International Review of History Education

International Review of History Education, Volume 2

Mario Carretero, James Voss, Mario Carretero, James Voss

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781136224652
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Pedagogía
• Subtopic: Educación general

This volume consists of the proceedings of an international conference on cognition and instruction in history. The papers cover several areas: historical narratives and history teaching; the use of texts, documents and images in learning history; and historical explanation and understanding.

1

Introduction

JAMES F. VOSS and MARIO CARRETERO

The cognitive study of learning and instruction in history, as with the cognitive study of virtually any subject matter domain, tends to focus on how the particular subject matter is acquired and how individuals reason within the context of that domain. The former type of study typically involves performing a given manipulation to determine whether that manipulation facilitates learning as compared to a control condition. The study of reasoning in the domain in question may consist of determining how individuals solve problems or provide explanations and how such performance may be facilitated.

While most of the cognitive-oriented subject matter research hasbeen conducted in physics and mathematics, there has been an increasing interest in history as a domain of inquiry. In addition to the Carretero and Voss volume (1994), a number of other volumes portray this influx of work (e.g., Leinhardt, Beck, and Stainton, 1994) as well as the pub­ lication of some insightful papers (e.g., Holt, 1990; Wineburg, 1991).

The study of history raises issues that are not observed, or are observed to a lesser extent, in other domains. History has relatively few basic concepts. Historical information is found in various forms, including written narrative and expository forms as well as photographs, paintings, sketches etc. History is rewritten not only when new historical information is discovered but also because a historian's writing of history is influenced by that historian's own times. History, while traditionally a study of states, heroes, wars, and conquests and their various geographical, economic and sociopolitical components, has become a much broader topic with the writings of social history. History, with the possible exception of literature, is the most verbal, as opposed to quantitative, subject matter typically taught in schools, thus providing for the development of student reasoning skills such as argumentation. Theory in history also has many dimensions, ranging from a world-view framework for history such as the Marxian view to explanation shown by effective narrative. Causation is a philosophical morass, with causation viewed at one extreme as not possible to the positivistic position that assumes causal laws.

The myriad of issues associated with the field of history provides a rich soil for intellectually stimulating research. But only a limited number of questions can typically be studied at one time, and investigators, motivated by their own interests, the theoretical importance of an issue, the centrality for instruction, or some other set of factors, have conducted research on a number of these issues, with some receiving considerably more attention than others.

The Carretero and Voss volume (1994) had chapters relating to four respective areas of study. One was cognitive developmental processes. Most authors contributing to this topic focussed upon the relation of Piagetian theory and history learning although one author drew heavily on schematic conceptual structures and historical understanding. A second topic involved reasoning in history as performed by experts and novices, with the latter involving how instruction is related to student learning. Additional papers consisted of analysis of how student understanding involves personification in history, how student teachers encountering particular instructional methods do not necessarily employ those methods in teaching, and how consideration of controversial issues can enhance learning.

A third topic involved how individuals learn history from text. This work included research about particular issues of history instruction, such as extent of background knowledge. The fourth topic was a catch­ all category of studies that involves complex issues. These included causal reasoning in history, the relation of theory and evidence, how history is reconstructed by students when it is based upon contemporary society, and biases produced in 'stories' of history.

The present volume, while related in some ways to that outlined above, nevertheless explores a number of issues not found there: issues that provide not only a broadening of research but a more in-depth analysis of complex history issues. Furthermore, a greater number of historians participated. This is an important step because instructional processes, we feel, benefit from a cognitive analysis of history learning and reasoning when that analysis is related to a historian's view of the nature of history and the related instruction. Such interaction brings together a variety of perspectives that will result in outcomes enhancing student historical understanding.

The present volume also contains four sections. The first, on narrative and sociocultural approaches to history, contains five chapters. No doubt, one of the features of the changes inside history as a discipline during the most recent decades has been the change from a structuralist view to a more narrativist approach. It is well known that during the first half of this century, the Annales school and Marxism were influential in the development of history, with history regarded as a field that was trying to provide causal explanation based on a set of economic, political, scientific and social factors. Certainly, it can be said in general that these approaches have helped history enormously in its efforts to be a more scientific and objective discipline. But in the last decades, a number of controversial matters have appeared in historiographical studies producing important changes. One illustrative change has been that numerous studies about the history of private life, history of women, and history of mentalities have been conducted. This important shift has been due, among other things, to the need for recovering the historical subject, who had been lost in the middle of a puzzle of different types of structures. To a certain extent, it can be said that nowadays it is impossible to understand contemporary historiographical productions without taking into account the contribution of the structuralist and narrativist approaches. This debate is focussed elsewhere, as for example in psychology in which Bruner (1990) has criticized cognitive psychology because of its misuse of 'paradigmatic mode' of thought, forgetting narrativist possibilities and intentional explanations.

The first section on narrativist approaches in history and history teaching has certainly benefitted from the contributions of two historians, Topolski (Poland) and Martinez-Shaw (Spain), maintaining points of view that do not always coincide, but showing in this way the richness of the field at this point. It is important to clarify that most of the Martinez­ Shaw claims have to do with history by itself, whereas Topolski's ideas are much more related to the teaching of history. Topolski starts his chapter maintaining that 'it is useful or even necessary for successful teaching of history to always take into account the developments, achievements and tendencies in the philosophy of history'. Certainly, this position basically coincides with Lee's claims (1983) and probably it should deserve more attention from other researchers in the future. For example, there is no doubt that teachers of history make use very often of meaningful and more or less coherent narratives in order to accomplish their educational goal. It might be that instructional problems that arise from these uses can be analyzed from a philosophy of history point of view.

Topolski presents an insightful analysis of how different types of narratives shape the whole process of historical research and its conclusions. No doubt, his claims can be useful for both philosophy and history and the teaching of history, but still an important question remains, that is, how and to what extent instructional methods can benefit from this type of analysis. For example, in which grade and through which kind of educational materials can students get the idea that history is, according to Topolski, a set of successive narratives? But on the other hand, the dichotomy of structural-narrativist history is, at least from an educational point of view, a rather simple one. History teaching has traditionally been criticized because it involves a superficial exposition of tales and short stories. Therefore, from an educational point of view, the question would be how to use a complex, meaningful narration in the teaching of history in such a way that it could help promote real and deep historical understanding.

In most countries, history textbooks offer mainly an official history approach. This is not surprising, for textbooks typically contain information that reproduces most of the predominant values in any society. The chapters by Penuel and Wertsch and by Wertsch and Rozin address this issue by examining the contrast between the official history and an unofficial history. Rosa, Blanco, and Huertas then present a chapter on a historical study of psychology, using the topic to point out how students learn a 'master narrative' of the field and also internalize the values and sanctioned activities of the domain.

The second section, while generally concerned with learning history from text, broadens the study of this area by examining student argument structures when historical controversies are encountered (Rouet, Marron, Perfetti, and Favart). Hernandez examines learning via art history, while Fasulo, Girardet, and Pontecorvo describe a study of learning from a historical picture via group discussion. The use of analogies in history is explored by Young and Leinhardt, who demonstrate how analogies are used by students and teachers and when they are used.

The third section contains five diverse papers on explanation in history. Voss, Ciarrochi and Carretero are concerned with the extent to which individuals, in an historical context, have an 'intuitive' sense of necessity and sufficiency. Lim6n and Carretero also explore an aspect of causal reasoning in history, inquiring into how experts and novices regard structural, as opposed to, personal factors as causal. Lee, Dickinson, and Ashby, describing a phase of the CHATA work on English school-children's ideas about history, are concerned with causal factors in Rome's invasion of England, including factors related to human motivation. Riviere, NUfl.ez, Barquero, and Fontela also deal with the role of intentionality. Hallden's discussion is concerned with personification as a causal factor in student explanations of history.

The fourth section is concerned with the teaching of history. Steams, a historian who has written extensively in social history, delineates goals of history teaching, emphasizing the importance of change over time and its components of continuity and causation. A number of difficulties in reaching these goals of instruction are also considered. The remaining five chapters of this section are concerned with student understanding of historical concepts. Jacott, L6pez-Manj6n, and Carretero report the results of a study showing how the type of historical explanations students provide change with age. Voss, Wiley, and Kennet present an extensive study of student conceptual understanding, including inquiry concerning whether students have a 'naive' model or theory of history that is consonant with a given theory of history. Dominguez and Pozo also studied causal reasoning in history, in their case by examining the relationship of concepts and procedures. Similarly, Fernandez-Corte and Garda-Madruga studied explanation in the context of the industrial revolution. The final discussion paper by von Borries considers further the theme of representation and understanding of history.

The chapters constituting this volume thus are aimed at providing a broader and deeper understanding of how people learn and reason about history and how instruction in history may improve such performance.

Section I

Narrative and Sociocultural Approach to History Teaching and Learning

2

The Structure of Historical Narratives and the Teaching of History

JERETZ TOPOLSKI

The Historical Narrative

My general thesis is the conviction that it is useful or even necessary for the successful teaching of history always to take into account the developments, achievements and tendencies in the philosophy of history. The narratives contained in historical textbooks and those 'produced' directly by teachers in school have a structure (form) and content which is the result of the functioning of different mechanisms which are intellectual and social. That structure and those mechanisms are now the object of different studies and discussions which are mostly due to the changes within the philosophy of history. In the traditional (positivist, analytical) philosophy of history the main interest was (and is) focussed on the logical structure of historiography, predominantly on the logical models of explanation. The narrative, its structure other than the logical one, and the mechanisms of its 'production' were of only marginal interest for that philosophy of history which for this reason was of no great use for teachers.

It is impossible to make progress in the teaching of history without analyzing the practice of teachers and it is impossible to analyze this practice without taking into account the structure and the functioning of the historical narrative. Peter Lee, in his analysis of the relationship between history teaching and the philosophy of history, came to the conclusion that 'philosophy of history is necessary in any attempt to arrive at a rational way of teaching history, even if it is not sufficient' (Lee, 1983, p. 48). Lee writes that 'hitherto discussion has for the most part concentrated on the notion of historical evidence; there has been some work on cause, explanation, and empathy, but imagination, interpretation, objectivity, significance, and importance all cry out for more attention'. To this list one can add historical narration although some problems concerning this topic are components of the research program proposed by Lee. He also writes about historical narratives more explicitly: 'The particular logical features which distinguish history from other forms of knowledge-obvious candidates are its narrative structure, colligatory organization, its concern with human action and rational explanation - will obviously require much more careful consideration in any attempt to characterize the discipline's most important features as a basis for history teaching'.

Philosophy of history, especially in its contemporary narrative form, is, from one side, useful (probably necessary) for didacticians to analyze the practice of the teachers and to formulate didactic rules, and, from the other side, for the teachers who should not only know the factual content of the past but also the structure of the discipline ofhistory. The growing number of studies in the field of the didactic of history concerning the ways and levels of children's historical thinking and the models of didactic practice of history teaching show us a very complex situation. They discover first of all the plurality and evolution of the learners' reception schemes and, at the same time, the teachers' different understanding of their tasks in the teaching of history. Egan distinguishes, for example, four strategies in the evolution of children's historical thinking: the mythic, the romantic, the philosophic and the ironic.

The mythic stage (or paradigm) is characteristic for children from the earliest years up to about age seven. The prominent interest for these children is what one may loosely call fairy stories which involve clear structural opposition between characters or forces embodying binary pairs like good/bad, big/little etc. In the romantic paradigm the boundaries between reality and fantasy become of great importance. The learners now realize that history is about real people who want to succeed in their activities. 'The history curriculum of these years might best be made up of units which are chosen to exemplifY transcendent human qualities like courage, humility, energy, power, sanctity, perseverance, and so on. The unit may be in a capsule form; what went before and what came after is of little consequence. What matters is that the particular material is true, exemplifies qualities in extremis, has a strong narrative line, allows the exploration of something in great detail, and introduces elements that are as different as possible from the students' daily experience' (Egan, 1983). The philosophic stage, which lasts from about 14 years to about 20, leads to the understanding that history is not a series of stories but a causal process. In this age the learners focus on abstract general schemes where they regard these schemes as the sources of truth. Only in the next, ironic stage do they come to the conclusion that 'no general scheme can adequately reflect the richness and complexity of reality' (Egan, 1983).

According to the study by Lautier (1994), it is possible to propose four models of the didactic practice and of educational ends in the sphere of history teaching. The first model presupposes that by its presentation alone the knowledge of the past can provide lessons which allow us to avoid reproducing the once committed errors. In the second model, the educational aim can be achieved (so think its partisans) not so much by the demonstration of the historical process as by the training of the behavioral and cognitive capacities of the learners. The third model characterized by Lautier is a classical transmission of knowledge restricting chronology and historical argumentation with no priority for the educative scope. And finally, in the fourth model, called the model of the autonomy of taught history, the teachers do not claim to always find an underlying logic in history and do not ask for lessons of the past. They do not think that the educative function of the taught history is particularly tied to the contents of teaching.

Layers of the Historical Narrative

The main point of interest in the didactic activity in history teaching should be the historical narratives. This fundamental observation is not yet sufficiently recognized as a research necessity in the sphere of historical education. From the current studies concerning the teaching of history at least two conclusions come to the fore: (1) It is necessary (or at least useful) to take into consideration, in the construction of the historical narratives addressed to the learners at school, their capacities for historical thinking; (2) In order to characterize the models of history teaching one should analyze the attitude of teachers towards historical narration. One of the preliminary steps in such a comprehension of the tasks of the didactic of history is to take cognizance of, or eventually absorb the analyses of, the historical narratives produced by the philosophers of history who at the same time could enrich their view on the functioning of the histor...