“Couldn't she just leave?”: The Relationship Between Consistently Using Class Discussions and the Development of Historical Empathy in a 9^thGrade World History Course

Toward Historical Perspective Taking: Students’ Reasoning When Contextualizing the Actions of People in the Past

“…Historical empathy refers to placing oneself in the position of people in the past to understand their motives and values regarding their decisions and actions (e.g., Cunningham, 2009;Endacott & Sturtz, 2014). Although some scholars have argued that historical empathy can never be fully achieved and is idealistic because it is impossible to put oneself in the shoes of a historical agent (e.g., Kitson, Husbands, & Steward, 2011;Riley, 1998;Wineburg, 1998), many scholars have concluded that historical empathy contributes to insights about historical agents' decisions (e.g., Brooks, 2011;Endacott & Brooks, 2013;Kohlmeier, 2006). However, though history education research has debated the extent to which historical empathy is an affective or cognitive achievement (e.g., Virja & Kouki, 2014), we consider historical empathy as a combination of affective and cognitive processes, following the conceptualization of scholars such as Endacott and Brooks (2013).…”

“…Though research has been conducted on how certain tasks, such as class discussions (Kohlmeier, 2006), source work (Brooks, 2011), and writing assignments (Brooks, 2008), can support components of HPT, important questions regarding the process of HPT and the difficulties students experience when performing HPT remain. For example, do students who rush to conclusions or who do not display their specification of ignorance perform more poorly on HPT than students who express doubt, ask questions, and understand the consequences of what they do not know?…”

Slaves, Women, and War! Engaging Middle School Students in Historical Empathy for Enduring Understanding

“…How could her students possibly understand how they would have thought or felt about issues surrounding social control? She knows that her students will never be able to crawl inside the hearts and minds of long-dead people, yet she also knows that research shows it is possible for students to overcome their modern day perspectives and try to see the world as somebody from the past might (Brooks 2008;Endacott 2010;Kohlmeier 2006). Sophia knows that there is a great deal her students can learn from this effort, especially from their limitations as modern day students of history.…”

“…Discussion is an important element of engaging in historical empathy (Brooks 2011;Endacott 2010;Kohlmeier 2006), and Sophia encourages discussion during cooperative learning. Her students become really excited when they find a great primary source that provides another piece of the contextual puzzle.…”

The “Chalk Talk” 2.0: Using Google Docs to Improve the Silent Discussion in Social Studies

“…These can include a lack of student participation or interest, talking out of turn, or students who simply do not reflect on the specific topic being discussed. Another challenge in using discussion that many classroom teachers may face is the "class clowns" who are more interested in making their classmates laugh than making serious contributions to the topic that is being examined (Flynn 2009;Kohlmeier 2006;Washington and Humphries 2011).…”