Search

The question of history learning at school and its improvement has long been a subject of discussion, but it continues to present unresolved critical issues due to pupils’ difficulties in understanding this discipline, difficulties in defining clear and accountable learning objectives and the lack of adequate assessment systems. In line with international research, this article intends to show how it is possible to overcome these critical issues by identifying the development of historical thinking as the purpose of learning history, making explicit the dimensions of which it is composed and matching them with a taxonomy of learning objectives that can be translated into adequate assessment tests. The work presents an example of this process in the construction of a model test applied in the final year of primary school as part of an instructional intervention for progressive improvement of whose objectives the pupils were made aware.

Literacy activities in education hold a crucial position, particularly reading within history education. Addressing literacy challenges encountered in the history learning process at State Senior High School (SMAN) 1 Sumenep, there arises a necessity for innovation in implementing school literacy movements. LIRIS stands as an innovative initiative formed by the School Literacy Team (Tim Literasi Sekolah/TLS) at SMAN 1 Sumenep, aimed at addressing literacy challenges by amalgamating literacy processes with research. This research aims to find out the implementation and problems of history learning in the GLS program and find out how LIRIS can be an innovation in literacy activities. Employing a qualitative descriptive approach, data is collected through interviews, observations, and documentation, then analyzed through data reduction, presentation, and verification. Findings reveal: (1) GLS implementation in history education generally follows existing guidelines, observable in familiarization, development, and learning stages, yet specifics vary based on classroom conditions and teacher innovation, (2) literacy activity issues in history education arise across student, teacher, and school support aspects, and (3) LIRIS emerges as an innovative literacy activity addressing both general and specific history education challenges, albeit still necessitating evaluation and refinement.

A common dilemma in educational game design is identifying the right balance between freedom and structure. Too much structure limits constructive learning and curiosity, while too much freedom diverts focus away from the educational content. How can we create a feeling of freedom while encouraging students to interact with learning material? We argue that a compelling, open-world action-adventure game with a branching storyline could provide just the right balance. To test this idea, we created a single-player custom map action-adventure game, Ulfberht's Sword, using the popular Minecraft game. Our objective was that the game would support prehistory education and we piloted it with 151 students in their history classrooms. To determine how effective our game was for delivering educational material, we collected and analyzed the students' log files in combination with students' Minecraft experience. Our structure discovery revealed four interaction types, (1) intellectuals, (2) wanderers, (3) explorers, and (4) achievers, which reflect the students' interaction with the educational content and perseverance in challenging situations. Ultimately, the game design engaged Minecraft-experienced player types and guided them toward primary educational materials. Less-experienced player types remained curious but would have benefited from more direct in-game scaffolding, demonstrating the importance of players' pre-existing gaming skills and thoughtful choice architecture. In conclusion, the player types provide insight into how we can best support different types of students in the open-world game environment. In turn, this information allows us to identify design challenges and suggest better ways to strike the structure-autonomy balance in realistically heterogeneous classrooms.

This article explores relationships between ideas of reform pedagogy and conceptions of history education in the writings of four Norwegian upper secondary school history teachers who worked at the same rural gymnasium, Eidsvoll landsgymnas (ELG), between 1936 and 1939. While expressing support for certain principles of reform pedagogy, their ideas of purposes, content, and methods of history education varied considerably. This article demonstrates diversity within Norwegian reform pedagogy. Although these teachers could agree in criticism of the “old school” and in support of more student-centred and active education, their conceptions of history, as well as their goals for societal development, differed greatly. While one of the teachers saw strengthening national identity as the main goal of history education, others emphasised history education’s role in education for democracy.

The Batujaya site is one of the relics that reveal the historical heritage of Indonesia in the Hindu-Buddhist era. The objectives of this study are to; 1) Analyzing the study of historical concepts (Bernard Lewis in the case at the Batujaya Site and 2) Reviewing evidence of historical findings) at the Batujaya Site through the philosophy of structuralism (meaning of symbols in the temple area. This research uses qualitative methods (case study approach) through observation, interviews, and excavation reports. The results of the study stated that in the historical concept of Bernard Lewis related to the history of rediscovered has a connection with the discovery at the Batujaya Site which reveals lost history, and can be found by being reconstructed by historians through archaeological reports that have contributed to the collective memory of the Indonesian nation. In addition, the discovery at the Batujaya Site has structuralism meaning as evidenced by the existence of a temple stupa or Vivote Table symbolically about the beliefs of Buddhism.

In this paper, the constructions of historical personal identity of Finnish-speaking students are analysed. The students participated in a larger study of historical narratives and identities, carried out in 2020 in two schools in Finland and in one European School outside Finland. In the mixed-method study, sixty-one students were interviewed and given writing and drawing assignments on historical identity. In this paper, the students’ visual representations of their personal historical identity and its relationship with wider official history are analysed. The aim is to increase understanding of how 14–16-year-old students visualise and articulate their historical personal identity constructions and the historical elements they use in negotiating this identity. The findings suggest that the students integrate personal and historical social narratives in diverse ways but that the majority of them find it challenging to connect their personal family history with the wider official history. Only twelve students made the connection. In addition to presenting the results for the whole group of students, the visual representations of two selected students are discussed in more detail so as to highlight the difference in the approaches to historical personal identity construction among the students.

Over the last three decades, research in history education has led to the development of more relevant, student-centred approaches to history curricula. Some researchers have argued that the mastery of historical literacy fosters individual students' personal attitudes or dispositions toward history, ranging from historical understanding to historical consciousness and empathy. This paper sets out to compare, to what extent and how, history curricula developed in Australia and Singapore have helped to encourage historical consciousness, and empathy in lower secondary school students and strengthen students' sense of relationality with those individuals and groups in society who are different from themselves. The comparative education approach adopted in this paper begins by briefly describing the social, political, and cultural context of each country before presenting a comparative analysis of the history curriculum documents of both countries. This analysis is discussed alongside personal responses from history academics, lower secondary classroom teachers, and senior teachers in charge of history. The findings indicate the two countries’ curriculum documents do seek to foster historical consciousness, while the comments of teacher participants demonstrated how their understanding of the curriculum documents had led to examples of empathy and relationality in their classroom teaching.

Learning about emotionally tricky topics sometimes creates educational tension among teachers and learners in the learning environment. In history education, one primary goal of teaching the subject is to promote empathic understanding among learners in the classroom. This study assessed 135 student-teachers ability to understand the actions of past historical actors. Specifically, it explored the student-teachers’ process of contextualising past actions and making moral judgments. The study adopted the qualitative research approach, where student-teachers wrote essays based on a letter Dr J.B. Danquah wrote to Dr Kwame Nkrumah with a follow-up think-aloud to explore the student-teachers thoughts on the letter. The study found that cognitive knowledge of the past promoted the student-teachers ability to contextualise the actors' actions. The student-teachers also viewed historical empathy as a dual construct by using moral and emotional expressions to empathise with the actions and decisions of the historical actors. The seeming suggestion brought forward by these findings is that student-teachers may be able to support their would-be students to empathise with the actions of historical actors in their pedagogical practices. It also points to a need for support in the training of student-teachers where the emphasis is placed on procedural and substantive knowledge as a necessary step for achieving historical understanding.

In the field of history education research, the analysis of the construction, circulation and appropriation of controversial and difficult histories has become a particularly relevant issue. Based on this line of research, the present study seeks to analyze the historical judgments of Spanish and Colombian students regarding processes of historical reconciliation, linked to situations of a controversial and difficult nature. To achieve this objective, a quantitative, non-experimental, survey-based design was employed. A total of 648 Spanish and 764 Colombian students from schools located in the cities of Murcia (Spain) and Bogotá (Colombia) participated by answering a closed questionnaire. The results show that ethical judgments on controversial issues, established on what is considered to be politically correct, are more frequent when the problem being evaluated is situated in a frame of reference external to questions of national belonging. However, such judgments tend to decrease, or assume a neutral standpoint, when the controversial issue is related to the individual’s own sense of identity. Thus, it is clear that the learning of difficult and controversial historical issues is not only built on a cognitive dimension. It is also supported by political, ethical and aesthetic dimensions, leading to the processes of making and receiving historical judgments being even more complex.

In the last years, history education has become a highly developed field, which is receiving considerable attention not only from educators but also from historians, philosophers of history, and social scientists in general. In this vein, seminal empirical and theoretical papers have focused on how history is taught to students and what are the different abilities that should be developed with the end to critically understand historical processes. These abilities are related to key concepts in the field such as historical thinking, historical consciousness, and historical culture. The aim of this paper is to focus on a matter not much considered in any of these approaches. This is to say, “where” the historical processes occurred. Usually the “where” implies a specific territory that is under dispute. In this vein, territories and their transformation through different time periods are represented by historical maps reproduced in atlas and textbooks. But these representations could have several bias and also tend to provide a number of incomplete ideas among the students and citizens in general. In relation to this, it is necessary study not only the features of historical maps but, also, how students appropriate them. This appropriation could be influenced by an essentialist view of the nation through historical master narratives. This is what we have found in our initial empirical studies in Spain and Argentina. Additional empirical studies are needed to improve history education studies from the point of view of the development of historical thinking and historical consciousness taking into account how historical maps and territorial changes are represented by both students and textbooks.

Understanding local history is fundamental to fostering a comprehensive global viewpoint. As technological advances shape our pedagogical tools, Virtual Reality (VR) stands out for its potential educational impact. Though its promise in educational settings is widely acknowledged, especially in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields, there is a noticeable decrease in research exploring VR’s efficacy in arts. The present study examines the effects of VR-mediated interventions on cultural education. In greater detail, secondary school adolescents (N = 52) embarked on a journey into local history through an immersive 360° VR experience. As part of our research approach, we conducted pre- and post-intervention assessments to gauge participants’ grasp of the content and further distributed psychometric instruments to evaluate their reception of VR as an instructional approach. The analysis indicates that VR’s immersive elements enhance knowledge acquisition but the impact is modulated by the complexity of the subject matter. Additionally, the study reveals that a tailored, context-sensitive, instructional design is paramount for optimising learning outcomes and mitigating educational inequities. This work challenges the “one-size-fits-all” approach to educational VR, advocating for a more targeted instructional approach. Consequently, it emphasises the need for educators and VR developers to collaboratively tailor interventions that are both culturally and contextually relevant.

This study investigates alternative approaches for demonstrating historical understanding in elementary school history education, motivated by challenges to educational institutions posed by increased ChatGPT-related plagiarism. Focused on secondary education, an area with scant research, this study, through sociocultural and linguistic methods of analysis, contrasted human-generated historical narratives with those produced by ChatGPT. It was found that ChatGPT’s narratives, while stylistically superior, lacked emotional depth, highlighting a key differentiation from human storytelling. However, despite this differentiation, ChatGPT otherwise effectively mimicked typical discourse patterns of historical storytelling, suggesting that narrative-based writing assignments do not significantly reduce the likelihood of ChatGPT-assisted plagiarism. The study concludes by suggesting that rather than focusing on mitigating plagiarism, educational approaches to ChatGPT should seek to channel its potential for historical narratives into assistance with task design, delivery of content, and coaching student writing.