Teaching historical thinking and reasoning: Construction of an observation instrument.

For some years, historical thinking and reasoning (HTR) have been important educational goals for upper secondary education in many countries. Nevertheless, teachers are often unsure of how to realise these ideas in the classroom. This article reports on the development of the domain‐specific observation instrument Teach‐HTR. It is intended for the further professional development of experienced history teachers who wish to foster historical thinking and reasoning, as well as to assist those who are doing their initial teacher training. The observation instrument was developed in several phases. A literature review was conducted to operationalise the dimensions of learning and teaching involved in historical thinking and reasoning. The content validity of this first version was evaluated by experts using a content validity rating form and subsequently revised. The final instrument consists of seven categories of teaching historical reasoning and 33 items. The instrument was piloted in 10 history lessons in Iceland and subsequently in 10 lessons in the Netherlands. Inter‐rater reliability was evaluated using intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) and percentage of agreement. The internal consistency was evaluated using Cronbach's alpha. In the second pilot, the instrument showed acceptable inter‐rater reliability and internal consistency. The outcomes of the two pilots are described, and examples are given of lessons with high and low scores. The instrument can help identify concrete examples of teaching historical thinking and reasoning and points for development, which makes it a promising instrument for professional development

Observing history teaching: Historical thinking and reasoning in the upper secondary classroom

In this dissertation we examined the teaching of historical thinking and reasoning (HTR), prominent in discussions on history teaching for the past decades. HTR belongs under the umbrella of higher order thinking skills and deeper learning. Among the main strategic skills required of students of HTR are usually considered to be being capable of establishing historical significance, undertaking the critical use of historical sources and more. Despite conceptualizations of HTR in the literature, the teaching of HTR is quite a challenge for teaching. Therefore, our aim was to operationalize the elements of teaching HTR in terms of teacher behaviour. For this purpose, we designed the observation instrument Teach-HTR. Subsequently, it was used to find out to what extent Icelandic history teachers taught HTR at the upper secondary level. Furthermore, we investigated which beliefs about goals and strategies of teaching history played a role in Icelandic teachers' inclinations towards teaching HTR. Finally, we used the instrument to enhance the professional growth of history student teachers in the Netherlands and experienced history teachers in Iceland in the teaching of HTR. The key categories of the instrument are demonstrating HTR, using sources to support HTR, explicit instruction about HTR strategies and engaging students in HTR by assignments and whole-class discussions. It complements the extant literature on historical thinking and provides an entrance for teachers and student teachers to the literature on HTR components. This makes the use of observation results useful for professionalization as well as initial training of history teachers

Teaching historical thinking and reasoning: Teacher beliefs

This study aims to give an insight into the beliefs that shape history teachers’ orientations towards their subject and how they approach it. We take a closer look at the beliefs of a group of teachers to see if there is a connection between those beliefs and whether and how they teach historical thinking and reasoning (HTR). HTR has been considered an important component in history teaching in many countries for some decades. Different factors may influence whether teachers are willing or able to teach it. Our main research question is: Which beliefs about goals and strategies of teaching history play a role in teachers’ inclinations towards teaching historical thinking and reasoning