Taiwan Provincial Normal Institute, the original name of National Taiwan Normal University, was established on June 5, 1946; our department was originally called the Department of History and Geography. On June 5, 1955, the Institute became a university, Taiwan Provincial Normal University, with the Department of History and Geography belonging to the College of the Humanities; this department split into two separate departments in 1962. In 1967 Taiwan Provincial Normal University became the National Taiwan Normal University.
The main goals of our department are: to produce top-quality professional historians and history research materials, and also, to train outstanding high school history teachers. In our teaching, besides emphasizing the fundamentals of historical research and training in related subjects, we also stress the development of pedagogical and research skills, for we are molding professionals.
Continuing its upward path in professionalization and scholarship, in August 1970 the department began a masters degree program and expanded its offerings to include a doctoral program in 1977. From 1978 our department began to offer education courses during the summer semester for middle and high school history teachers from all over Taiwan, and in 2003 began a masters degree program for middle and high school teachers to gain education credits."