“I Never Thought About History This Way”: The Development of Elementary Teachers’ Beliefs About History and How a Professional Learning Community Can Influence These

Abstract

AbstractIn this chapter, Potjer et al. describe how elementary teachers participating in a professional development program “Historical reasoning in inquiry-based history lessons” develop more nuanced beliefs about the nature of history. Participants’ beliefs about teaching historical inquiry in grades 3–6 develop accordingly. The teachers identify inquiry activities they worked on during the meetings, group discussions, modeling by the facilitator, searching for historical sources, and designing and teaching inquiry-based lessons as important sources of their professional growth. Besides implications for research and future PD programs, the authors describe ramifications for elementary teacher education.