Encouraging historical thinking at historic sites

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Boston UniversityThis study seeks to contribute to our understanding of the problem of effectively encouraging historical thinking by (a) evaluating, and modifying Wineburg's heuristics for historical thinking for applicability to the problem-solving activities historians use at historic sites; (b) establishing the efficacy of a hypermedia-based education program Tories, Timid, or True Blue? at the Old North Church in Boston, Massachusetts, for encouraging historical thinking in middle- and high-school teachers (c) determining the amplifying effect that the combination of the use of multiple documents and the historic site from which they are derived ha on historical thinking. Results suggest that this combination of activities does lead teacher users to reason in ways that suggest more sophisticated historical reasoning. However, considerable attention is paid to the way in which historians and teachers think differently about the historic sites they encounter and how the overlaps therein might be used a the foundation for encouraging effective partnerships between historians and teacher a co-equal partners in improving history education