Page 160 - Balancing between the present and the past

Chapter 7
Building upon previous work in which design principles of historical contextualization were operationalized (Huijgen, Van de Grift, Van Boxtel, & Holthuis, 2018), in this study, we present an example of how these design principles can be used as a three- stage framework to develop a lesson unit focusing on Cold War events. The effects of these lessons on students’ ability to contextualize historical events are explored using a quasi-experimental pre-test–post-test design with an experimental and control condition.
7.2 Theoretical framework
7.2.1 Historical thinking and reasoning in classrooms
In history classrooms, students not only need to learn to memorize historical facts but should also be engaged in historical thinking and reasoning, such as working with historical sources, asking historical questions, determining change and continuity, and performing historical contextualization (Lévesque, 2008; Seixas & Morton, 2013; Van Drie & Van Boxtel, 2008). Influenced by the work of Peter Seixas, in Canadian states such as Ontario, historical thinking competencies are explicitly mentioned in the curriculum (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2015). In Australia, the history curriculum directs students to use different historical skills, such as understanding the different social, cultural, and intellectual contexts that shaped people’s lives and actions in the past (National Curriculum Board, 2009). With the development of The College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards (National Council for the Social Studies, 2013), more attention may also be given to implementing historical reasoning competencies in state curricula in the United States.
Similar to other West European countries (e.g., Erdmann & Hasberg, 2011), historical reasoning competencies are explicitly implemented in the formal Dutch history curriculum. Dutch students have to, for example, explain human behavior in the past (thinking and doing) based on the knowledge and values known and accepted at that specific time. Moreover, they should be able to recognize different value and belief frameworks when they are asked to provide a moral judgement about historical events and agents’ actions (Board of Test and Examinations, 2017).
Despite the importance of historical reasoning in history curricula, most teachers seem not to engage students in historical reasoning. More than a decade ago, VanSledright
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