Development and Field Testing of a Formative Assessment of Metahistorical Conceptions

• In Event: 32.082 - Roundtable Session 11
  In Roundtable Session: 32.082-8 - Considering Multiple Accounts in and About History

Abstract

Helping students understand the existence of multiple accounts of the same, or related past events is challenging work for teachers without practical and time-efficient ways of assessing how their students view such accounts over the course of instruction. Educational researchers have previously developed assessments of metahistorical ideas for their own use; but in a six-year program of research, we developed an online formative assessment tool that takes students 15 minutes or less to complete, and is automatically scored. We report analyses of 899 responses to this assessment from students spanning 8th grade through postsecondary studies in history, and discuss findings from a field trial of the tool that involved four experienced high school history teachers and four university professors.

Authors

• Kevin D O'Neill, Simon Fraser University

• Sheryl Guloy, Simon Fraser University

• Fiona M. MacKellar, The University of British Columbia

• Dale Martelli, Simon Fraser University