This volume consists of the proceedings of an international conference on cognition and instruction in history. The papers cover several broad areas: historical narratives and history teaching; the use of texts, documents and images in learning history; and historical explanation and understanding. The contributions aim to improve ideas of how history is understood by those who attempt (in schools or elsewhere) to master its complexities. It considers the tacit ideas about history or the past which children bring to history education, the reasoning that students of history employ, and the teaching of history.