• 
  • Releases
  • Speeches
  • Articles
  • Events
  • Subscribe
  • Learning Link
  • Multimedia Centre
  • Practically Speaking
  • Profiles in Learning
• 
  • Upcoming Events
  • Past Events
  • Minerva Lecture Series
• 
  • Requests for Proposals
  • Funded Research
  • Reviewing Proposals
  • Building Capacity for Research
  • Researcher in Residence
  • Research Events, Presentations & Workshops
  • Student Success
• 
  • Composite Learning Index
  • Health Literacy
  • Post-secondary Education
  • Reading the Future
  • State of Aboriginal Learning in Canada
  • State of E-Learning
  • State of Learning in Canada
  • Redefining success in Aboriginal learning
  • Commissioned Reports
  • Question Scans
  • State-of-the-field Reviews
  • Systematic Reviews
  • Survey of Canadian Attitudes toward Learning
  • Literacy Assessment
  • Lessons in Learning
  • Journal of Applied Research on Learning
  • Data Warehouse
• 
  • What We Do
  • President and CEO
  • Board of Directors
  • Knowledge Exchange
  • 21st Century Learning Initiative (Canada)
  • Knowledge Centres
  • Crosscutting Themes
  • Joint Initiatives
  • Corporate Reports
  • Working at CCL
  • Contact Us

• Requests for Proposals
• Funded Research
• Adult Learning
• Aboriginal Learning
• Early Childhood Learning
• Health and Learning
• Structured Learning
• Work and Learning
• Reviewing Proposals
• Building Capacity for Research
• Researcher in Residence
• Research Events, Presentations & Workshops
• Student Success

Fostering Metahistorical Knowledge in Canadian History Learning Project

Summary (PDF 34 KB) Full Report (PDF 1160 KB)

Kevin O’Neill
Özlem Sensoy
Sheryl Guloy

Faculty of Education
Simon Fraser University

Background

A broad consensus exists among the history education community that understanding history means more than having knowledge of the specific events and people from the past that teachers and parents believe to be important. Historical understanding must also include a sense of how the past comes to be understood by historians (Wineburg, 1991).

This project was targeted at the development of such “metahistorical knowledge” (Lee, 2004) in the challenging environment of the secondary school classroom. Our work was driven by the conviction that just as knowledgeable students of science should be able to understand why the results of two careful scientific studies may not agree, knowledgeable students of history should be able to understand why two carefully researched and honestly written historical accounts may disagree. Without this understanding, students are left with either a cynical view of history, or an “anything goes” conception, according to which all accounts are equally defensible in principle, and every person is entitled to his or her own view regardless of evidence. Such conceptions are not consistent with healthy participation in a pluralistic, democratic society.

Goals

The project had two major goals, equal in priority:

• To extend and enhance prior work on a paper-and-pencil survey for assessing students’ metahistorical conceptions. We developed a new set of survey items intended to gauge students’ metahistorical conceptions related to why different historical accounts exist. These items are referred to collectively as the Historical Account Differences (HAD) survey.
• To extend prior work on a unique e-learning practice called “telementoring,” in which adult volunteers offer guidance to students via electronic media as they attempt challenging work in the classroom. In this instance, students’ work involved questions and materials that were designed to emulate aspects of historians’ professional practices (O'Neill, 2001b).

Working with three experienced social studies teachers, we developed a new telementored unit for the mandated British Columbia Grade 11 Social Studies curriculum that would provide opportunities to develop students’ metahistorical conceptions, without sacrificing curriculum coverage. The new unit was called “Compassionate Canada?” and was designed to span approximately two weeks.

Description

Compassionate Canada engaged grade 11 Social Studies students in addressing the question, “Has Canada become a more compassionate country over the past 100 years?” In a secure online forum, students examined primary source materials relating to seven historical “cases” spanning 100 years, chosen for their potential to arouse conflict in students’ minds about the nature of historical knowledge. As they worked, students had access not only to the case materials, but to seven volunteer history telementors, all of whom had completed or were completing graduate degrees in history at Canadian universities. These mentors provided a variety of advice and guidance on the interpretation of the case materials and their relation to the major question of the unit.

Results

The Compassionate Canada unit was field tested in Vancouver with a diverse group of almost 90 students, who completed the HAD survey as a learning measure pre and post. A demographically matched comparison group received only the “pre” version of HAD. Analysis indicated the following:

1. Prior to implementation, the students receiving the Compassionate Canada unit and a comparison group were comparable not only with respect to their demographic characteristics and success in school, but also their metahistorical conceptions.
2. Over the course of the unit, Compassionate Canada students as a group experienced a significant increase in the salience of more sophisticated metahistorical ideas.
3. With regard to individual students, reductions in the salience of naïve metahistorical ideas correlated significantly with their receipt of particular forms of advice and guidance from telementors. These were in keeping with our design conjectures for the unit.
4. Changes in metahistorical conceptions did not correlate significantly with students’ academic self-concept, plans for future schooling, or parents’ education.

Educationally, these findings suggest that a) students’ metahistorical conceptions are amenable to positive change through instruction, and b) this instruction does not necessarily have to be time-consuming or distract from the achievement of mandated curricular goals. Follow-up studies are being carried out and proposed to test the Compassionate Canada design in other classroom settings, further validate the HAD instrument, and assess the longevity of the conceptual changes brought about.

 

Top