This volume consists of the proceedings of an international conference on cognition and instruction in history. The papers cover several areas: historical narratives and history teaching; the use of texts, documents and images in learning history; and historical explanation and understanding.

Section 1 Narrative and sociocultural approach to history teaching and learning: the structure of historical narratives and the teaching of history, Jeretz Topolski; historical representation as mediated action - official history as a tool, William R. Penual and James V. Wertsch; the Russian revolution - official and unofficial accounts, James V. Wertsch and Mark Rozin; uses of historical knowledge - an exploration of the construction of professional identity in students of psychology, Alberto Rosa, Florentino Blanco and Juan A. Huertas; total history and its enemies in present-day teaching, Carlos Martinez-Shaw. Section 2 Uses of texts, documents and images in history learning: understanding historical controversies - students' evaluation and use of documentary evidence, Jean-Francois Rouet, Maureen A. Marron, Charles A. Perfetti and Monik Favart; what do students know and how do they seek to know more? - knowledge base and the search for strategies in the study of art history, Fernando Hernandez; seeing the past - learning history through group discussion of iconographic sources, Alessandra Fasulo, Hilda Girardet and Clotilde Pontecorvo; wildflowers, sheep and democracy - the role of analogy in the teaching and learning of history, Kathleen McCarthy Young and Gaea Leinhardt. Section 3 Historical explanations: causality in history - on the intuitive understanding of the concepts of sufficiency and necessity, James F. Voss, Joseph Ciarrochi and Mario Carretero; influence of intentional and personal factors in recalling historical texts - a develomental perspective, Angel Riviere, Maria Nunez, Beatriz Barquero and Federico Fontela; researching children's ideas about history, Peter Lee, Alaric Dickinson and Rosalyn Ashby; evidence evaluation and reasoning abilities in the domain of history - an empirical study, Margarita Limon and Mario Carretero; on reasoning in history, Ola hallden. Section 4 History teaching and understanding; goals in history teaching, Peter N. Stearns; generating explanations in history, Liliana Jacott, Asuncion Lopez-Manjon and Mario Carretero; student perceptions of history and historical concepts, James F. Voss, Jennifer Wiley and Joel Kennet; constructing historical knowledge at high school - the case of the industrial revolution, Teresa Fernandez-Corte and Juan Antonio Garcia-Madruga; promoting the learning of causal explanations in history through different teaching strategies, Jesus Dominguez and Juan Ignacio Pozo; repersentation and understanding of history, Bodo von Borres.