Page 25 - Balancing between the present and the past

Framework for Analyzing the Teaching of Historical Contextualization (FAT-HC). The 1 chapter also presents information on how many raters and lessons are needed to
obtain a reliable image of how history teachers promote historical contextualization.
This chapter is based on an article in the European Journal of Psychology of Education
(Huijgen, Van de Grift, Van Boxtel, & Holthuis, 2017).
The fifth chapter explores how history teachers promote students’ ability to perform historical contextualization in classrooms. Using the FAT-HC, eight history teachers were observed twice by five raters. Historical contextualization examples from these teachers are provided to examine teachers’ behavior with regards to historical contextualization. What kind of instructions do teachers use and do not use? The four components of the framework are used to provide more specific insights into how teachers promote historical contextualization. This chapter is based on an article in Educational Studies (Huijgen, Holthuis, Van Boxtel, & Van de Grift, 2018).
The sixth chapter uses the four components of the framework to formulate four design principles that are used to develop a lesson unit on the 17th and 18th centuries. The effects of the lesson unit on students’ ability to perform historical contextualization are explored through a quasi-experimental pre- and post-test design. Using additional qualitative methods, the strengths and weaknesses of the design principles are further explored. This chapter is based on an article in the Journal of Curriculum Studies (Huijgen, Van de Grift, Van Boxtel, & Holthuis, 2018).
Elaborating on the findings of the sixth chapter, the seventh chapter uses three components of the framework (reconstructing a historical context, avoiding presentism, and practicing historical contextualization to enable historical reasoning) to present a three-stage framework. This framework is used to develop a lesson unit on Cold War events. The effects of the lesson unit on students’ ability to promote historical contextualization are explored through a quasi-experimental pre- and post-test design. This chapter is based on an article in the British Journal of Educational Studies (Huijgen, Holthuis, Van Boxtel, Van de Grift, & Suhre, 2018).
In the eighth chapter, the general conclusions of this thesis are discussed. Moreover, limitations are elaborated, directions for future research are provided, and practical implications for teachers and other education professionals are presented. Finally, the ninth chapter presents the Dutch summary of the thesis.
General introduction
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