Page 183 - Balancing between the present and the past

Despite these limitations, this study shows promising indicators for using the three-stage framework to develop lesson activities that encourage historical contextualization. The study presents a concrete example for teachers who wish to teach students historical contextualization in their lessons. The framework can easily be implemented in one history lesson or can be taught in multiple lessons. Moreover, teachers can use one or more items from the historical contextualization test to gain insight into students’ progress in historical contextualization and to teach them how to improve in historical contextualization as a form of formative assessment (e.g., Heritage, 2010). The question format for choosing a statement can easily be used to collect information about the students’ ability to perform historical contextualization among a large and heterogenous group of students. The study offers positive indicators for the ways in which historical contextualization can be encouraged in classrooms. The success of the intervention is best illustrated by Lisa, the 14-year- old girl who displayed a present-oriented perspective on the firing of women when they married in the 1950s. She answered the same question in the post-test: “I can explain why it happened. I do not agree with it, but I know that in the 1950s, there were different beliefs and values compared to our contemporary society.”
7 181
A historical contextualization framework