Rationale for the Historical Understanding Measure: NPDEP Impact Study of FHAO

Rationale for HU Measure in the Experimental Impact Study of FHAO The need to align FHAO with current research on the teaching and learning of history Demonstrate that FHAO students will do as well as if not better than a control group on all the indices in the current measure Demonstrate to actual and potential critics that FHAO is not “history lite,” and its unique approach can enhance aspects of students’ historical understanding Provide valuable analysis of the data that will improve the professional development of FHAO program staff and classroom teachers

What is Teaching for Historical Understanding THU is a field of international and cross cultural research that has developed over the past 25 years. The focus has been on identifying and assessing core competencies in how K-12 students learn and understand history. THU provides new perspectives on how the teaching and learning of history across grade levels an courses can be enhanced.

Theoretical Foundation to the Field of Historical Understanding The discipline of history: consensus views of historians on what it means to “do history” Cognitive and developmental psychology: research from different areas of stage theory growth: intellectual, ethical, relational, etc. Constructivist learning theory: emphasis on how students make meaning in classrooms

What is Research Telling us about How Students Learn History Students attain greater levels of historical understanding when they are able to generate plausible explanations to inquiry based questions. Student growth in historical understanding is based upon knowledge construction and not information retrieval. Student historical understanding is enhanced when teachers understand how to apply core concepts from the discipline to the developmental levels of their students.

Core Concepts in Historical Understanding Evidence: foundational Causation: operational (macro) Agency: operational (macro) Significance (meta) Continuity and Change (meta)

Using Core Concepts to Build a Plausible Argument A goal in historical understanding is to use core concepts to build a logical and plausible explanation for why and how choices or events occurred in the past. A challenge for history teachers is to determine the assessment criteria for what makes for weak and strong student explanations. A challenge for FHAO teachers is to use these criteria along with other criteria valued in FHAO learning.

Emotional Engagement Ethical Reflection Students’ Civic Agency Intellectual Rigor Pedagogical Triangle for Historical Understanding

The Intersection of FHAO with the Field FHAO shares much of the same theoretical foundation with the THU field. FHAO needs to formerly align more of what they do to make greater validity claims for the learning outcomes of its classroom programs. FHAO needs to formerly demonstrate how its current approach can make a contribution to the field and push it in new directions.

Goals of this HU Measure Reflects our attempts to merge FHAO learning goals with goals from the field Allow for other parts of the “pedagogical triangle” to be at play Create a measure that can have several tiers: experimental analysis, qualitative analysis, and program capacity building