Browsing by Subject "historiallinen ajattelu"

Introduction. History teaching, according to the The Finnish Core Curriculum for Basic Education (2014), should be based upon five elements of historical thinking. Thus pupil assessment should address what pupils have learnt about chronology, historical empathy, change and continuity, cause and consequence, reading and interpretation of both primary and secondary sources. Nonetheless, books and other materials used in history lessons mostly still rely on substance knowledge. There is some evidence to suggest that the assessment done by teachers might encourage pupils to memorize facts rather than focus on the skills of historical thinking. It is the aim of this study to create and develop assessment material which gives teachers relevant information about their pupils' progress in historical thinking. The assessment task is meant for pupils in grade 6 and is designed to be aligned with the core curriculum. There are assessment criteria as well to ensure that the marking conducted by teachers could be as reliable as possible. Methodology. This study followed the principles of a design-based research. An artefact, comprising a document-based assessment task and assessment instructions for the teacher, was created. This one-hour-task was then tested in a class of 20 pupils. Two pupils were chosen to perform the task through think-aloud-method while the rest (18) gave written answers. The purpose of using a think aloud interview was to generate as much information as possible about the cognitive processes that a pupil goes through while reading the sources and answering the questions. The assessment task was then re-designed based on the answers given by the pupils. The final version of the task was tested again in another class of 21 pupils. The assessment criteria were re-designed based on the second testing. In order to gain information about the reliability of the task, a teacher was asked to assess the open ended questions using the assessment instructions. Conclusions. Testing the artefact for the first time it became evident that certain concepts used in the task, such as reliability of sources, were too difficult for the pupils. In addition, the phrasing of some questions was unclear, which resulted in misunderstandings. In the re-designed version of the artefact these issues were addressed and the problems did not re-occur in the second testing. It seems that the task was not too exhausting as 75 percent of all the the pupils answered an extra question as well. Most pupils were able to use the sources given in the task and base their answers on them. However, the sources were used by many for information and not for evidence. Thus evidence-based conclusions were rare. Critical evaluation of the primary and secondary sources was not common among the pupils.

This study looks at how 5th grade students identify and understand cause and effect in history. The study is a continuation of my bachelor thesis, in which I discussed the concept of historical thinking and presented arguments for and against whether it is worthwhile or possible to teach it to primary school students. Explaining historical events requires working with and understanding cause and effect relationships. In order to understand how certain circumstances, acts and actions led to others, we need to look at causality. In my research, I seek answers to the question of how children understand the causal relationships involved in the murder of Julius Caesar. It is a case study, with data consisting of a written task carried out by ten pupils in pairs and interviews with four pupils. The data was collected in a primary school in Helsinki in the spring of 2023. The method of analysis is theory- based content analysis. I formed my research analysis framework by using the assessment criteria of the 6th grade history subject, through which I examined my data. All the students who participated in the study were able to demonstrate some identification and understanding of causal relationships. However, my research suggests that this was still at a superficial level, with students mostly identifying and understanding individual causal relationships. The interviews showed that students understood causality. The study provides insights into what was challenging for students in terms of understanding causal relationships and how they identified causal relationships.