| The Persistent Issues in History Network receives three-year grant The U.S. Department of Education's Fund to Improve Post-Secondary Education (FIPSE)
has awarded a $550,000 grant to the Persistent Issues in History (PIH) Network
to develop video cases using live footage of teachers and students involved in
problem-based historical inquiry instruction. The PIH Network is a long-term history
and civic education project originating from Auburn University and directed by
Dr. John Saye of Auburn University and Dr. Tom Brush of Indiana University. PIH
has received major funding in the past from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
"The long-term mission of the PIH Network is to change the way history is taught. We want to make it much more hands-on so students will understand history is a tool that helps them make more informed decisions today," Saye said. "If we give history a purpose, students can use their knowledge to make better decisions. One of the best ways to demonstrate PIH teaching techniques is to show teachers live examples so they may see actual lessons teachers' are teaching and see the students at work." PIH Network staff work intensively with classroom teachers, history scholars, and teacher educators to nurture and support problem-based historical inquiry (PBHI) in fifth-12th grade classrooms. PBHI instructional activities seek to develop citizens who can critically weigh evidence and use knowledge generated from sound historical analysis to inform their decisions about essential societal questions as they arise in the past and present. Each PIH unit of study begins with the explicit posing of a persistent societal problem that provides the motivating context for historical inquiry. Unit activities engage students in PBHI to explore the featured problem as it occurs in the particular historical period of study. In the process, students develop foundational knowledge, clarify key concepts, and confront pertinent ethical issues. As a culminating unit activity, students propose problem solutions and defend them with historical evidence. Interactive technology plays a pivotal role in the PIH Network. The PIH Web site
(pihnet.org) offers teachers online professional development, classroom-tested
curriculum materials, and authoring tools for creating their own technology-supported
lessons. Innovative uses of technology provide students with more realistic encounters
with the past and with online support as they engage in the challenging task of
historical thinking.
The FIPSE grant will extend the scope of the PIH Network through the PIH Laboratory for Virtual Field Experience (PIH-LVFE) project. The PIH-LVFE project will develop a database of video cases that feature PBHI lessons in fifth-12th grade history classrooms. Case modules will include supporting resources that enable social studies teachers to use classroom video footage to master the PIH approach to history; lesson plans and materials; commentary by classroom teachers and teacher educators; and online tools that allow users to add questions and responses to specific video segments, discuss teaching practices with peers and mentors, and integrate database resources into university classroom activities. "We do have a number of teachers who have worked with us from the beginning of our project and in the future we will branch out nationally. Right now we are recruiting teacher-partners to help develop curriculum and new PIH models and units," Saye said. He said two of the first teacher-partners to assist with creating some of the video cases are Cory Callahan at Auburn High School and Mac Matthews at Auburn Junior High. "We will have a number of others joining in this first year, including one teacher from Hale County and one from Tallassee." The PIH site now has two fully developed Civil Rights units and a George Washington unit, as well as many lessons plans. In development are units on religious freedom, US history in the 1920s, the Age of European Exploration, and the Cold War. Dr. Tom Brush of Indiana University will function as principal investigator for the PIH-LVFE project and Dr. John Saye of Auburn University will serve as co-principal investigator. The Auburn PIH team, led by Dr. Saye and Dr. Jada Kohlmeier, will recruit classroom teachers and work with them to develop the video case lessons and materials. The Indiana PIH team will develop the on-line interface and tools that will make these cases available to the PIH Network and a national audience of teachers.
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| Last modified on 1/11/05 2:18 PM by Katie Crew |