Session Information
27 SES 10 B, Learning in History and Social Sciences
Paper Session
Contribution
Objectives
This study identifies and discusses the literacy challenges included in using historical sources in secondary school History. To examine, interpret and evaluate sources are fundamental practices of historical literacy, as well as prerequisites for critical literacy more generally (Wineburg & Reisman 2015). The ability to understand and use texts for learning purposes is also included in the PISA definition of reading literacy as “the capacity to understand, use and reflect on written texts, in order to achieve one’s goals, develop one’s knowledge and potential, and participate in society.” (OECD, 2013)
In 2012-2013 national exams in the social science subjects, including History, were introduced in the Swedish school system. The first tests have been made available and are used for teaching purposes, which is an argument for analysing them from a literacy perspective. One of four main objectives in the History curriculum (LGR11) is that students develop an understanding of how to examine, interpret and evaluate sources as a basis for creating historical knowledge. For this study three such test tasks along with answers from 50 students were selected and analysed.
Research questions:
This paper presents a study of the literacy challenges included in tasks aimed at testing students reasoning with sources in a national History exam for year 9.
- Which sources are students expected to read and evaluate?
- What arguments do students use when reasoning about sources as more or less reliable or useful in relation to a specific question?
- To what extent do students use historical literacy practices such as sourcing, corroboration or contextualization?
Theoretical framework
Historical literacy includes the ability to consume and produce historical interpretations using primary and secondary sources from multiple genres (Nokes 2013). Studies on disciplinary literacy in history show that professional historians, as opposed to most students, assess the credibility and relevance of sources by evaluating the source (sourcing), by comparing and contrasting evidence from multiple sources (corroboration) and by using their previous knowledge of the historical context (contextualisation) (Wineburg, 1991 and Shanahan & Shanahan, 2008).
Research also shows that many adolescents are unaccustomed to reading and interpreting primary sources as a basis for historical conclusions, often due to limited classroom exposure to historical sources other than textbooks (Nokes 2013). Students’ ability to use the same literacy practises seems to be prompted by tasks including multiple sources and an emphasis on corroboration and sourcing (Monte Sano & de La Paz, 2012). The three tasks used for this analysis share most of these characteristics, making them an interesting object of study.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Monte-Sano, C., & De La Paz, S. (2012). Using writing tasks to elicit adolescents’ historical reasoning. Journal of Literacy Research, 44(3), 273-299. Nokes, J.D. (2013). Building students' historical literacies: learning to read and reason with historical texts and evidence. OECD (2013), "Reading Framework", in OECD, PISA 2012 Assessment and Analytical Framework: Mathematics, Reading, Science, Problem Solving and Financial Literacy, OECD Publishing, Paris. http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264190511-4-en Shanahan, T., & Shanahan, C. (2008). Teaching disciplinary literacy to adolescents: Rethinking content-area literacy. Harvard Educational Review, 78(1), 40-59. Sweden. Swedish National Agency for Education (2015) Curriculum for the compulsory school, preschool class and the recreation centre 2011: rev. 2015. (2nd Ed.) http://www.skolverket.se/publikationer? id=2687 Wineburg, S. S. (1991). Historical problem solving: A study of the cognitive processes used in the evaluation of documentary and pictorial evidence. Journal of Educational Psychology, 83(1), 73-87. Wineburg, S., & Reisman, A. (2015). Disciplinary literacy in history. A toolkit for digital citizenship. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 58(8), 636-639.
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