UC Berkeley History-Social Science Project

The UC Berkeley History-Social Science Project (UCBH-SSP) is committed to increasing the achievement of all students by strengthening history content knowledge, academic literacy, and critical thinking skills. UCBH-SSP programs are informed by current scholarship and engage in systemic Kindergarten-16 collaboration amongst teachers.

The UCBH-SSP is part of the California History-Social Science Project, a statewide project aimed at providing professional development opportunities for history-social science educators in California. We provide intensive, discipline-specific professional development programs designed to enhance teacher content knowledge and to expand classroom teaching techniques, thereby improving student learning.

Goals

To explore strategies that teachers can use to help students "act as historians"
To provide content lectures by University professors to enhance teachers' historical background knowledge and understanding
To model lessons by classroom teacher leaders
To promote academic literacy through reading and writing strategies for history-social science
To translate the History-Social Science Content Standards into student learning
To demonstrate the importance of historical inquiry in students' history-social science learning
To establish a network of support and ongoing professional discourse for educators

History

The UC Berkeley History-Social Science Project began in 1992 and was situated in the Graduate School of Education in Tolman Hall. Matt Downey was the Director from 1992-1995. In 1996, the Project moved to the History Department and Dwinelle Hall. Donna Leary was hired as the Co-director for Professional Development; Professor Jon Gjerde served as Co-director from 1997-2001. Subsequent Faculty Advisers have been Professors Peter Zinoman, John Connelly, and Thomas Dandelet. The current Faculty Adviser is Professor Carlos Noreña. The Project has changed from primarily serving teachers through its summer institutes with some yearlong district and school work to becoming a yearlong professional development service provider for schools, districts, and grants. Our financial model had changed from one of recieving the majority of our funding from the California Legislature to one where the majority of our funding now comes from grants and contracts. In 2000 and 2005, Berkeley's Chancellor honored the UCBH-SSP for its School/Community professional development for history teachers.