Integrating historic site-based laboratories into pre-service teacher education

• Historic site-based laboratory work should be an essential part of the preparation of pre-service teachers.
• Integrating historic sites into teacher education programs does not require significant outside funding or massive program overhauls.
• Provides models for integrating history laboratory work into existing teacher education program structures.

In order to change the perception of history as collection facts, historians and history educators must countermand pre-service history teachers׳ experience with and perception of historians as mere transmitters of knowledge. To do this, historians and history educators must provide pre-service history teachers׳ opportunities to work alongside historians in the field as a regular feature of their preparation programs. This exposure not only changes the pre-service teachers׳ perceptions of the work of history practitioners and provides deeper understanding of the construction of history, but also enables future teachers to expand their use of site-based learning in their classrooms. Rather than advocating the development of entirely new programs, the authors outline two models, based on the history education programs at Temple University and Boston University, for integrating historic site-based laboratory work into the existing structures of teacher education programs.