The competences that make up historical thinking constitute a leading line of research and innovation at international level in the area of Didactics of the Social Sciences, as they connect with the main challenges of today's society, such as the training of critical, active and democratic citizens who act for the benefit of the defence of human rights, heritage, democratic systems and the sustainability of the planet.
In this training, the Baccalaureate stage is of particular importance, as it is the years in which students will be trained, perhaps for the last time, in the subject of History and, therefore, in historical competences from which they can approach everyday reality in a critical way and put democratic attitudes into practice. The interest in this type of question is even greater at a time of change in educational legislation such as the present.
The approach to teaching based on the predominance of substantive historical content (dates, data, concepts and events) implies a descriptive and conceptual treatment of history, leading to a general epistemic belief that the past and history are mimetic realities, which is incorrect. It is therefore necessary to include in the history teaching process the so-called strategic or second-order contents (historical relevance, identification of causes and consequences, change and continuity, analysis of sources, empathy or historical perspective and historical awareness), as they help to answer historical questions and to understand the past in a more complex way.
However, traditionally, Baccalaureate students do not receive a historical education that allows them to develop deep levels of historical thinking, neither in substantive content nor historical thinking skills. Moreover, assessment and university entrance exams are often closer to reproducing academic content than problem-solving through sources and the work of historical skills. Consequently, the study that students carry out to cover such an extensive syllabus is superficial, which leads them to have little recollection of historical content after some time has elapsed since they have passed through these educational stages. This makes it difficult for them to establish causal relationships between historical problems and current reality, thus hindering their integration into society as critical and reflective citizens. One of the main objectives of this proposal is to verify the extent to which this occurs in Spain, Portugal and Ibero-America.
Thus, some of the dilemmas we face are the following:
How are historical thinking skills taught in History subjects in the baccalaureate, and are historical thinking skills assessed in the baccalaureate classrooms? If so, which ones and how, and does they enable students to possess these historical thinking skills? What is the opinion of teachers and students on the teaching-learning process of historical thinking skills?
Key-words:
- Historical thinking
- Historical consciousness
- Assessment
- Teaching and learning history
- History teaching and learning materials
- Baccalaureate
- University
- Teacher and Student Perceptions
Contact (for further details):
María del Carmen Sánchez-Fuster. Universidad of Murcia, cfuster@um.es
José Monteagudo Fernández. Universidad of Murcia, jose.monteagudo@um.es
María Auxiliadora Schmidt. Universidad Federal of Paraná, Curitiba (Brasil), dolinha08@uol.com.br