Hoe geef je betekenis aan geschiedenis?

Geschiedenisonderwijs draagt bij aan burgerschapsvorming. Dan moeten leerlingen wel uitgedaagd worden om te redeneren en argumenteren in historische en hedendaagse contexten. Hoe doe je dat? Carla van Boxtel en Dick van Straaten* geven tips en voorbeelden van opdrachten

Connecting past and present through case-comparison learning in history: views of teachers and students

History education frequently aims at developing active citizenship by using the past to orientate to the present and the future. A pedagogy for pursuing this aim is making connections between the past and the present by means of comparing cases of an enduring human issue. To examine the feasibility and desirability of this case-comparison teaching approach, students (N = 444) and teachers (N = 15) who participated in an implementation study conducted in the Netherlands were questioned about their experiences and views. Results show that both students and teachers felt that case-comparison in the context of an enduring human issue is feasible and not more complex than the usual history teaching in which topics are studied separately without explicitly making comparisons between past and present, even if some students thought that taking account of episodes from different historical periods concurrently required an extra learning effort. Both students and teachers believed that connecting past and present in history teaching enhances engagement and meaning making. They suggested a curriculum combining the case-comparison approach with the type of history teaching they were accustomed to. Mixed methods were used for data collection. Implications for further research on case-comparison learning in history are being discussed

Exploring pedagogical approaches for connecting the past, the present and the future in history teaching

Using the past to orientate on the present and the future can be seen as one of history’s main contributions to educating future citizens of democratic societies. Because teachers often lack useful methods for pursuing this goal, this study explores three pedagogical approaches that may help them making connections between the past, the present and the future: working with longitudinal lines (LL), with enduring human issues (EHI) and with historical analogies (HA). The efficacy of these approaches was examined in three case studies conducted in two Dutch secondary schools with eighth- to tenth-grade students (N=135) and their teachers (N=4) as participants. Explorations took place within the boundaries of the existing history curriculum and in close collaboration with the teachers who participated because they felt a need to motivate their students by means of a pedagogy to make history more useful. Findings suggest that implementing the LL- and EHI-approaches in a traditional history curriculum with chronologically ordered topics is more complicated than implementing the HA-approach. The HA-approach appears to have more potential to encourage students to use historical knowledge in present-day contexts than the other two approaches. In terms of students’ appraisals of the relevance of history, the application of the EHI-approach showed positive effects

Measuring students’ appraisals of the relevance of history: the construction and validation of the relevance of history measurement scale (RHMS)

This study explores the psychometric qualities of the Relevance of History Measurement Scale (RHMS), a questionnaire designed to measure students’ beliefs about the relevance of history. Participants were 1459 Dutch secondary school students aged between 12 and 18. Data analysis revealed three reliable factors, compliant with our theoretical framework which defines three strands of relevance of history: relevance for building a personal identity, for citizenship, and for insight into ‘the human condition’. The convergent and known-groups validity of the RHMS was demonstrated. The collected data show that students find history more relevant as they grow older, with most progress taking place between 14 and 16. Out of the three strands of relevance, building a personal identity scores lowest in students’ appraisals. This study shows that the RHMS is psychometrically sound and can be used to evaluate effects of lesson interventions directed at enhancing the relevance of history to students

Fostering students’ appraisals of the relevance of history by comparing analogous cases of an enduring human issue: a quasi-experimental study

Although history standards generally aim at developing historical consciousness among secondary school students, there is not much research-based knowledge to support making connections between the past, the present and the future in history teaching. This study examines the effects of teaching analogous cases of an enduring human issue in two experimental conditions: one in which grade 10-12 students (n = 460) were actively encouraged to compare cases and to draw analogies with the present and one in which students studied cases without making comparisons or drawing analogies with the present (n = 273). Set against the results of a group of students who followed the usual history curriculum (n = 289), multilevel regression analyses on the collected data revealed that both experimental conditions positively affected students’ appraisals of the relevance of history, more so in the ‘case-comparison’ condition than in the ‘separate-case’ condition. Students in the case-comparison condition also deemed the lesson course more valuable and experienced less difficulty with the applied pedagogical approach than students in the separate-case condition. Case comparison did not negatively affect the acquisition of historical factual knowledge. Implications for further research are discussed

Historisch denken: basisboek voor de vakdocent

Het vak geschiedenis bestudeert een werkelijkheid die niet meer bestaat. Wie beelden van die werkelijkheid ontwerpt, houdt rekening met de verschillen tussen heden en verleden en doet recht aan hetgeen mensen vroeger normaal en waardevol vonden. Uit dit 'historisch besef' vloeien denk- en redeneerwijzen voort die in Historisch Denken, basisboek voor de vakdocent op overzichtelijke en heldere wijze worden besproken. Omdat deze denk- en redeneerwijzen in het voortgezet onderwijs deel uitmaken van het examenprogramma geschiedenis, is Historisch Denken, basisboek voor de vakdocent een onmisbaar studieboek voor de toekomstige geschiedenisleraar en een handzaam naslagwerk voor de zittende leraar. Het boek bevat: * Veel voorbeelden die de theorie begrijpelijk en gemakkelijk overdraagbaar maken. * Studievragen die de lezer attenderen op de hoofdpunten van de tekst. * Teksten en opdrachten die een zinvolle toepassing van de theorie mogelijk maken. * Een rijke hoeveelheid illustraties. Historisch Denken, basisboek voor de vakdocent is vernieuwd. De voorbeelden en literatuurlijst zijn geactualiseerd, de studievragen waar nodig aangepast en de toepassingsopdrachten achter in het boek bevatten nu verwijzingen naar de theorieparagrafen waarop ze betrekking hebben. De leesbaarheid is door de vernieuwde vormgeving sterk verbeterd. De auteurs zijn historici en als docent verbonden aan de lerarenopleiding geschiedenis van de Hogeschool van Amsterdam, de Hogeschool Inholland en de Hogeschool Utrecht. Als lerarenopleiders misten ze een toegankelijk overzicht over historisch denken voor geschiedenisleraren. Met 'Historisch denken' willen ze in deze leemte voorzien