The challenges of teaching and learning history in the final years of the public elementary school: limitations of teacher training and reading and writing deficiencies of students

The aim of this article is to present possible reasons for the difficulties faced by History teachers in the teaching process. The work is structured in three sections that might have contributed to this unpleasant situation: first, the traditional teaching approach in universities; second, undergaduate students are not prepared to deal with this reality at school; third, elementary students still are not good at reading and writing. Therefore, the first and the second factors are straight related to History teaching methods at university. However the third, and the most serious, would be an external factor due to student education in elementary school.