies Costello hadpassedout. Thentheyembarked nusingthe rest of class timeto make their own versions. Costello ended class by remindingthem that theywould be finishinguptheirNativeAmericanstoriesduring anguageartsover the
next severaldays andbegin presentations n the nextFriday.
Lessons 11 through 12. As a cullminatingactivity, students took turns
comingtothe frontof classandreading heirstoriesto the class. Some storieswere
quite short,numberingonly a handfulof sentences,whereas otherswere long,
spanningseveral double-spacedpages. Many beganwith a phrasesuch as, "Myname is SilverMoon, andI'd like to tell you a little aboutmyself. I am a youngPatuxent ndiangirl."Costellomoderated he event from hebackofthe room,nod-
ding approvingly o each studentas he or she read.After studentshadfinishedin
Lesson 12,Costello collected theirstories.These,she latersaid,servedas theunit
assessmenttool and were graded.
Comparisons
Derson andCostellowere comparablen manyways. Both were veteran eachers
who lovedhistory,enjoyedreading tandteaching heirstudentsabout t,andwere
concernedabout he factualaccuracyof historicalaccounts.Theyshared hegoalof
teachingstudents o appreciatehecustoms, anguage, ood,clothing,andtechnol-
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DEVELOPMENTNHISTORICALTUDY 267
ogiesofTidewaterativeAmericanribes.Theyalsosharednthepedagogicalp-
proach fusingresearchs
awayof
interestingheir tudents bout he
pastandasa
methodorchallenginghem olearn.Bothstressedatheringacts-occasionallynotingkey concepts-andhaving tudents evelopheirownaccounts fthepast,butneithermademuchdirectmention fbackgroundoncepts rtaughttrategiesfordealingwith hemother hanhow ousetextaids tables fcontents,ndexes)olocate nformation. ach eftstudentsntheirownwhendealingwithconflictingsources ndudginghenature fevidencewithregardo itsvalidity nd eliabilityas aknowledgelaim.
Despite imilarities,he teachers id differ nimportant ays.Derson ried o
place equalemphasis nlearningactsandconcepts ndbecoming neffectiveandstrategicesearcherasdefinednlanguage rts-readingerms),while inte-
gratinghe woasoftenandasexplicitly spossible.Costello, ycontrast, as ess
apt ostress trategic-knowledgeoals,placingmoreof heremphasisnlearningaboutandappreciatinghenature f Tidewater ativeAmerican ultures.n sev-eralways, theirdefinitions f researchwere different:Dersonmoreactivelystressedtsproceduralndrigorous ature ndsometimes oted tsproblematicaspects,whereasCostello iewed t moregenerallys apedagogicaltrategy, e-
signedto keepstudentsnterestedn getting he factsand detailsaboutNative
American roupsandsometimes ssemblinghemaround oncepts elevant oNativeAmericanulture.Thesedifferenceslayedoutin theclassroomn fairlyobviouswaysand n moresubtleones relative ohowstudentseportedmakingsenseof whatoccurrednclass.
StudentResponses to LearningOpportunities
Foreground oncepts. As thedata n Table5 indicate, nforegroundon-
ceptual nowledge f NativeAmericanribesnMaryland,hetwogroups fstu-dentswere airly venlymatched. pproximately0%of thestudentesponsesneachclassweredescriptivennature,ndicatinghat tudents oulddentify eyel-ements f Tidewaterativeculturend,npart,alkabouthemnconceptuallus-ters without sing heconceptshemselves irectly).Another 0% r soofthe12students'esponseseflected more acileuseof theterminology,oting ighterconnectionsetween actsanddetailsandarranginghem ntoconceptualtruc-tures.Therelativelymallnumber f facileresponseswas notsurprisingecauseboth eachersended ofocusmoreof theirpedagogicalttentionndirectingtu-
dents ogetthefactsanddetailsabouthetribes ia theresearchrocess e.g.,theresearchacketoroutlinequestionsachused)andonlyoccasionallytressed yname heconceptualdeas hat hesedetails onverge round.However, asonnDerson'sclass andJohnandJoelin Costello's lassfrequentlyesponded ith
quitedetailedunderstandingsf the concepts dentified,using language hat
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TABLE5
Foreground Concepts: Protocol Responses by Student, Class, and Type of Res
Derson's Studentsa Totals C
Concepts Andy Jason Karen Stella Steve Terri F D N A Zani Gina
Tidewaternativeculture
Nationsystems D F
Language ystems A F
Hunting-gathering D F
Transportationystem A D
Divisionof labor N D
Tools-technology D F
Money-exchange A A
Religion A A
Fate of nativeculture
Religiousconversion A F
Americanization D A
Reservations A N
Decimation D D
Cause-effectrelations N D
Totals
Percentages
D D D D 1 5 0 0 D A
A D N A 1 1 1 3 A A
N D D F 2 3 1 0 N D
D A A D 0 3 0 3 A D
D N D D 0 4 2 0 A D
D D D F 2 4 0 0 D DD A A A 0 1 0 5 A A
F A D D 1 2 0 3 D D
A A A D 1 1 0 4 A A
A N D A 0 2 1 3 A D
A N A N 0 0 3 3 D F
D A D A 0 4 2 0 A A
N N N N 0 1 5 0 N N
8 31 15 24
10 40 19 31
Note. Typesof responseknowledge:F = facile; D = descriptive;N = nascent;A = absent.
an= 6. bn= 6.
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DEVELOPMENTN HISTORICALTUDY 269
showedconsiderable acilitywith theconceptual erraindealt with in the unit. For
example,in
describinghe structure f TidewaterNative Americantribal
groups,Jason stated:
[I learned]what kind and how manytribes therewere in Maryland.There
were actuallynations thatwere madeup of different ribeslike [those]that
belongedto the Piscataway,which were partof theAlgonquinnation.And
thereweredifferent anguages .. that f onepersonfromtheIroquoisnation
tried o talkto [an]Algonquin, hey probably ouldn'tunderstand ach other.
Roughly50% of the students'responses n eachclass represented ithera nascentidea of theconcepts nquestion,or little orno ideaat all. Thismaysuggestthateach
teacherwas only partiallysuccessfulin teaching foreground oncepts, likely a re-
sult of theirtendencyto focus studentattentionon gathering acts.However, an-
otherway to understand his is by examiningwhat studentschoseto focus theirat-
tention on in responseto the openendedprotocolquestions.Forexample,in both
classes therewere anumberof studentswho didnot mentionor discussroughlyhalf
ofthe concepts(Andyand Stella n Derson's class andZaniand Shana nCostello's
class).However,with theexceptionof money-exchangeandreligiousconversion,
talk thatneglected key conceptstended o be scatteredacrossthe 13concepts,pos-sibilityreflecting responsechoices rather han lackof knowledge.
Background concepts. A similar,evenly-matched esult turnedup in stu-
dents'responses o questions hataskedabout heirknowledgeof background on-
cepts (see Table6). However,the responsesherewere qualitativelydifferent han
those withrespect o foreground oncepts.Fifty-threepercentofDerson's students
and43%of Costello'shadonlyanemergingor nascentsense of conceptssuch as in-
terpretation, alidity,reliability,and evidence sources.Thirtypercentof Derson's
studentsand39%of Costello's studentshad little or no languageto discuss thesebackground oncepts n response o thequestions.Over 80%of the six students n
each classhad eitherno discourseavailable o discusstheconceptsor hadonlya na-
scentsense of them.Thiscontrasted irectlywithstudents' alkandunderstandingf
foreground oncepts, n whichgreaterhan60%of the studentsnboth classeshad a
nascent,descriptive,or facile sense aboutthemajorityof the 13 conceptsstudied.
Therewere no studentswho discussedbackgroundoncepts n any way resemblingfacilediscourse.Also, only 17%of Derson'sstudentsand18%of Costello's talked
aboutthebackground onceptsdescriptively,demonstrating nowledgeof key de-
tails embedded ntheconcepts.Most ofthe descriptivediscoursearose nconnectionwith the way studentsdiscussedsources of evidence, such as differentgenres of
text-fiction, nonfiction,encyclopedias,CD-ROMs-used to locateinformation n
topics theywereresearching,omethingnotedoften nclassbyboth eachers,but es-
pecially by Derson.
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TABLE6
Background Concepts: Protocol Responses by Student, Class, and Type of Re
Derson's Studentsa Totals C
Concepts Andy Jason Karen Stella Steve Terri F D N A Zani Gina
InitialProtocol
Interpretation N N A A N D 0 1 3 2 N N
Validityandreliability N N N A N N 0 0 5 1 N A
Sources of evidence N D D D N D 0 4 2 0 D DSubtotals 0 5 10 3
Year-endprotocol
Validity/Reliability A A A N N N 0 0 3 3 A _-C
Evidenceuse A A A N N N 0 0 3 3 A -c
Subtotals 0 0 6 6
Totals 0 5 16 9
Percentages 0 17 53 30
Note. Typesof response knowledge:F = facile; D = descriptive;N = nascent;A = absent.
"n= 6. bn= 6. cGinamoved away midyear,reducingthe informants o five for theyear-endprotocol.
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DEVELOPMENTN HISTORICALTUDY 271
Although oth eachers oted hat heycontinuedo doresearch rojectswith
theirstudentsollowing
he NativeAmericannit,
studentshowednogain
in
theirknowledgef thesebackgroundoncepts crossheyearasindicatedytheir
responsesoquestionsttheendoftheNativeAmericansnitandattheendoftheschoolyear. nfact, he evel of discourse s measuredytheresponse ategoriesindicatedhat tudentsostsomeof their enseof,and anguage bout,hesecon-
ceptsastheyearprogressed.hese esultshould otbe consideredspeciallyur-
prising.Duringhe NativeAmerican nit,neither eacherpentmuchclassroomtimediscussing ackgroundoncepts irectly, revenalludedothemmuchndi-
rectly,with the exceptionof Derson's essonon "Howdo we know whatwe
know?" ndCostello's equesthat tudents btain roof or heir esponsesotheresearch utlinequestions.Thissuggests hatbothteachers ontinuedo followthispatternf deemphasizingrignoring ackgroundonceptsmost ikely nfa-
vorof continuedtressonforegroundoncepts ndcollectingnformation,bjec-tiveshighlightednthedistrict urriculum.
Strategicknowledge. Derson's mphasis nteaching trategiesordoingresearch asmostevidentnresponsestudentsegisteredoncerningheirunder-
standingf researchrocedures.ere,Derson'stress nbecomingneffective e-searcherlayed ut nthedifferences etween erstudents'esponsesnd hoseofCostello's.Asthedata nTable indicate,0%of Derson's tudentsatboth nter-viewpoints) oulddescriben detail number fresearchtrategies,rwere acilewith hatdiscourse,rboth,particularlyhen tcame otalkabout sing extaids,
something erson epeatedlytressed.Only25%of Costello's tudentsellwithinthedescriptive-facileesponse ange.UnlikeDerson,Costello ontinuedostresscultural ppreciationndgathering nowledge bout pecificevents ntheclass-room.Employingesearchtrategiess awayforherstudentsogainknowledge
about, ndearn ppreciation,orNativeAmericanultureemainedpedagogicalapproachatherhananend nitself.
It is worthnoting hatmanyof thenascentdeasor absent esponsesecorded
bybothDerson'sandCostello's tudents ccurredn relationoa question skedin bothprotocols,hatdealingwith howto handle onflicting vidence.Appar-ently, xperiencescrossheyearwithresearch orkdid ittle oprovidetrategiesstudents ouldarticulaten dealingwithconflictingources.NeitherDersonorCostello ppearedoprovideheir tudents ithproceduresorconfrontingnd e-
solving heseconflicts.Nevertheless,ason n Derson's lass(atboth nterview
points) ndJohn nCostello's lass inonly he nitialnterview)idnote hat heywouldcontinueoconsult dditionalources f informationnaneffort o resolvetheirdifficultieswithconflictsalludingoa formoftext"corroboration"ngagedin by historians s theybuildhistorical ituationmodels;see Wineburg, 991,1994).However,whenwe asked hem oexplainhowtheywouldeventually e-
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TABLE7
Strategic Knowledge: Protocol Responses by Student, Class, and Type of Res
Derson's Students Totals
Strategies Andy Jason Karen Stella Steve Terri F D N A Zani Gina
Initialprotocol
Locatingevidence
Using text aids
Using evidenceto
constructexplanations
Dealingwith
conflictingevidenceSubtotals
Year-endprotocol
Locatingevidence
Usingtext aids
Usingevidenceto
constructexplanations
Dealingwith
conflictingevidence
Subtotals
Totals
Percentages
N
F
N
D
F
N
D
D
A
N
D
A
N
F
A
D 0 33 0 N
F 4 20 0 N
D 0 1 2 3 A
D
F
N
N D N N N A 0 1 4 1 N N
4 7 9 4
N
F
N
D
A
N
N
N
N
N
F
N
D
F
N
D 0 3 3 0 N -
D 3 1 1 1 A -C
N 0 0 6 0 A -
N D A N N N 0 1 4 1 N _-C
3 5 14 2
7 12 23 6
15 25 48 12
an= 6. bn= 6. cGina eft midyear,reducingthe informants o five.
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DEVELOPMENTNHISTORICALTUDY 273
cide on what to includein theirreports,both seemed somewhat unsureandsaid
thingssuch
as, "Well,I would
justchoose one"without
beingableto
explainhow
they would make theirselections.
Otherstudents n bothclasses, whentheywere pressedto talk abouthow theywould decide, occasionallysaid thatthey would simply"choose the one that had
more information,"withoutelaboratingon how this would resolve the conflict.
This information-quantity riterion also was frequently invoked by the fifth
graders n the VanSledrightand Kelly (1998) study. Consistentwith the teach-
ers' pedagogical decisions and school district curriculumguides, studentsap-
pearedto place considerableemphasison obtaining nformationandignoringor
using the quantitycriterion o choose theirway aroundconflictingsourceswith-out actuallyaddressingthe matter.This left them without a strategyfor resolv-
ing evidence conflicts when informationquantitywas relatively equal amongsources.
Attitudes, interests, and views on purposes. In the first protocol, we
queriedstudentsabouttheirviews of the importance f doingresearch, tspurpose
bytheir ights,andwhattheyfoundmostinterestingntheirstudyofNative Ameri-
cans. Wereturnedo severalof these themes(purposes, mportance)ntheyear-endinterviewprotocolandalso addedquestionsaboutwhetheror notthey enjoyeddo-
ingsocial-studiesresearchandhowtheyviewed themselvesas researcherssee Ta-
ble 4 for the questions).Generally,we were interested n augmenting he concep-tualandstrategicdataandingettinga sense of possiblechanges nattitudesneach
class because bothteacherscontinued o ask themto do research n social studies
across the year.
Purposes. Regarding purposes for doing research, students in Derson'sclass saidthe following.
Andy: It couldbe good foryourlearningskills. Probably t would improve
you. Well, probably every time you do researchyou would learn
more.
Jason: To find outmore. It's either hatwe are nterested,or we have to learn
about hem ... becauseyou couldbebeingforcedto learnabout hem
andyoumightnotwantto,butif you are nterestedyou are ust doing
it for fun.It's notbecauseyourteachersays, "Iwantyou to researchthisthingaboutEast CoastIndians."Forme, it was a littlebitofboth.
I wasn't always the happiestdoing it.
Stella: Theremightcome a time whenyou would havewished thatyou had
learnedabout them. Well, sometimes if you are doing stuff about
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274 VANSLEDRIGHTAND FRANKES
them nadifferentgrade,youprobablywantto know a little bit about
theminsteadofnothing.Steve: So you know moreaboutwhathappeneda long timeago.
Terri: I think tis to learnmoreabout hat opic,sothatyouwill know it when
you aregrown, n caseyou havekids andtheyaskyou about[it].
LearningmoreaboutNativeAmericans,gainingknowledge,seemedtobe thecon-
sensusamongDerson's studentsas thepurposeof engagingin research.Jasonap-
peared to be somewhat disaffectedby doing research.Later,we were told byDersonthatJasonwas oftenmoreinterested n being given correctanswersrather
thandiggingabout orinformation imself andmakinghis ownjudgments.Terri'sresponsewas poignant:"More information o be used to answeryour own chil-
dren'squestions ater n life."Interestingly, tthepointof the firstinterview,none
of the studentsmentionedbecomingmore effective researchers r informationo-
cators as a principalgoal, despiteits importance o Derson.
Costello's studentsalso indicated hatthe purposeof the researchwas to helpobtain more informationand gain a degree of understandingrom it. However,
they addedadditionalpurposesnot indicatedby Derson's students.
Zani: I don't know. I think that it's because, if you have a paperandtheteachersays, like she gives us a test andgives a paperandyou onlyhaveonethingdown;youwon'tknow it soyouhave toputas muchas
you can.
Gina: To learnmore aboutNativeAmericans hanwe knowrightnow. For
instance,Iknow thatIndianswerethe firstpeoplein America.MaybeIdidn'tknow thatIndiansputondeerskin o huntandI learned hat n
theresearch,and I can say, "Oh,that s interesting." actually earn
more.
Joel: So you canunderstandomethingbetterandlearnabout t.John: Thepointis to learnstuff andhave fun. That's about t.
Mack: Maybethe teacherwantsus to knowstuffso we canteach ourkidsto
do it.
Zanithought hatdoingresearchwas a methodone used to prepare ora test,and
Johnaddedthat it might increase the level of fun he was having as he learned.
Mack'sresponsewas very similarto Terri's.
Importance. Initially, all the studentsin both classes, except Jason from
Derson'sclass,thought hat earninghow todo researchwas important. ason,still
thepessimist,said,"Idon'tsee what's thebiggee aboutresearchingNativeAmeri-
cans. I don't see what's so greataboutthem butwe learneda lot aboutthem."For
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DEVELOPMENTNHISTORICALTUDY 275
theremaining tudents,differencesdidemergewhenstudentswere askedwhy theyfound
doingresearch
mportant.Responsesfrom Derson's students ncludedthe
following.
Andy: It could be good foryour learningskills.
Stella: Because theremightcome a time whenyou would havewished that
you hadlearnedaboutthem.Well, sometimesif you aredoing stuff
about hemina differentgrade,you probablywantto knowa littlebit
about them instead of nothing.Steve: Yes, so you can findoutwhathappeneda longtimeago aroundhere.
Youmightfindoutsomething hat s kindof interestinghatwe mightuse today.
Responses fromCostello's students ncluded he following.
Zani: Because as soon as you get older and olderandolder,maybewhen
you arein college, they mighthave a test on Native Americans...
Gina: I think t is importanto learn hehistoryof Maryland o see what the
pastin Marylandwas like. I'm the kindof personwho likes to know
more about one thinginsteadof just thepresent.I want to knowthepast.
Shana: Yes. Soyouwould know howtheylivedbackthenand f somepeopledidn'tcomeandgive themdiseases,howyouwouldlive rightnow. If
the settlers didn't come then andthey stayedwherethey were, theywouldprobablystill be more Native Americanshererightnow.
Joel: Yes, so you can learn abouthow Marylandbecame a state and what
they did before there was cars and how they survived.
The culturalappreciationheme was evident in several students'responses nbothclassesbut was morepronouncedand embedded ntheresponsesof Costello's stu-
dents.Andywas theonlystudent o stress heimportance f gainingresearch kills,
perhapsreflectingDerson's emphasison strategicresearchknowledgeas impor-tant nitself. Zanicontinued o seeresearchas a formof gainingknowledge nprep-aration or a test. Shana'sreactionarguablywas one of the moresophisticatedre-
sponses,withreferences otheconceptual andscapeofunderstanding ause-effect
relations nhistory.Thiswasunusualbecause Costellodidverylittle to stressthese
sorts of understandings.
Purpose and importance of doing research at year's end. At the end
of the year,Derson's students,moreso thanCostello's, had a tendencyto refer to
the importanceof gainingknowledgeaboutresearchprocedures, uchas locating
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276 VANSLEDRIGHTAND FRANKES
and gathering nformation, akingnotes, and constructingwrittenreports.Andymentioned hatthe
purposeor
doingresearchwas to learnhow to
getinformation
frombooks andwritereportsabout t.Jason ndicated hat thelpedhim"becomea
betterreaderandresearcher."Karensaid,"To learnhow to lookthingsup, findin-
formation .. howtoread, ikeImean,getbetter kills inreading."StevesuggestedthatDersonhadtaught hemhow todigformore andbetter nformation,o go intoa
topicmoredeeplythansimplyreading t out of the textbook.He thought hatthis
pushedhim closer to gettingat the truth,what he called "thereal stuff."
None of Costello's studentssaidanythingaboutlearninghow to researchand
exercise thosesorts of skillsexceptShana.Zaniwas not surewhatthepurposewas
or how itwas important. oel tied thepurposeof learning o doresearch o gettingajob withoutelaboratingmuchexceptto mention t in relation obecominga geolo-
gist. In a ratherpenetratinganalysis,Johnsuggestedthatit helpedhim to under-
stand hepastinawaythatallowedhimtomakebettersense outof his currentife.
He said,"It s like it showswhy you are thisnow, likewhy you do this.Whathap-
penedinthepastaffectsyou today." Foramore detailedanalysisof thesetypesof
rationales,see Steams, 1998;VanSledright,1997.) Mackthoughtthepurposeof
doing researchwas to get studentsto learnsomethingwell the first time so that
theywouldnot have "to learn t againandagain."Mack also addedthat whatone
learnedfrom doing researchcould be used to help his own children,a purposecitedby TerriandMackhimself in the earlier nterviews.
The responsesby students n both classes tended to be more elaborate n the
year-end nterviews.Derson's students endedto reflecther stresson developingandhoningtheirresearch kills. Costello'sstudentsweremoreaptto registerava-
rietyof responses,manyof whichtheyclaimedweredevelopedontheirownwith-
out reference to anything Costello had done. Only Shana said much about
obtaining mprovedresearchknowledge.
Attitudes about doing research at year's end. In theyear-end nterviews,
fourofDerson's six students Andy,Steve,Terri,andStella)reportedhat heyliked
doing research n social studies. These four concurred hat it was because they
thought hatDersonhad madeit fun and nteresting ndthat heyenjoyed hetopicsthatshehelped hemselect. Jasonreiteratedhatheactuallydidnot caremuchforso-
cial-studies esearchbecausehe lacked nterestnthetopics.Karenwas ambivalent.
Shesaid,"sometimes, like it. Iwasjuststuckat first.I didn'treallycareforit then,
but whenwe startedt, we learnedmorethingsabout t, thenI liked it."
Costello's five students Ginahadmovedaway)all indicated hat heylikeddo-ing research in social studies. Zani, Shana, and Joel enjoyed it because they
thought t was fun. Like Karen n Derson'sclass, Mackwas ambivalent, hinking
that,whereas he likeddoing historyresearch,he was not very good at it. He also
thought hathisexperiencewithit in fourthgradehelpedhim to improve.John, ni-
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DEVELOPMENTNHISTORICALTUDY 277
tiallypositiveaboutt, said hathedidworryaboutgetting"untrue"nformationand hathefeltunsure boutwhathe coulddoto resolve t.Inaratherncisiveanal-
ysis,hesaidat onepoint:
I likelearning ew stuffbutI don't ikefindingt, looking or t.Well, t is
pretty eathow, n thepast, herewereallthesewarsandyouwishyoucouldhavebeen neveryoneofthem-you could eealltheanimals,he andscape,likeeverything,utyoucan'tdo hatanymore. oucanonlyread boutt anditmightnot be true.Becausepeopleback here, heyonlyhadnoteswherenotescouldbelying.From ikethepeoplewhowereback hen, heykepton
passingdownnotesormaybe dairy, nd heykeptonpassinghemdown otheir hildrennd tfinallygotto thisauthor ndhe didabook,but hediarymightnotbe true.WhatamI supposedo dowith hat?
John'sworrys the sameonefacinghistorians ndothernquirersntothepast,aconcern eggedbytheprocess f doinghistorical esearchngeneral ndonenotaddressedystematicallyyeither eacher.ohnwas heonlystudentoarticulatet
clearly, lthoughason romDerson's lasshinted tit severalimes.
Viewofselfas researcher tyear'send. Generallypeaking, erson'sstudentseportedelieving heyhadbecomemoreeffectiveas researcherscrosstheyear.Several eportedaining onsiderableenefits nderDerson'sutelage,tribute o herconcerted fforts.Here s asample f herstudents'esponses:
Andy: Igotkindof better t t. Iaskedmorenterestinguestions.thinkmyreports rea littlebitbetter oo.
Karen: I thinkhat learned lot.Likeat hebeginningftheyear wasn't e-
allysurehow o lookupthings. twasmoredifficult tthebeginningof theyearandnow t isreally asy,because had o writenotes,anIhad o lookup things,ike ookingntheindex, ookingosee whatkindof stuffwasinthebook.
Steve: I think amamuchbetter esearcherhan wasbefore.Because t he
beginningf theyear twould akemealong ime ofindwhat nfor-mation am ookingorbutnowIcanfind treal astand henwritedownwhat s importantndwhat s not.
Terri: I think 'ma littlebetterbecause .. shetaught s how to research
stuff, ikeshe aught s how otakenotesand o writedownwherewegotthem ncaseweneeded o lookback ormore.
Costello's tudents lsoreportedhinkinghat heyweregoodresearchers.ow-
ever,unlikeDerson's tudents,heydidnotattributenysuccesseso Costello er-
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278 VANSLEDRIGHTAND FRANKES
self.BecauseCostellousedresearch ctivities sapedagogicalpproachnddidnotstress tsbenefits r
procedurespecificallyrregularly,
tudents' iewsproba-bly aremoreattributableo theirown experientialnddevelopmentalrowth
across heschoolyear.Hereareseveral esponsesromCostello's tudents:
Shana:Well, amapretty oodresearcher. hen ouare esearchinghings,youcan'tcopyexactlydownwhatyousaw.Youhave o takeout hemost mportanthingsand henrewritet inyourownwords.
Joel: Ithink ampretty oodbecause knowwhere o lookupstuffand v-
erything.know heencyclopediasndeverythingnd heyalways
havestuffabout tuffI'mlookingup.I'mgoodat likewriting ro-jectsabout tuff-like stories. 'magoodreaderoo.
John: Ithink ampretty ood.Well,even houghMs. Costelloellsyoutolookupstuff, goahead nddo t and find herighthing. don'task
anyoneo do it forme,butI askpeople ohelpme.AndI mixstuffaround.Like ... whenthePilgrimscameover, if you took andcom-
pared tuff rom hepast onow,you'dknowhow twouldbe.
Mack: Um,I'mgoodatlookingupthingsandputtinghemonpaper. am
notgoodatmakingt intoaprojectikethat; can'tput t together
verywell.
Zaniwas heonlystudentrom ither lasswhosaid hat hewasapoor esearcher.Shedescribederself s"terrible,"ecause,hesaid, he"messedhewhole hingup,"andwasunableopull nformationogetherntoa coherenteport rstory. nthewakeof hercomments, e reexaminedhestoryZaniwrote orCostello s the
culminatingctivityor heNativeAmericannitand oundttobe as coherentndwellwritten smostof theother ourth raders'tories.n his ight, t isdifficultomake enseof herself-assessment.
Overall,heself-assessmentsfDerson'sstudentswere mbuedwithagreatersenseofconfidencehan hoseofCostello's, resulthoped orbyDersonhroughherefforts tdevelopingtrategicourth rade esearchnthusiasts. owever,tis
importantonote hatmostof Costello's tudents lsodisplayed degree f confi-dence nthemselves orne utbyresearchxperiencetself.A few students crossbothclassesdidcontinue o evince omeself-doubte.g.,Zani)or toquestionhe
efficacyof doingresearche.g.,Jason, ohn).
DISCUSSION
Theresults uggesthat hedifferencesetweenheclassrooms ithrespecto the
ways heteachersaughtheunitswereratherizable ndapparent,consequenceofthedifferencesnthe eachers' oalstructuresndemphases.However,hedif-
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DEVELOPMENT N HISTORICALSTUDY 279
ferenceseportedythesix studentsrom achclassroomegardingoncept evel-
opment, trategic nowledge ain,andattitudinal
rowthweremoresubtle.This
suggestshatDerson's pproach as somewhatuccessfulnhelping tudents e-
velop nitialknowledgefa numberfanthropologicallyased oregroundistori-calconcepts, ain trategic nowledgebout esearchractices,nd eeresearcht-self and hemselves sresearchersnapositive ight.Derson's ttemptsointegratelanguage rts-strategiesndreading racticeswith hestudyofhistory aid airlygooddividends.However,heresultsalsoindicate hat heteaching racticesnCostello's lassroomromotedomegains nconceptualnd trategicnowledgeand nattitudes bout esearch.
Having aid his, t is importantoobservehat tudentsnbothclassesobtainedlittle n thewayofinitialunderstandingsfbackgroundoncepts, ndparticularly,about trategiesordealingwithsomeof themwhen heyarose.This s ironicbe-causeDersonmentionedt onepoint hatherstudentswereaskingherhow tore-solve discrepanciesn the datatheywereresearchingndcollecting see hercommentarlier),ndJohn,romCostello'slass,was roubledbyavingoengagein aresearchrocesswherein e lacked ffective trategiesorunderstandinghattodowhenhe couldnot rust issources. ohn's esolution: ave omeoneustgivehimthe facts.This s hardly sought-afterolutionnthecontext f activities e-
signed-at leastimplicitly-to give studentsmoreresponsibilityor theirownlearning ndstimulateheir esearchnterests ndoverall eadingngagement.
Although arton1996, 1997) eportedhat oung tudentsestudiedn north-ernKentuckyendedo oversimplify ackgroundoncepts uchas evidenceand
knowledgelaimsnhistory,hismaybea function f whatandhowstudents ere
taught.twouldappearhat,fyoung tudents reasked oengagena formofhis-torical esearch,hen twouldbenefit hem odevelopwaysof thinkingarefullyabout henature fevidence,vidence-useules, eliabilityndvalidity fsources,and trategiese.g.,howto readexts,assess ources,udgebias).Suchknowledge
couldhelp hemunderstandndperhapsesolve he ssues hat hesebackgroundconcepts nd heactofresearchingaise.This dea s tightlybound p n Bruner's
(1960)notionof teachingubjectmatternintellectuallyonestways.Intheir tudyof fifthgraders, anSledrightndKelly 1998) oundhat everal
of themoreablereaderswerecapable f assessingbias nhistoryextsandwere
beginningo build"situation odels" ogauge herelative rustworthinessf two
conflicting ccounts f the BostonMassacre. ecausehistorical ataareso slip-pery, ragmented,ndoftenelusive, ituationmodelsareuseful ools nquirersan
deploywhen heyconsultavariety f sourcesntheir esearch ork.Skilledhis-
torical nquirers ften use the disparatenformationheycollect aboutpeople,events,andchoicesmade o construct ifferent ossiblementalmodelsof how
thingscouldhavehappened istorically.With a healthydegreeof skepticism,theseresearchersssess hesources neagainst nothernan effort ohone heirmodels.Theyalso work rompriorknowledge f thequality f differentypesof
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280 VANSLEDRIGHTAND FRANKES
sources,henature fauthors'rames freference,nd he rustworthinessf theirclaims
Wineburg,991).Now fourthgraders renot fifthgraders, ndtheydo notpossessthepriorknowledge f theexperts.However,t doesmake ense o borrowromwhatweknowof theexpertiseoassistyoungearnersnmovingromnovitiateothought-fuland killed, speciallyf theseyoung earners rebeingasked oengagenac-tivities hat equire eveloping onceptualnd trategicnowledge. hisdoesnotmean hatwewould xpect ourth-gradeesearchersodisplayullresearchxper-tise at theendof fourth rade.Rather,hese tudents ould eceivenitial pportu-nities o meet heseconcepts ndstrategiesnd earnhowtheymightwork,nthe
context f theirourth-gradeesearchractice. fterall,asDerson ndJohnnoted,the issues hatgiverise to theconcepts ndstrategieslready representn,and
pressing n,their eaching-learningnvironments.Itisencouraginghat ome ifthgradersohaveanemergingenseof situation
modeling,uthorias,and trategiesorworkingwith hemVanSledrightKelly,1998).Apparentlyuch orms fcognition renotnecessarilyeyondhereach f
fifthgraders. herefore,t would eem hat ourthradersmight rofitablye ntro-
duced o theseconcepts ndstrategiess well. As apotentialesult, tudentsike
Johnmightbe lessquick o fretaboutwhat odo withsources hat heyareunsure
about ow otrust, referringnsteadobespooned he acts,and elinquishinghethinhold heyhaveon theresponsibilityheyexercise ortheirown earning.
Onewayto assiststudents uchas Johnand he ones towhichDerson eferswouldbe to constructessons around xplicitlyconflicting istorical ccounts
(e.g.,atextbookxposition nda historicalictionnarrativereatmentn,forex-
ample, neventcovered n a unit obestudied). hesemightbe read arefully ystudents,erhaps rallynturns.The eacher ould acilitate conversationboutthenature f thetextual onflicts, sking tudentso describewhichaccountheythoughtwasmore rustworthyndwhy.This, nturn,wouldopenadoorwaynto
a variety f backgroundoncepts, ffectivelybringinghem ntotheeducationalforeground.hequestionouldbeposed:So whatdo wedo with hissortofthingifwe encountertin ourresearchctivities? heclasscould ake imeandexplorepossible trategiess solutions.Talkcould urn oconstructingituationmodels,
trying o imaginehowthe details ittogethernthe contextof thepast.Abstract
conceptualerminologysed nprofessionalistoricalirclesneednotevenbe de-
scribed nddefined,butthe ideasand ssuesaroundwhich heycohere ouldbe
thesubstance f whatstudentsearned.These ypesof lessonsmightbe strategi-
callyplacedacross he schoolyear n social-studies nits n whichstudentswere
asked o do historical esearch.Armedwithdeeper,morerobust onceptualndstrategicunderstandings,tudents-evenyoungones we wouldthink-could
learn o become venmoreengaged eadersndeffectiveandseasonedesearch-
ers and hinkers s a result.
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DEVELOPMENT N HISTORICALSTUDY 281
However, there is a rub.Elementary chool teachersarethoughtto be subjectmatter
generalists.As
such,manyoften
possess relativelythin
understandingsf
the disciplinary knowledge they are called on to teach. Neither Derson nor
Costelloarticulated he sort of depthof conceptualandstrategicknowledgeneces-
saryto offer theirstudents heintellectuallyhonest versionof historicalstudythat
Bruner (1960) described and that is suggested in the foregoing discussion.
Teachinga subjectmattersuch as history,with its rich,deep,and fluidconceptualandsyntacticalstructures, laces significantknowledgedemandsonteachers,par-ticularelementary eacherswho are introducing he subjectto novices who mayneed special assistancemakingsense of it. Add to that the emerging practiceof
weddingseveralaspectsof the curriculumogether ntoanintegrativewhole, andthe knowledgedemandson teachersonly increase.
Currently,most elementary eachersare asked to takeonly a smatteringof dis-
ciplinarybackground oursesaspreparationo teachthem.By most state icensure
provisions,elementary eacherscancompletean academicmajor n education,be-
cominglicensedteacherswithoutattaining he equivalenceof amajor n anysub-
ject theymight actually each(unless,perhaps,one thinksof"reading"asa subject
matter).Becausemoststates' certification equirements llow for thispractice,el-
ementary eachersaretypicallyundeipreparedo teachsuchsubjectsasmathemat-
ics, naturalscience, and historyand social studies. As a result,they are seldomfullyequipped o providetheirstudentswithmuchmore thana lighttreatment f a
subjectsuch as history.To theircredit,DersonandCostello offered more. How-
ever, they areveteranteacherswho haveyearsof teaching experience.Yet, their
studentsstill did not develop much richknowledge of key backgroundconceptsbecause both teachers created few explicit classroom opportunities or dealingwith them.Add to this thecomplexityof teachingsuchconceptsin the contextof
the typicallytruncated ime framesteachersreportenduringwhen it comes to the
historyandsocial-studiescurriculum, ndyouhavearecipeforsuperficialknowl-
edge development.If young studentsare to develop deeperunderstandings f the disciplinesthey
studyas preparationormorecomplex efforts lateron, they will need opportuni-ties to explore the full rangeof conceptualand strategic andscapes n historical
study.This will place increasingsubjectmatterknowledgedemandson elemen-
taryteachers,who will be pressedto become much moreknowledgeable.There-
fore,teachereducationand certificationpracticesalongwithongoing professional
developmentprogramswill need to change nways thatallow teachers o dealwith
the knowledge demands that developing those deeper understandings equire.
However,suchprograms ikely will be more ambitiousandtimeintensive andde-mandadditionalresources.At present,few policymakersappearpoised to supplythose resources,particularlyn lightof impending eachershortages.Therein ies
perhapsa moreimportant ub.
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282 VANSLEDRIGHTAND FRANKES
CONCLUSIONS
ThegrowthnDerson's tudents'ocial tudies oncept nowledge,nd speciallytheir trategicnowledge,uggests romiseor uture fforts obring eading,an-
guage rts, nd onceptualomainsuchashistoryogethernan ntegratedurricu-lum.Because achofthese ubjectmattersmore r essrelieson heothersoreithersubstancerprocedure,ntegratinghemmakesense.Yet,each oncept-ladenub-
jectmatteruchasbiology, arthcience,history, rgeographyas tsownuniqueand ometimesroblematiconceptualndproceduralerrain,swehave eenwith
respectohistoricalnowledgenthis tudy.Creatingducationallyobustearning
opportunitiesorchildrenhatare ntellectuallyonestBruner, 960)willrequiretakingheseunique spects ftheconcept-ladenubjectmatterseriously. ecauseoftheslipperynd ndeterminateaturefhistoricalnowledge,tsheavydepend-enceoninterpretation,nd hebackgroundonceptualssues o which heformer
giverise,areading-languagerts-historyntegration,herefore,ouldneed opro-ceeddifferentlyntheclassroomhan ne nvolving discipline itha muchighter
concept-generalization-principle-lawtructuree.g., plant cience)as the central
substantive-knowledgeomain. erhaps ostmportantly,hat re eferredohere
asbackgroundoncepts, nd heuniquetrategiesordealingwith hem nhistory,
wouldneed obeforegroundedor tudentsnorderoclaimhat he ntegrationasrepresentingnd eaching istorynanintellectuallyonestway.In thisregard,Derson's fforts, articularly,rebeginningopoint nausefuldirectionuthave
somedifficultndbumpy isciplinary,urricular,ndpedagogicalandscapeset o
traverse.heknowledgeemandshatmovingnthisdirectionmakenboth ovice
andseasonedeacherss onlythe eastof these.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thisworkwassponsoredy theNationalReadingResearchCenter,whichwasfunded ytheU.S.Departmentf Education, fficeof Educationalesearchnd
ImprovementPR/Award 17A20007). heviewsexpressedn thisarticle onot
necessarilyeflect heposition, olicy,orendorsementftheagency.We hank oth
teachersortheirlwayshelpful ndkindparticipationn heresearchprocesses,nd
wealso hankPeteree or nsightfulommentsnanearlier raft fthisarticle.
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