"Just Because ...": Developing Causal Historical Reasoning Through Explicit Teaching of Strategies, Concepts, and Epistemological Beliefs

• In Event: Roundtable Session 2
  In Roundtable Session: Teacher Practice and Student Learning in History and Political Science

Abstract

This study investigates the effects of explicit teaching of (1) strategies, (2) second-order concepts and (3) epistemological underpinnings related to causal historical reasoning on 11th grade students’ causal historical reasoning ability. In a randomly controlled pre-test post-test design (N=95) effects of explicit teaching were investigated on multiple levels. The experimental group was found to develop significantly more knowledge of causal reasoning strategies and second-order concepts and to attribute a higher value to criterialist epistemological beliefs. No general differences between conditions were found in the quality of students’ written explanations, although the experimental group scored significantly higher at the criterion ‘use of second-order language and causal connections’. Reasons for this, limitations and implications for practice will be discussed in our presentation.

Authors

• Gerhard Stoel, University of Amsterdam

• Jannet Van Drie, University of Amsterdam

• Carla Van Boxtel, University of Amsterdam