Chapter 10: Engaging Pedagogy in an Advanced Placement European History Classroom

As much, if not more, than any other high school history course, Advanced Placement (AP) European history courses are driven by high achievement expectations (Rothschild, 1999). AP European history courses and exams also represent a unique opportunity for students to learn history in a standards-based, high-stakes testing context (Lurie, 2000). In this study, I examine the practice of Mike Nance, a veteran history teacher of an AP European history class in a Georgia high school. My focus is on how Mike teaches that course given the local constraints of the AP examination and standards.

Although a number of descriptions and anecdotes on teaching AP history have been published (e.g., Henry, 1994; Michael, 1991; Rothschild, 2000; Traill, 1998), only a few reports describe wise practice in AP history classrooms. Meckna (1999), for example, described his own practice of teaching AP European history in a multiethnic environment. Among a range of instructional strategies, he most prominently related content to his student’s experiences. DiLorenzo (1999) also described his practice while teaching AP history; he emphasized discussion, small group work, practical strategies for synthesizing knowledge from secondary readings, and the making of inferences from primary source documents. Stovel (2000) described methods that teachers might use to prepare their students for writing responses to document-based questions (DBQs), focusing on changes in the scoring protocol for the DBQ response.