David Gerwin
Associate Professor
Phone: 718-997-5159
Fax: 718-997-5152
E-mail : David.Gerwin@qc.cuny.edu
Education
Ph.D. American History from Columbia University , 1998
M.A. The Teaching of Social Studies, Teachers College, Columbia University , 1995
Biography
Dr. David Gerwin wrote a history dissertation about community organizers trying to build an interracial coalition of the poor in Newark , NJ during the 1960s. While writing he taught high school in Maryland and ran teacher workshops and student role-plays for The Constitution Works . After completing an MA program in social studies he joined a history department teaching courses in oral history, US history, and running the social studies teacher education program. Since joining the Secondary Education Department at Queens College he has had the good fortune to work together with teachers and historians. Sometimes the programs have allowed college and high school faculty to spend two weeks together in the summer talking about teaching and learning history together. Some programs provide direct classroom support for teaching history during the year. He is interested in how college level or professional research ideas can show up in college and high school or middle school classrooms, and in what allows seventh graders through college students to work with historical materials.
Research Interest
Research interests include the teaching and learning of history at the K-16+ level. Specific concerns include the possibilities that large digital database projects in history provide for student inquiry, literacy challenges of reading long documents, the incorporation of visual evidence into historical interpretation and pedagogy, the impact of high stakes testing, and creating national collaborations to produce statistically significant portraits of history teaching. A particular puzzle is the relationship between college-level history and social science courses and classroom teaching. The field of inquiry is often known as the study of historical thinking. Other interests include oral history, urban history, the environment, and community organizing.
Journal Articles
Gerwin D. & Visone, F. (2006) “The Freedom to Teach: Contrasting History in Elective and State-Tested Courses” Theory and Research in Social Education 34(2), pp.259-282.
Gerwin D. (2004) “ Pre-Service Teachers Report the Impact of High Stakes Testing” The Social Studies 95(2), pp. 71-74 .
Gerwin, D. (2003) “A Relevant Lesson (Hitler Goes to the Mall).” Theory and Research in Social Education 31(4), pp. 435-465.
Gerwin, D. (2003). “Responding to a Social Studies Classic--'Decision Making: The Heart of Social Studies Instruction'.” The Social Studies 94(1) 23-27.
Book and Book Chapters
Gerwin, D and Zevin, J. (2003). Teaching U.S. History As Mystery. Portsmouth , NH : Heinemann.
Gerwin D. & Osborn, T. A. (2005). “What September 11 also teaches us.” In T. Osborn (Ed)., Language and Cultural Diversity in U.S. Schools . Westport , CT : Praeger Publishing, pp. 105-116.
Gerwin D. (2003) “Don’t Mourn, Organize! Transdisciplinary Social Studies Education.” in Beyond the Boundaries: A Transdisciplinary Approach to Teaching and Learning . In D. Kaufman, D. Moss, and T. Osborn, (Eds.). Westport , CT : Praeger Publishers, pp. 81-96.
Work-in-Progress
Work-in-progress includes preparation of US history lesson plans for the National Endowment of the Humanities EdSITEment website. These lessons inform a collaboration with a group of schools in the Empowerment Zone to help student read work with longer historical documents . He is trying to document inquiry teaching in combination with other scholars and to see what impacts inquiry practice has, including on high stakes tests. An interest in the scholarship of teaching and learning at the college level includes, among other projects, an analysis of work from students enrolled at the same time in a social studies methods course and a special section of a US history survey. Finally, work with the websites have led him to start a research project on how experts and how students at 7-16 levels can use these archival sites to come up with their own questions.
Honors and Awards
2006
International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
“Archival Thinking” and “Reading History Papers for Epistemology” November
College and University Faculty Assembly, National Council for the Social Studies, Annual Conference, panel on “Teacher Researchers” November
College and University Faculty Assembly, National Council for the Social Studies, Annual Conference, “Collaborative Discussion: Researcher” November
National Council for the Social Studies, Washington , DC , Pre-Conference Clinic “Teaching History as Mystery” November
Second World Curriculum Studies Conference, “Conceiving of History”, Tampere , Finland , May
Carnegie Consultation on the Advancement of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, “ U.S. History Initiative Labs: A Shared Investigation into Classroom Inquiry Across Campuses” Madison , WI , April
2005
National Council for the Social Studies, Kansas City , Missouri , Pre-Conference Clinic “Teaching History As Mystery” November
History Educators International Research Network, London , “New York City School/Museum Collaborations: 3 separate cases” July
Doctoral Seminar, Melton Center for Jewish Education, Hebrew University , “ Bein Kodesh leChol : Primary Sources in Teaching and Learning Historical versus Holy Subjects.” February
Course Assignments
Methods and Materials for the Teaching of Social Studies SEYS 363/563
Curriculum and Assessment in Social Studies SEYS 383/585
Foundations of Education SEYS 536
Student Teaching Practicum SEYS 573.2
Student Teaching SEYS 573.4
Oral History in the Secondary Classroom SEYS 722
History as Mystery SEYS 762
Rethinking American History SEYS 767.3
Research in Social Studies SEYS 783 and SEYS 784
Professional Affiliations
American Historical Association
Organization of American Historians
Oral History Association and Society of Oral History Educators
Urban History Association
College and University Faculty Assembly, National Council for the Social Studies
National Council for History Education
American Educational Research Association
International Society for Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
History-Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
2006-2009
“ Inventing the People ” a Teaching American History Grant from the U.S. Dept. of Education. In collaboration with the Autonomy (now Empowerment Zone) of the NYC Dept of Education.
2005-2008
“ Teaching Democratic America : A Collaboration Between Teachers and Historians ” a Teaching American History Grant from the U.S. Dept. of Education. In collaboration with District 29/Region 3 of the NYC Dept of Education and the American Social History Project.
Teachers and Historians: A Partnership to Enrich Student Knowledge of U.S. History ” a Teaching American History Grant from the U.S. Dept of Education. A collaboration with District 28/Region 4, NYC Department of Education and the American Social History Project.
“Integrating Asian Studies into the Curriculum,” QC Faculty Fellow in a collaboration of Queens College, William Patterson University and Iona College with the Asia Society funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
2002-2004
“Enlivening American History Through Primary Sources” a Teaching American History Grant from the U.S. Department of Education. in collaboration with the New-York Historical Society and Alternative School Superintendency, NYC Board of Education.
2000-2001
“Portfolio Assessment Project” with six alternative high schools, a “Professional Services in Cultural Diversity” award from the New York City Board of Education.