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Future-Focused History Teaching: Restoring the Power of Historical Learning
Do you want students to leave your history class with knowledge useful for living their lives? Then we need to stop teaching isolated facts from the past and start teaching knowledge relevant to the future.
Former journalist and history teacher Mike Maxwell embarked on a seven-year journey to discover how history education could be made more useful to students and society. He asked the tough questions that few others were asking: How useful is history education as presently taught? Why does history occupy an inferior position in the schools relative to other fundamental realms of knowledge such as mathematics, language, and science? Why do students score much worse in history than in other core subjects on national assessments of student learning? And most important, why does our society find it so difficult to learn from history?
The result of his investigation is future-focused history, the commonsense idea that knowledge from the past can inform judgment in the future. Maxwell writes, "Any society that has developed the capacity to destroy most life on earth needs all the good judgment it can get, and there is no better place to seek it than in the long record of human experience."
FUNDAMENTALS OF FUTURE-FOCUSED HISTORY TEACHING INCLUDE
Five basic principles of history education, A coherent and useful purpose to guide instruction, Four kinds of historical knowledge relevant to the future, Criteria for weighing the importance of historical events, Four essential cognitive learning strategies. Maxwell believes that Future-Focused History Teaching has the potential to restore to historical learning the power that it once held but has since lost; to return history to its rightful place of prominence among the fundamental realms of knowledge taught in school and college; and to provide important knowledge of how the world works that can help students and society to function effectively in the future.
Former journalist and history teacher Mike Maxwell embarked on a seven-year journey to discover how history education could be made more useful to students and society. He asked the tough questions that few others were asking: How useful is history education as presently taught? Why does history occupy an inferior position in the schools relative to other fundamental realms of knowledge such as mathematics, language, and science? Why do students score much worse in history than in other core subjects on national assessments of student learning? And most important, why does our society find it so difficult to learn from history?
The result of his investigation is future-focused history, the commonsense idea that knowledge from the past can inform judgment in the future. Maxwell writes, "Any society that has developed the capacity to destroy most life on earth needs all the good judgment it can get, and there is no better place to seek it than in the long record of human experience."
FUNDAMENTALS OF FUTURE-FOCUSED HISTORY TEACHING INCLUDE
Five basic principles of history education, A coherent and useful purpose to guide instruction, Four kinds of historical knowledge relevant to the future, Criteria for weighing the importance of historical events, Four essential cognitive learning strategies. Maxwell believes that Future-Focused History Teaching has the potential to restore to historical learning the power that it once held but has since lost; to return history to its rightful place of prominence among the fundamental realms of knowledge taught in school and college; and to provide important knowledge of how the world works that can help students and society to function effectively in the future.
256 pages, Hardcover
Published July 28, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 14, 2022
First, I want to say parts of this book are fantastic. Maxwell’s criticism of the test focused mass memorization that dominates history teaching in the US, especially that focused on the leviathan AP World History exam is excellent. He also has an excellent section discussing ways teachers can design history classes that focus on general principles and ways to teach students to use historical knowledge to see patterns and judge contemporary actions is excellent.
So, what is my problem with this book? Mainly that Maxwell manages to avoid the kind of rigorous logical thinking that would back up his salient points. First, he argues that “Unlike other intellectual disciplines and most productive human endeavors, history does not officially recognize general principles derived from its subject matter.” There has been longstanding debate among historians about what those principles are but they definitely are an important part of historical discussions. This leads to my second criticism. Maxwell criticizes techniques that he later endorses. For example, in his own list of “general principles” he states “comparing multiple sources that hold different opinions is a good way to approach the truth.” And yet, earlier, he has stated that he disagrees with academics who feel history instruction can be useful if it teaches students to “think like historians”. And yet, this is exactly what historians frequently do. So, great practical stuff but Maxwell’s own understanding of what history education has been in the past is ironically limited in a way that limits his own ability to cite precedent.
So, what is my problem with this book? Mainly that Maxwell manages to avoid the kind of rigorous logical thinking that would back up his salient points. First, he argues that “Unlike other intellectual disciplines and most productive human endeavors, history does not officially recognize general principles derived from its subject matter.” There has been longstanding debate among historians about what those principles are but they definitely are an important part of historical discussions. This leads to my second criticism. Maxwell criticizes techniques that he later endorses. For example, in his own list of “general principles” he states “comparing multiple sources that hold different opinions is a good way to approach the truth.” And yet, earlier, he has stated that he disagrees with academics who feel history instruction can be useful if it teaches students to “think like historians”. And yet, this is exactly what historians frequently do. So, great practical stuff but Maxwell’s own understanding of what history education has been in the past is ironically limited in a way that limits his own ability to cite precedent.
June 19, 2020
Why?
An education book on the author's teaching philosophy.
What I thought?
It was a good read, and I agree with most of Maxwell's points. In essence, he argues that history teachers are tasked with teaching too much material to get our students to see and understand the importance of history, and this deprives students the ability to use history as a way of understanding the world, and make informed predictions based on historical truths. This book is highly critical of what happens in many classrooms, as well as AP History courses which are an inch thick and a mile long in terms of depth and amount of content.
I wish I had read this after a few years of teaching, at the beginning of my career, instead of now, almost 20 years into my career as a teacher. I have come to many of the same conclusions myself, and it was great to have my own thoughts and biases confirmed by Maxwell. He does offer solutions and resources for those who agree with his philosophy of history education.
I would really recommend this book to teachers at the beginning of their careers, as well as teachers who feel stuck and frustrated by their own methodologies.
An education book on the author's teaching philosophy.
What I thought?
It was a good read, and I agree with most of Maxwell's points. In essence, he argues that history teachers are tasked with teaching too much material to get our students to see and understand the importance of history, and this deprives students the ability to use history as a way of understanding the world, and make informed predictions based on historical truths. This book is highly critical of what happens in many classrooms, as well as AP History courses which are an inch thick and a mile long in terms of depth and amount of content.
I wish I had read this after a few years of teaching, at the beginning of my career, instead of now, almost 20 years into my career as a teacher. I have come to many of the same conclusions myself, and it was great to have my own thoughts and biases confirmed by Maxwell. He does offer solutions and resources for those who agree with his philosophy of history education.
I would really recommend this book to teachers at the beginning of their careers, as well as teachers who feel stuck and frustrated by their own methodologies.
September 25, 2018
"Education exists to impart important knowledge of the world that can help students and society function effectively in the future."
This book, written by heroic, grizzled history teaching veteran (not some guy hopelessly out of touch in an ivory tower) Mike Maxwell, was the best book about history education I have come across in a long time. His ideas need to spread immediately.
As a fellow world history teacher who takes his job extremely seriously, I could not agree with Maxwell more about the importance of imparting (and clearly defining) history's wisdom, the importance of assigning weight to certain topics, the importance to teach students situational awareness, and more. Also, we are in total agreement that history's "standards" (state standards, AP standards, etc.) are hopelessly convoluted and unrealistic to cover pacing-wise. Our schools make colossal mistakes in history: many districts/schools race through history too fast, omit history entirely, replace history with quasi-history classes like the Big History Project, or teach Common Core-obsessed, literacy skill-based "history". I hope that school districts and history teachers all over the country read this book and re-discover the importance of historical wisdom.
If we don't, we risk continuing down the current path of overrated "skill building", byzantine standards, and a negligence of building an educated citizenry. Thank you, Mr. Maxwell and I will do my best help.
This book, written by heroic, grizzled history teaching veteran (not some guy hopelessly out of touch in an ivory tower) Mike Maxwell, was the best book about history education I have come across in a long time. His ideas need to spread immediately.
As a fellow world history teacher who takes his job extremely seriously, I could not agree with Maxwell more about the importance of imparting (and clearly defining) history's wisdom, the importance of assigning weight to certain topics, the importance to teach students situational awareness, and more. Also, we are in total agreement that history's "standards" (state standards, AP standards, etc.) are hopelessly convoluted and unrealistic to cover pacing-wise. Our schools make colossal mistakes in history: many districts/schools race through history too fast, omit history entirely, replace history with quasi-history classes like the Big History Project, or teach Common Core-obsessed, literacy skill-based "history". I hope that school districts and history teachers all over the country read this book and re-discover the importance of historical wisdom.
If we don't, we risk continuing down the current path of overrated "skill building", byzantine standards, and a negligence of building an educated citizenry. Thank you, Mr. Maxwell and I will do my best help.
September 9, 2018
If you've ever looked around your history class and thought to yourself, "Man, I have got to make this more interesting," but you weren't really sure how, this is the right book for you. The book begins by establishing the ways in which we disparage history class in comparison to other subjects, and goes on to explain why history is such a challenging subject to make sense of for students. The caution is that we tend to shrink history into a disconnected, meaningless string of names and dates, with little applicability to the future. Maxwell argues that the reason history class doesn't "stick" is that it fails to supply principles for future learning; that this is how history is different from other core subjects.
The book delves thoroughly into problems with world history, American history, and AP courses, and begins to connect historical events into the four needed threads for history teaching to be successful: a timeline, narrative exposition, principles of historical learning, and connections to general principles. The idea is that we can take a general principle of history, trace it through numerous supporting events, and use that general principle to hypothesize the outcome of future events with similar characteristics.
I loved this book, because teaching history this way fits into the way my brain works exactly. I need a "big idea" to hang things from, and the general principles do just that. I believe this book has the potential to make history much more meaningful for students. I chose four stars rather than five as I was thinking about how others might use this book.
Maxwell makes it very clear that the way we are currently teaching history is problematic, and offers a solution. However, comparatively speaking, there is much more time spent on the problem than on the solution. This works for me, because I really like that the solution is given, but not step-by-step spelled out. It is left up to the reader to figure out how this approach can work in their classroom. I realize that there is an audience who would prefer to have more specific information as to how to implement this program. I like to get the big idea, and figure out the steps to get there for myself. I suspect that the author may also be this kind of teacher as well, because that is certainly how this book is laid out.
TL;DR: A great resource for history teachers who don't want to be boring but don't need a step-by-step manual.
The book delves thoroughly into problems with world history, American history, and AP courses, and begins to connect historical events into the four needed threads for history teaching to be successful: a timeline, narrative exposition, principles of historical learning, and connections to general principles. The idea is that we can take a general principle of history, trace it through numerous supporting events, and use that general principle to hypothesize the outcome of future events with similar characteristics.
I loved this book, because teaching history this way fits into the way my brain works exactly. I need a "big idea" to hang things from, and the general principles do just that. I believe this book has the potential to make history much more meaningful for students. I chose four stars rather than five as I was thinking about how others might use this book.
Maxwell makes it very clear that the way we are currently teaching history is problematic, and offers a solution. However, comparatively speaking, there is much more time spent on the problem than on the solution. This works for me, because I really like that the solution is given, but not step-by-step spelled out. It is left up to the reader to figure out how this approach can work in their classroom. I realize that there is an audience who would prefer to have more specific information as to how to implement this program. I like to get the big idea, and figure out the steps to get there for myself. I suspect that the author may also be this kind of teacher as well, because that is certainly how this book is laid out.
TL;DR: A great resource for history teachers who don't want to be boring but don't need a step-by-step manual.
July 19, 2019
Mr. Maxwell’s study of the wrongs that history education focuses on has been very timely in my career. It comes at a moment when I realize that all I’ve done throughout my three years of teaching (thus far). The discussion and analysis about the errors of the Advanced Placement history classes gives to high school students is only one reason why history is superficially learned (saying that was difficult).
I find Mr. Maxwell’s book comes at a time, also, when the values and importance of learning history is being questioned by many, considering the current political and economic climate of our world.
In all, a good reflective read that gives me a lot to think about as the planning process for the upcoming year begins.
I find Mr. Maxwell’s book comes at a time, also, when the values and importance of learning history is being questioned by many, considering the current political and economic climate of our world.
In all, a good reflective read that gives me a lot to think about as the planning process for the upcoming year begins.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews