Contribution
Description: Pupils' problems and difficulties that occur while constructing historical knowledge are not only due to the structure of the historical knowledge itself or history as a subject but to the pupils' prior-knowledge (Günther-Arndt, 2003).
My research is based on the model of Educational Reconstruction (Kattmann et al., 1997). A key assumption of the model is that, by having a more intimate knowledge of the students' prior-knowledge, the curriculum developer can create a curriculum content that is more adequate to the student's understanding of the subject. Three areas of research are being addressed within the model. First, analysis of the content structure and the concepts behind it allow the scientific clarification of the subject matter. Secondly, empirical investigation of the learners' conceptions concerning the subject allows a better comprehension of the students' perspectives. Thirdly, in educational structuring, the structure of the subject matter is gained by relating the students' conceptions to the scientific concepts. Thus, subjects can be taught in accordance with the learners' prior-knowledge. The three areas will be handled in an iterative procedure, i. e. not one after the other but in a steady and systematical comparison.
In the second - empirical - area, I'll follow the questions: Which conceptions do pupils have of the French Revolution and which "theories" or mental models do they dispose of? What kind of quality do their conceptions have? Furthermore, I'll analyze their conceptions of the second-order concept "continuity/change" (Limón, 2002) and whether this second-order concept is of any importance for their historical thinking.
In September, I would like to give a paper on the students' conceptions of the French Revolution and how this conceptions could be used to transform their knowledge into an adequate "scientific manner" to think about this historical subject. I then will have more detailed data to present.
Methodology: In the first area, a hermeneutical analysis of the content structure of the scientific literature about the French Revolution will elaborate the scientifical conceptions.
In the second area, the empirical data will be gathered from French and German speaking Swiss 9th graders through group discussions and interviews. Furthermore, I'll ask the pupils to write down a short account of the French Revolution and make clear the most important issues. These empirical data will be evaluated using the method of theoretical coding (Strauss/Corbin, 1990; 1994). This process will be supported by atlas/ti software.
Conclusions: Among the pupils' conceptions of the French Revolution are some conceptions quite appropriate to scientific historical concepts and others using personalized or moral categories. In September, I will have more detailed data to present.
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