We designed a professional development (PD) teacher-mentor program that used problem-based learning (PBL) to accomplish two goals. First, teachers explored how PBL could be used effectively in their classrooms to change the way they think about teaching to include literacy development in content areas. Second, PBL was the basis for PD training to…

In this article, the author suggests some principles to be considered when attempting to assess learning in history courses. He has found it most effective to pursue these goals within the framework of the Decoding the Disciplines process. This approach, developed in the Indiana University Freshman Learning Project, suggests that faculty seeking…