Browsing by Subject "Che Guevara"

Objectives. The aim of the study was to develop a tool of thinking for Basic Education of history us-ing diary material. The philosophical background of the study is John Dewey’s experiential view of learning together with Dewey’s (1933) model of reflective thinking. To paraphrase a French philoso-pher and literature theorist Jean-Francois Lyotard (1985), the present very complex and global world is associated with the fragmentation of knowledge and truths. The resulting change in pres-sure is highlighted especially through the everyday experiences of growing kids and young. Dew-ey’s philosophy of education emphasizes the connection of knowledge and action together with ex-periential and reflective way of learning. The importance of experience and empathy is also empha-sized in the concept of learning as defined in the 2014 Finnish National Curriculum, which sets the basis to the Basic Education that aims to educate the student to become self-confident and active. The aim of this study was to develop the experiential history teaching that provides the keys to deal with student’s own experiences and thus also to develop one’s thinking. Methods. The tool of thinking developed in the study is based on the qualitative theory-based con-tent analysis of Ernesto Che Guevara’s diary about his youth years called The Motorcycle Diary (1997). The diary has been analyzed by reflective mirroring Dewey’s (1933) model of reflection and developing experiential learning perspective. The purpose of the tool created in this study is to ex-pand and diversify the student’s perspectives on the surrounding world and the phenomena’s affect-ing it. The key of teaching history was to get to know other people’s experiences and to reflect those to one’s own experiences. A more comprehensive interpretation of the phenomena through experientialism was carried out by exploring the experiences of a historically and socially significant person using micro-historical teaching method. Results and conclusions. The study showed that diary material can be used as a tool for the basic historical education combining it with experiential teaching. The tool of thinking developed in the study supports the development of thinking and learning skills described in the 2014 Finland's Na-tional Curriculum which intuitively derives from student’s own experience, not just by deducing. With the help of a more subjective tool that supports the student’s own experiences, it is possible to stand in the position of another person in a more sensitively way than before and review your thoughts again. We cannot understand the world around us unless we understand ourselves first. In the future it is possible to test the tool of thinking in practice in the school context.