Taking the "history" out of historical thinking to teach adolescents to evaluate informational text
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Twenty-four eighth-grade students in an urban public school participated in a classroom-based design experiment for four months. The purpose of the study was to discover how an established high school history curriculum featuring multiple documents and historical thinking strategies can be modified for use with younger students of average reading ability and applied to nonhistorical topics in a classroom setting. Classroom studies about historical thinking, whether large-scale interventions (De La Paz, 2005; Nokes, Dole, & Hacker, 2007; Reisman, 2012) or exploratory stories (Stahl, Hynd, Britton, McNish, & Bosquet, 1996; Wolfe & Goldman, 2005; VanSledright, 2002; Wineburg, 1991a) have focused understandably on the discipline of history. Most research about multiple documents reading has been primarily postsecondary psychological studies that explored what students already know how to do (Bråten, Strømsø, & Britt, 2009; Strømsø, Bråten, & Samuelstuen, 2003). Training studies for school age students evaluating multiple documents have been of short duration and have sought primarily cognitive explanations (Macedo-Rouet, Braasch, Britt, & Rouet, 2013). The present study attempted to discover how to teach these skills in an authentic, long-term classroom setting; how historical thinking strategies can be applied to nonhistorical text; how young adolescents develop such skills over time and in a social setting; and how teachers can apply these principles without relying solely on professionally developed curricula. In accordance with the principles of a design experiment, curriculum and instructional methods were modified regularly throughout the intervention. Findings included insights into how written responses to historical thinking questions do not adequately reflect the complexity of thinking students are able to communicate in small-group discussions; the importance of social interactions in developing these critical reading skills; and a framework of instructional design for teachers who wish to use historical thinking strategies to promote critical reading of contemporary informational texts. In particular, one of the more successful modifications was the reconfiguration of the sourcing task from its traditional presentation in a historical thinking curriculum as a reading task featuring six constant factors to consider. An informal assessment of historical thinking conducted prior to and after the intervention showed a significant increase in students' ability to think historically.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic; electronic resource; remote |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Publication date | 2013 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Associated with | Haubner, Julie Park |
|---|---|
| Associated with | Stanford University, School of Education. |
| Primary advisor | Wineburg, Samuel S |
| Thesis advisor | Wineburg, Samuel S |
| Thesis advisor | Aukerman, Maren (Maren Songmy) |
| Thesis advisor | Juel, Connie |
| Thesis advisor | Shulman, Lee S |
| Advisor | Aukerman, Maren (Maren Songmy) |
| Advisor | Juel, Connie |
| Advisor | Shulman, Lee S |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Julie Park Haubner. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the School of Education. |
| Thesis | Thesis (Ph.D.)--Stanford University, 2013. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2013 by Julie Park Haubner
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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