Teenager's doing history out-of-school: An intrinsic case study of situated learning in history. Page: 2

                                
Johnston, Glenn T., Teenagers doinq history out-of-school: An intrinsic case
study of situated learning in history. Doctor of Philosophy (Curriculum and Instruction),
May 2008, 440 pp., 4 tables, 1 figure, references, 239 titles.
This intrinsic case study documents a community-based history expedition
implemented as a project-based, voluntary, out-of-school history activity. The
expedition's development was informed by the National Education Association's
concept of the intensive study of history, its structure by the history seminary, and its
spirit by Webb's account of seminar as history expedition. Specific study objectives
included documentation of the planning, implementation, operation, and outcomes of
the expedition, as well as the viability of the history expedition as a vehicle for engaging
teenagers in the practice of history. Finally, the study examined whether a history
expedition might serve as a curriculum of identity. Constructivist philosophy and situated
learning theory grounded the analysis and interpretation of the study.
Undertaken in North Central Texas, the study followed the experiences of six
teenagers engaged as historians who were given one year to research and write a
historical monograph. The monograph concerned the last horse cavalry regiment
deployed overseas as a mounted combat unit by the U.S. Army during World War II.
The study yielded qualitative data in the form of researcher observations, participant
interviews, artifacts of participant writing, and participant speeches. In addition, the
study includes evaluations of the historical monograph by subject matter experts.
The data indicate that participants and audience describe the history expedition
as a highly motivational experience which empowered participants to think critically,
write historically, and create an original product valuable to the regiment's veterans, the