Teaching historical thinking and reasoning: Teacher beliefs

Abstract

This study aims to give an insight into the beliefs that shape history teachers’ orientations towards their subject and how they approach it. We take a closer look at the beliefs of a group of teachers to see if there is a connection between those beliefs and whether and how they teach historical thinking and reasoning (HTR). HTR has been considered an important component in history teaching in many countries for some decades. Different factors may influence whether teachers are willing or able to teach it. Our main research question is: Which beliefs about goals and strategies of teaching history play a role in teachers’ inclinations towards teaching historical thinking and reasoning?

Student teacher professional growth on teaching historical thinking and reasoning: A case study on the use of an observation instrument

“…Moving away from what may be labelled as 'traditional' history teaching, which focuses on students being able to recall historical facts, is a challenging task for many teachers. Teaching HTR is a complex task, as our analysis of history lessons on whether and how historical thinking and reasoning is being taught confirms (Gestsdóttir et al, 2019;Gestsdóttir et al, 2021). The interpretative nature of history calls upon higher order thinking skills.…”

“…Hence, the model cannot only facilitate the investigation of change in (student-)teacher knowledge, beliefs and attitudes towards teaching historical thinking and reasoning but also address potential sources for this change (from information sources, enactment/trying out new methods in the classroom or reflection). In a previous study, we focussed on the personal domain when we investigated teacher beliefs that influence experienced teachers' choices of teaching approaches with regard to HTR (Gestsdóttir et al, 2021). In this study we continue by being mainly concerned with the personal domain but related to the domain of practice and the external domain.…”

Strategies in Remote Teaching of Architectural History for imparting Quality Education in the Pandemic-effected scenario

“…With experience, teachers gradually form their views of how the subject should be taught, based on their beliefs about the nature of their subject, and about teaching in general. This is related to what (Shulman, 1986) calls pedagogical content knowledge (Gestsdóttir, Drie, & Boxtel, 2021).…”

Enseñar historia en México: percepciones docentes en la Educación Primaria

“…En los resultados, se encontró que la mayoría de los profesores entendía la historia como un relato, y no tanto como un proceso de interpretación del pasado, generando evidentes repercusiones en el proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje de la historia. Otros estudios posteriores apuntan también a la importancia de las concepciones y creencias de los docentes sobre la historia y su naturaleza interpretativa, que parecen influir directamente en la forma en que estos docentes enseñan historia (Gestsdóttir, 2021;Voet y De Weber, 2016). Cuanto más simple y cerrada es la concepción de la historia de los docentes, menor parece ser la capacidad de desarrollar una enseñanza compleja y competencial.…”