Using inquiry-based instruction to encourage teachers' historical thinking at historic sites

• Conducted pre-post think-aloud protocols at two historic sites.
• Intervention was guided inquiry of documents drawn from site.
• Protocols assessed against heuristics for historical thinking at historic sites.
• Significant improvement in historical problem solving and broader curiosity about the site.
• No correlation to experience or intervention structure suggests broad applicability.

This study explores the use of inquiry-based instruction for constructing historical understanding in historic site-based teacher professional development programs. In an historic site-based professional development workshop, fifteen teachers of grades 5 through 12 engaged in guided inquiry with documents drawn from said historic site. Participants showed significantly increased curiosity about the site and use of problem-solving strategies in interactions with the site and staff, but no improvement in other elements related to historical thinking at historic sites. Improvements correlated to neither length of teaching experience nor testing group characteristics, indicating broad applicability for improving historic site-based professional development programs.