Abstract:

This contribution is situated within a larger research project in the subject of history in lower secondary education. More specifically, this paper focuses on three factors that have not yet been investigated but have an impact on students’ arguing skills: students’ epistemological understanding, students’ engagement for history outside school and teachers’ beliefs on teaching historical reasoning skills. Students’ epistemological understanding can be defined as their insight into the nature and construction of historical knowledge [1]. Studies generally distinguish between three levels of epistemological understanding: the absolutist (history as an absolute truth), multiplist (history as an opinion), and evaluativists (history as a substantiated conclusion) level [3]. Looking at engagement, research pointed out the importance of engagement in historical activities [2]. However, there is no attention for engagement in historical activities outside the school context (go to museums, watch a historical movie…). Teachers’ beliefs on teaching historical reasoning skills can be categorized in three types: understanding (historical reasoning is about comprehending information), evaluating (historical reasoning is about evaluating information to determine the most correct source) and investigating (historical reasoning is about solving a historical problem) [3]. The main aim of the study was to examine the influence of those three variables on students’ arguing skills.

We examined:
(1) the epistemological understanding of history, and
(2) the engagement for history of 942 students and
(3) the beliefs on teaching historical reasoning skills of 24 teachers in Flemish (Belgium) lower secondary education.

Student-data were collected using a document-based essay about the murder of the Roman emperor Claudius and teacher-data were collected by teachers describing their own practice and how they implement historical reasoning in class.

Our study indicates that only students’ engagement in historical activities outside the school context and teachers’ beliefs on teaching historical reasoning seem to have a significant effect on students’ arguing skills.

This means that:
(1) students who engage more frequently in historical activities outside school score significantly higher on arguing skills compared to students who engage less in those activities.
(2) students whose teachers have an understanding or evaluating view on teaching historical reasoning in class, score significantly lower on arguing skills compared to students from teachers with an investigating view on historical reasoning. Students’ epistemological understanding of history seems to have no significant effect on students’ arguing skills. Being an absolutist or a multiplist only showed a non-significant negative relation with arguing capabilities compared to evaluativists.

This study shows the impact of different variables on students’ arguing skills. Full results will be discussed at EDULEARN21.

References:
[1] Kuhn, D., Cheney, R., & Weinstock, M. (2000). The development of epistemological understanding. Cognitive Development,15 (3),309–328.
[2] Rosenzweig, R., & Thelen, D. (1994).The presence of the past. Popular uses of history in American Life.
[3] Voet, M., & De Wever, B. (2016).History teachers’ conceptions of inquiry-based learning, beliefs about the nature of history, and their relation to the classroom context. Teaching and Teacher Education, 55, 57–67.

Keywords:

Historical reasoning, epistemology, engagement in history, teachers' beliefs, arguing skills.