Page 188 - Balancing between the present and the past

Chapter 8
how teachers promote historical contextualization, and (3) classroom materials that promote historical contextualization. To examine these problems, we formulated the following main research question for this thesis: How can students’ ability to perform historical contextualization be promoted? To answer the main research question, a total of five research questions were formulated:
1. How can we measure elementary and secondary school students’ ability to contextualize historical agents’ actions?
2. How successfully can secondary school students contextualize historical agents’ actions?
3. What instrument can be used to observe how history teachers promote historical contextualization in classrooms?
4. How do history teachers promote historical contextualization in their classrooms?
5. What are the effects of a lesson unit designed to promote secondary school students’ ability to perform historical contextualization?
The first two research questions focused on students’ ability to contextualize historical agent’s actions (historical perspective taking). The framework for teaching historical contextualization was used in these two studies to design and test instruments and to analyze how students performed historical contextualization. The third and fourth research questions examined teachers’ instructions with regard to historical contextualization. In these two studies, the framework was used to develop an observation-instrument to explore how teachers promote historical contextualization in classrooms. To answer the final research question, the framework was used to design classroom materials. The effects of these materials on student’s ability to perform historical contextualization were tested in two intervention studies.
8.1.1 Students’ ability to perform historical contextualization
The first study (Chapter 2) focused on developing and testing two instruments that measure students’ ability to perform historical contextualization and how students at different ages and educational levels perform historical contextualization. In the second study (Chapter 3), we used the most reliable instrument of the first study to examine students’ reasoning when asked to perform the task of the instrument.
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