A national history organization wants to see the P.E.I. government adopt a new strategy for teaching history in schools across the province.

Speaking at the P.E.I. Teachers Federation conference in Charlottetown this week, Jill Colyer of the Historical Thinking Project said too many teachers are asking students to memorize hundreds of facts, which is not effective for learning history.

"If you just are rushing through everything, you know, 'We've got to get from 1914 to 2012, well you've got to just rush and then it's just a jumble of facts and it's not retained. If you do more with less, then your retention goes up," said Colyer.

"What I'd like to see on P.E.I. is basically that these overarching curriculum guidelines focus on big ideas and enduring understandings and fewer specific expectations."

The Historical Thinking Project, which is funded by Heritage Canada, has lobbied the P.E.I. government and other provinces to change their curriculums to include more conceptual historical teaching.