Page 29 - Balancing between the present and the past

2.1 Introduction
During one observation of classroom practice, we heard a history teacher asking his
students the following question: “Can you explain why people in Germany voted for 2 Hitler in the 1930s?” Most students answered that they could not understand why
anyone would vote for such a terrible and evil leader, who was responsible for the
deaths of millions. Just one student in this class described the historical context of
Germany in the 1930s, coming to the conclusion that some people may well have
voted for Hitler in response to the poor economic circumstances, German anger over
the Treaty of Versailles, and widespread calls for a strong leader. This last one student
was the only one to display historical perspective taking (HPT).
Historical reasoning competencies including HPT have become increasingly important for learning history (Barton & Levstik, 2004; Haydn, Arthur, Hunt, & Stephen, 1997; Haydn & Counsell, 2002; Lévesque, 2008; Maggioni, Alexander, & VanSledright, 2004; Osborne, 2006; O’Reilly, 1991; Perfetti, Britt, & Georgi, 1995; Seixas & Morton, 2013; Spoehr & Spoehr, 1994; Van Drie & Van Boxtel, 2008; Wineburg, 2001; Yeager & Foster, 2001). Historical reasoning competencies therefore have been incorporated in the history curricula of many countries such as the USA, Canada, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Belgium, Germany, Finland, and the Netherlands.
Despite the growing importance of historical reasoning competencies, valid and reliable large-scale measurement instruments for assessing these competencies are scarce. Rothstein (2004) noted that history teachers often assess only the factual background of history and not students’ ability to perform historical reasoning. The reason for this, according to Rothstein, is the difficulty of constructing valid and reliable standardized tests. This difficulty is emphasized by Reich (2009), who was one of the few to attempt to measure historical reasoning competencies using multiple- choice items. However, he concluded that multiple-choice items merely tested history content, literacy, and test-wiseness but not important discipline-based thinking, such as HPT. Peck and Seixas (2008) noted that the focus of classroom assessment relies on factual recall and that, as a result, there is a lack of systematic assessment of students’ progression in historical reasoning competencies. Students, teachers, and educational professionals might therefore have an uncertain grasp on what progress in history education means, as Haydn (2011) noted. Recently, Fordham (2013) and VanSledright (2013) also argued for new assessment formats, if educational professionals wish
Measuring historical contextualization
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