Changing Secondary Teachers' Views of Teaching American History.

CHANGING TEACHING PRACTICES in secondary history classrooms requires teachers to first change their attitudes and views towards teaching history. This was a key finding that emerged from the analysis of changes that took place in the teachers' classrooms during the course of our Teaching American History grant project that was successful in changing teachers' views and attitudes. What follows is a summary of the teachers' practices, ideas, and attitudes about teaching history before participating in the program, the professional development activities that took place with the goal of changing these attitudes and practices, and a summary of the new ideas and practices that were documented after the program. Key curriculum elements in the program that are believed to have produced the most significant changes in attitudes and classroom instruction will be highlighted. The principle partners in this three-year professional development program were: Waukegan, IL District #60, a high-need school district; Lake Forest College; and the Chicago Historical Society (now the Chicago History Museum). At the outset we established goals not only to improve teachers' knowledge, understanding, and teaching strategies, but also to improve their appreciation ofAmerican history. We assigned a program that would, at the end of the three years, enable our participants to demonstrate The History Teacher Volume 40 Number 2 February 2007 C Society for History Education