The Problem

How does teacher education provided by historic sites affect teachers’ professional growth?

No one knows… (yet).

Little evidence-based research exists about what content, skills, or practices teachers acquire or improve upon in programs offered by historic sites.

Find out about our most recent progress.

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Institutions spend significant funding annually to provide teacher education.

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There is little consensus about how to evaluate teacher learning at historic sites.

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Much of the existing research offers site/program-specific-evaluations rather than systematic investigations from which few meaningful recommendations can be extrapolated to inform practice at other sites.

The Approach

What We're Doing

Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello is partnering with the Institute of Museum and Library Sciences to develop an evaluation tool based on national content, skills, and professional development standards to assess teacher education programs at historic sites. Learn More

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Q-Sort: How It Works

Q-Methodology offers a rigorous, quantitative study of subjectivity that is uniquely suited to address the complex problems of teaching and learning that history museums present. Learn More

How to Participate

Sign up to follow our progress. Updates include:

  • Results as they are published
  • How to include your site in the grant-funded study
  • How to analyze your own program

the latest

  • In The Literature: Journal of Museum Education

    Findings from our first year of data collection at Monticello was published this summer in the Journal of Museum Education, which we’ve made available to you via open access. As a journal written for practitioners by practitioners, this is the perfect venue for sharing with our fellow museum educators. Take a look to see: How […]

  • In The Literature: Theory and Research in Social Education

    On the more academic side of the research, findings from our first year of data collection at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello were published in Theory and Research in Social Education this summer. We’ve made the full article available via open access, accessible here. Take a look for Careful insights into who teachers are as learners and […]

  • Calling Museum Educators: Your Input Needed

    After three years of researching ‘how does teacher education provided by historic sites affect teachers’ professional growth?’ we have an enormous amount of data that the research team is still processing. Initial findings suggest implications for program evaluation, the individual programs, how teachers interact with difficult history, and more. However, it is our goal to […]

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