Page 172 - Balancing between the present and the past

Chapter 7
170
Table 25. continued Lesson Historical topic* 3 The Rosenbergs
Experimental condition
Control condition
4 Hungarian Revolt
Case to enhance awareness of present-oriented perspectives: Students in groups of four are provided with two historical sources displaying a street name change in Amsterdam. The groups have to answer if they could explain why this street name change happened. They have to write down their answer on a handout. Reconstructing the historical context: In groups of four, the students are provided with five historical sources describing different perspectives on the Hungarian Revolt of 1956. Students are instructed to create a historical context based on
the provided historical sources and to answer the central question (explaining
the street name change in Amsterdam). Students can use the handout from the second lesson (guiding questions).
Prior knowledge activation: The teacher activates the students’ prior knowledge of the previous lesson.
Teacher lecturing: The teacher explains the following historical phenomena: origin of the Warsaw Pact, causes of the Hungarian revolt, and the beginning of the Hungarian Revolt. Individual assignments: Students work individually to complete questions 8 to 10.
Case to enhance awareness of present-oriented perspectives: The teacher provides dyads with a handout with questions on the execution of the Rosenbergs. Central task for the dyads is to explain why Ethel Rosenberg was executed despite the marginal evidence of espionage. In a classroom discussion, the dyad’s answers
Prior knowledge activation: The teacher activates the students’ prior knowledge of the previous lesson.
Teacher lecturing: The teacher explains the following historical phenomena: entities between the USA and the Soviet-Union, the rise and fall of McCarthy, and the American fear of communism.
are discussed. In this discussion, the teacher uses the students’ present-oriented answers to explain the consequences of viewing the past from a present-oriented perspective (i.e., not able to explain the case).
Reconstructing the historical context: The teacher explains the following historical phenomena: entities between the USA and the Soviet-Union, The rise and fall of McCarthy, and the American fear of communism.
Individual assignments: Students work individually to complete questions 4 to 7.
Whole-class discussion: Students’ answers to the assignments are discussed.
Evaluating the case: The teacher asks the dyads to explain the case again but now to explicitly use the newly acquired historical context knowledge. In this classroom discussion, the teacher explains the importance of historical contextualization by stressing the differences between the students’ present-oriented answers (from the first lesson activity) and the contextualized answers.
Recap: The teacher repeats the most important historical events explained in this lesson.
Whole-class discussion: Students’ answers to the assignments are discussed.
Recap: The teacher repeats the most important historical events explained in this lesson.