Medium-level students continue to be tied to the idea that history is simply a chronology. Poorer student still have not a clue. There is some evidence that student writing has improved both in the clarity of expression and in the grasp of historical analysis. Oral presentations are still generally less satisfactory. Students need to understand the difference between a thesis and a topic.
Oral presentations seem to lack structure and coherence.
More opportunity for oral presentations early in a student's career in the foundation course recitations should have some impact on this problem. Improvement is noted in some upper division courses that have very formal and structured oral presentations. Student writing in the department's capstone course is, in the judgment of those Professors who teach this course, improving. Student make greater use of inter-library loan, and new technologies allow better bibliographic work. Problem-Solving Skills Problem solving in history primarily consists in accumulating and evaluating evidence, then drawing substantive conclusions from the evidence to create a meaningful interpretation of events.