Teaching World History as Mystery

By: Jack Zevin and David Gerwin

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Synopsis: Offering a philosophy, methodology, and examples for history instruction that are active, imaginative, and provocative, this text presents a fully developed pedagogy based on problem-solving methods that promote reasoning and judgment and restore a sense of imagination and participation to classroom learning. It is designed to draw readers into the detective process that characterizes the work of professional historians and social scientists ? sharing raw data, defining terms, building interpretations, and testing competing theories. An inquiry framework drives both the pedagogy and the choice of historical materials, with selections favoring the unsolved, controversial, and fragmented rather than the neatly wrapped up analysis of past events. Teaching World History as Mystery: Provides a balanced combination of interestingly arranged historical content, and clearly explained instructional strategies Features case studies of commonly and not so commonly taught topics within a typical world/global history curriculum using combinations of primary and secondary documents Discusses ways of dealing with ethical and moral issues in world history classrooms, drawing students into persisting questions of historical truth, bias, and judgment