spinning world
    Web-supported World History Course
    Presentation Index

    Bob Bain
    University of Michigan


          History students need more than access to primary sources, archives and museums to effectively learn history. If they are going to develop the complex habits of historical thinking, students also need assistance in framing historical problems, locating appropriate sources, reading and analyzing evidence, building argument, developing explanation and presenting their understanding to others.  In 1997-98, I developed a web-site to support students' historical thinking in a high school world history course. (background on this project). Two design principles guided this work: First, I tried to make all the historical thinking visible to students.  Second,  on each page I used scaffolds to help students perform beyond their unassisted capacity.  In other words, the site mediated and supported students' use of the available historical materials. For more information on my work, see Bain, Into The Breach. 

    Below are examples of key features of this site.

    Key Features

    Graphic  Organizers 

    Students often are lost in the detail of a history course.  The graphic features of the site helped students organize:

      the course

       historical problems

       central instructional questions

       calendars and assignments

    Dynamic Archive 

    The site  provided an archive for all course material including:

      primary sources

       journal prompts

       overheads and handouts

       daily class agendas

       instructional guides

    Embedded Scaffolding

    All primary sources "sat" within a frame that supported students' analysis of text.  The frame provided students with layers of support as the example below demonstrates:

      Example:   A Primary Source Reading

    Extended Conversations

    The web enabled students to extend their conversations with peers through email discussion groups and opportunities to represent understanding:  

       Example: Index of Email Conference

      Example: Mali Representations

    For more on the design features of the course and approach to teaching see Robert B. Bain."Into the Breach: Using Research and Theory to Shape History Instruction." In Knowing, Teaching & Learning History: National and International Perspectives, ed. Peter Stearns, Peter Seixas and Samuel Wineburg, 331-353. New York: New York University Press, 2000.