Paul Holthuis

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

Abstract An important goal of history education is to promote the student’s ability to perform historical perspective taking (HPT). HPT refers to the ability to understand how people in the past viewed their world at various times and in various places to explain why they did what they did. In this study, we assessed a sample of 15- and 16-year-old students (n = 143) to determine their ability to contextualize the actions of people in the past. Subsequently, we explored their reasoning (n = 36) to uncover their contextualization process. The results of this mixed methodology study indicate that most of the students in the sample performed well when engaging in HPT. Moreover, protocol analysis identified the different reasoning strategies that students employed to successfully perform HPT. The results of this study provide insight into history instruction regarding HPT and into strategies for designing valid and reliable HPT tasks.

Promoting historical contextualization: the development and testing of a pedagogy

Abstract The aim of this explorative study was to develop and test a pedagogy aimed at promoting students’ ability to perform historical contextualization. Teaching historical contextualization was conceptualized in terms of four pedagogical design principles: (1) making students aware of the consequences of a present-oriented perspective when examining the past, (2) enhancing the reconstruction of a historical context, (3) enhancing the use of the historical context to explain historical phenomena and (4) enhancing historical empathy. The effectiveness of these principles was explored in a lesson unit focusing on the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In a quasi-experimental pre-test–post-test design with experimental and control conditions, the effects of the pedagogy on 15- and 16-year-old students’ ability to perform historical contextualization were examined (n = 131). The results indicated that students in the experimental condition significantly improved their ability to perform historical contextualization compared to students in the control condition. These findings could be used to help teachers and other educational professionals design and implement historical contextualization tasks and instructions.

Promoting historical contextualisation in classrooms: an observational study

ABSTRACT The aim of this observational study is to explore how history teachers promote historical contextualisation in their lessons. Historical contextualisation is the ability to situate phenomena and individuals’ actions in the context of time, historical location, long-term developments, or specific events to give meaning to these phenomena and actions. Using the Framework for Analysing the Teaching of Historical Contextualisation (FAT-HC), five trained raters observed eight history teachers twice. To further analyse the observation scores, the FAT-HC items were divided into eight categories while distinguishing between items that demonstrate historical contextualisation and items focusing on engaging students in historical contextualisation processes. The results indicate that the teachers in the sample did not explicitly promote historical contextualisation in their lessons. No teacher obtained a mean FAT-HC score >2.00 on a four-point scale. The teachers mainly demonstrated historical contextualisation, while engaging students in historical contextualisation processes was observed far less often. The findings can be used to help teachers formulate domain-specific instruction to promote students’ ability to perform historical contextualisation.