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Review
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Teaching U.S. History as Mystery. David Gerwin and Jack Zevin.
Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2003. 176 pages, $19.50 paper.
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Gerwin and Zevin aim their book at teachers seeking to engage their
students in a process of discovery and investigation. They offer
three levels of historical "mysteries"minor, medium, and
majorthat will provoke discussion and interest in the classroom.
The concept of mystery is shorthand for teaching students to think
about "confusing, inconsistent, and/or contradictory"
events and evidence in history. (4) In presenting their categories,
the authors also develop rules and criteria on how to approach mysteries
in a classroom setting and how students should judge the elements
as presented. Finally, they assert that they have tested these "mysteries"
in their own classrooms and offer guidelines for teachers who wish
to develop mystery-based lessons.
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1
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The central premise behind the development
of mystery-based teaching is the need for students to work with
the complexities of the past, the uncertainties of evidence, and
the competing interpretations of fact in order to develop a further
understanding of the content and process of history. Though the
authors go to great lengths to develop the pedagogical foundation
for their presentation of mystery-based teaching and learning, the
concept of approaching history as mystery is not, as the authors
claim, a new one, nor is it as lacking in practice as they imply.
One need only turn to works such as David Korbin's Beyond the
Textbook, Davidson and Lytle's After the Fact, Bruce
VanSledright's recent work on inquiry-based teaching in the elementary
schools, In Search of America's Past, and the writings of
James Percoco to find previous explorations of teaching an inquiry-based
model. While Gerwin and Zevin conscientiously cite numerous sources,
it is a shame that they do not rely more on the outstanding collection
of works already in print for the development of their case studies
and as part of the pedagogical foundation for their own arguments.
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For those self-reflective practitioners
willing to explore new avenues of teaching, this book will be eminently
useful. Many will find the authors' pedagogical arguments to be
familiar, but they will also find the case studies to be exceptionally
well developed. The Vietnam case study, one the authors label as
"mild" (though they provide suggestions that could easily
convert it into a medium or major mystery), asks students to decide
what really happened in the Gulf of Tonkin. The topic itself is
an easy one to spark classroom discussion, and on this point the
authors offer little new. But their revelations about the work that
went into developing it as a classroom exercise is both informative
and hauntingly familiar for anyone who has developed their own lesson
materials. The mystery on women in the Old West incorporates images,
literature, and other sources that will assist multiple learning
styles. The best mystery, however, is Jefferson's relationship with
Hemmings. Here the authors, over the course of two chapters, show
how teachers can explore both commonly known and cutting edge Jeffersonian
historiography, DNA evidence, and race relationships to show the
implications of this mystery for our history and culture.
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Finally, unlike other books that
only provide lesson plans, Gerwin and Zevin provide the supplemental
elements necessary for a complete understanding of the issues: anticipate
potential student responses, and discuss both classroom strategies
and means of assessment. On the whole, therefore, this work is a
solid addition to the already extant collection of books on the
teaching of history to students through an inquiry-based approach.
It can provide teachers with a "mystery" phraseology that
will appeal to select groups of students and help the profession
push forward in the quest to improve the teaching of our discipline
and, hopefully, the preparation of our future teachers.
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Northern Illinois University
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J.D. Bowers
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