HTLP Library

The HTLP Library was created to help foster a culture of teaching through an engagement in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in History (SoTL in History), a body of literature that uses theoretical and evidence-based research to examine the discipline-specific problems in the teaching and learning of history. SoTL in History publications differ from the more familiar wisdom-of-practice pieces that describe strategies used in a particular course; these publications are important contributions to history pedagogy, but they are distinct from SoTL in History publications that are driven by evidence and a research inquiry process.

Below is a recommended list of readingsin both the SoTL in History and history pedagogy. PDF versions of the readings are available to the CU-Boulder History Department—faculty, part-time and visiting faculty, and graduate students—on the .

**This is by no means an exhaustive list of readings on the SoTL in History. If you would like to discuss SoTL further, please contact Natalie Mendoza, the HTLP project lead.

Recommended Readings in the SoTL in History and History Pedagogy

  • Andrews, Thomas, and Flannery Burke.“What Does It Mean to Think Historically?”Perspectives on History(January 2007).
  • Calder, Lendol. “Uncoverage: Toward a Signature Pedagogy for the History Survey.”The Journal of American History(March 2006): 1358-1370.
  • Pace, David. "The Amateur in the Operating Room: History and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.”American Historical Review(October 2004): 1171-1192.
  • Seixas, Peter, and Tom Morton.The Big Six Historical Thinking Concepts.Toronto: Nelson Educators, 2012.
  • Shopkow, Leah, with Arlene Diaz, Joan Middendorf, and David Pace. “From Bottlenecks to Epistemology in History: Changing the Conversation about the Teaching of History in Colleges and Universities.” InChanging the Conversation about Higher Education,edited byRobert J. Thompson Jr. Lanham, 15-37. Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2013.
    • A companion website to further explore the Decoding the Disciplines paradigm discussed in this reading:
  • Westhoff, Laura M. “Historiographic Mapping: Toward a Signature Pedagogy for the Methods Course.” The Journal of American History (March 2012): 1114-1126.
  • Wineburg, Sam, Mark Smith, and Joel Breakstone. “What is Learned in College History Classes?” The Journal of American History (March 2018): 983-993.
  • Wineburg, Sam.“On the Reading of Historical Texts: Notes on the Breach Between School and Academy.”American Educational Research Journal28:3 (Fall 1991): 495-519.

(Updated: 8/2018)