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There is no simple formula for any sort of teaching. Good teaching requires solid schooling, extensive practice, and close attention to the needs and character of the student population. Here, however, are a few pointers that are specific to the teaching of world history.
In general, for beginning teachers and for experienced teachers, two of the most basic needs are to keep reading widely in world history and to work collaboratively, sharing experiences with other teachers of world history. Here are some additional points:
Guidelines in preparing for class
Interactions: consider connections among historical situations
Themes: the big problems in ethics, governance, innovation, family relations, and more
Disciplines: explore the knowledge organized into sciences, arts, and social sciences
Chronology: organize time at several levels, from daily to millennial
Scales: link and compare global history to national and area-studies history
Conceptualization: give names to the boundaries and processes in history
Guidelines in the classroom
Lectures: present clear summaries, but know when to stop
Interactive teaching: enable students to process world history while in class
Review: help students link the various parts of the course
Mastery: nobody can know it all, but through study we can become well informed
Debate: encourage students to locate and engage in interpretive debate
Patterns: identify changing patterns at global and local levels
Geography: keep students thinking about place and spatial interaction
Further reading
The World History Network is designed to access hundreds of fine electronic resources for teaching world history. Here are a few resources, electronic and print, with which you can start.
- National Center for History in the Schools, Units in World History
- World History Sources
- World History for Us All [no link yet]
- Ross E. Dunn, ed., The New World History: A Teacheršs Companion (New York: St. Martinšs Press, 2000).
- Patrick Manning, Navigating World History: Historians Create a Global Past (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003).
- Patrick Manning and Deborah Smith Johnston, eds., World History Best Practices (New York: College Board, 2002).
- Heidi Roupp, ed., Teaching World History: A Resource Book (Armonk: M. E. Sharpe, 1996)
- Peter N. Stearns, Meaning over Memory: Recasting the Teaching of Culture and History (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1994)
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