Problem-Based Historical Inquiry Page
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Participants and SettingParticipants included 45 students in two 11th grade history classes. The classes were required of all high school students. Two veteran social studies teachers with experience in problem-based historical inquiry were recruited to implement the problem-based unit in their classrooms. The classes occurred in different high schools. One high school was located in a small blue-collar city in the southeastern United States. The second high school was located in a small southeastern city that is home to a land-grant university. The Decision Point! Multimedia EnvironmentDecision Point! (DP) Civil Rights is an integrated set of multimedia tools for exploring and presenting social studies content, and a problem-based unit for using these resources (Brush & Saye, 2004). DP includes two basic components: an interactive database of multimedia content resources related to the civil rights movement and scaffolding tools to support collecting, analyzing, and evaluating historical evidence and presenting conclusions. The database is organized conceptually into three strands that represent the principal change strategies employed by the movement: legal challenges, non-violent protest, and Black Power. Within each strand are seven to eight events associated with that strategy. Each event features an introductory essay, a timeline, and a number of associated documents. Featured documents include primary and secondary text, images, audio, and audiovisual media (see Figure 1). Figure 1. The DP environment. 
Our unit scenario placed students in the roles of consultants to civil rights leaders immediately following the assassination of M. L. King, Jr. in 1968. Student teams answered the unit problem: What strategies should be pursued in 1968 to continue the struggle for a more just, equal society? Each team used the DP database and tools to explore specific movement events from 1954-1968. After researching their assigned events, members of the research teams re-formed into new decision-making teams and used the information they gathered to develop arguments to support the best course of action to address the central unit problem. Each group then constructed a multimedia presentation designed to persuade the audience that their solution to the problems was the most appropriate. Scaffolds embedded in DP. Within the DP environment, we embedded a variety of scaffolds to assist students in determining what data to consider when solving a problem, monitoring and regulating their progress, and considering alternative solutions to the unit problem (Brush & Saye, 2001). These scaffolds are described below: Interactive essays. Each of the events within the DP database contains a hyperlinked “interactive” essay that provides students with a conceptual scaffold for that event (Hannafin et al., 1999). To extend the integration of the interactive essay with the other documents in the database, hyperlinks are embedded in the essay linking specific contextual areas of the essay with specific primary documents. Student guides. The “guides” section of the student notebook offers a conceptual scaffold by providing data analysis categories similar to those that an historian might use to organize and synthesize evidence about an event (see Figure 2). Figure 2. Guides section of the student notebook. 
Storyboard template. We developed a storyboarding process to assist students with planning the scope and sequence of their presentations. Groups used a five-page template that corresponded to the sequence they were expected to follow in developing and delivering their presentations (see Figure 3). This sequence included a description of the group they were representing, an overview of the problem, a summary of the proposed strategy to solve the problem, a list of arguments for the strategy, and a list of arguments against the strategy. Figure 3. Sample storyboard template. 
Design and Data SourcesOur research can best be described as a design experiment. Design experiments view innovative teaching as an experiments occurring in the” multiply confounded” world of real classrooms rather than controlled environments (Brown, 1992). From this perspective, innovative educational environments and activities may be simultaneously designed, implemented, and studied. For this study, data sources included classroom observations, teacher and student interviews, and examination of culminating student presentations and the class discussions that took place after the culminating presentations. Classroom observations. All classroom activities were observed and videotaped in the two classes. Observations focused on student interactions with the technology and embedded scaffolds, student questions/discussions with the teacher and their peers, and students’ management strategies for completing the problem-based unit. Student interviews. Six students from each class were selected from a pool of volunteers. Selection criteria attempted to maximize diversity in gender, ethnicity, and course GPA. These students participated in 30 minute interviews conducted by the researchers. Interviews were audiotaped and transcribed. Questions solicited students’ evaluations of the strengths and weaknesses of the DP unit activities, scaffolds, and the ways the activities and scaffolds affected their learning. Teacher interviews. Participating teachers also took part in post-unit semi-structured interviews. The interview sought their perceptions about the strengths and weaknesses of the unit and any effects that the changes had on student learning and the classroom environment. Each teacher interview lasted approximately 45 minutes and was audiotaped and transcribed. Student presentations. Culminating multimedia presentations for each student group were videotaped and examined for depth and quality of reasoning about the unit problem. Researchers examined the extent to which student groups were able to use historical evidence to make persuasive arguments regarding the central unit question from the perspective of the organization they were representing. |