Session Abstract

How can cooperation between high school teachers and college professors transform curricula? This roundtable brings together two collegiate and two high school teachers determined to foster pedagogical collaboration across the college divide. Our presentations are the product of year-long conversations during which we used evidence from our own classrooms to explore how course design, class activities, and assessments might help our students develop specific historical thinking skills at various levels in their education. Here, we present our initial findings in the form of a blueprint for coordinating history pedagogy from the beginning of high school to the end of college. The roundtable uses this blueprint to start a conversation with a wide range of history teachers, asking what challenges educators face at each level, what common skills we aspire to develop in our courses, and what concrete methods we use to develop those skills. We will focus on two major elements of the history curriculum: analyzing primary sources and critiquing secondary sources. Each presenter will also discuss how they cultivate academic honesty and digital literacy. By facilitating dialogues between high school and college teachers, we will demonstrate how history curricula at all levels can develop critical thinking skills and prepare students for independent research. All materials developed by our roundtable participants will be made available by online for public use.