Medieval History in the Modern Classroom

Each new generation of students enters university with a different set of experiences, expectations, and skills, and instructors’ pedagogical methods must adapt to meet them. This is the context in which L. J. Sobehrad and S. J. Sobehrad situate their work on the use of Project Based Learning (PBL) in the History classroom. The book begins with a summary of the current situation in higher education regarding student demographics and History courses offered in the authors’ home state of Texas. They use this as a basis for presenting the difficulties of teaching undergraduate History, supporting their argument that we cannot expect students to have, let alone master, skills that we do not ourselves teach them. They thus propose PBL as a method whereby students acquire mastery not just of historical content but also of practical historical skills. [...]

Medieval History in the Modern Classroom is a useful tool in terms of both practice and theory. The numerous matrices, rubrics, and outlines for scaffolded lessons are detailed, systematic, and comprehensive. Instructors, and perhaps particularly novice instructors, will find in them extremely useful templates as they intentionally design their own courses and course projects. The book is well researched and thoroughly cited.[...]

The Sobehrads’ book is timely and cogent, as today’s educators seek to revise current pedagogies and develop new ones to best serve a generation of students whose high school careers were conducted almost entirely on-line. Project-Based Learning, with its emphasis on transferable, interdisciplinary skills and practical, real-world applicability, is well-placed to respond to the needs of both instructors and students.

~Annie Doucet, The Medieval Review TMR 24.10.29