This study traced the success of teachers’ professional development courses on student learning. The study examined how well the teaching objectives of professional development programs were translated to the 390 fifth through twelfth grade students’ learning of history. Data collection involved pretests and postests of students’ understanding of history.

Generally, the authors found that it was possible to trace and document students’ understanding of key elements learned by their teachers in professional development programs with positive outcomes for students. However, Medina and colleagues also found that some of these key elements that teachers selected to emphasize in their classes can have unintended negative consequences. For example, the authors concluded that teachers’ use of primary sources and their focus on multiple perspectives of history could result in both teachers and students reaching subjective and thus “faulty” conclusions about the historical process. Further, teachers and students were unable to apply critical reasoning to historical interpretation.