Perceptions on the procedures and techniques for assessing history and defining teaching profiles. Teacher training in Spain and the United Kingdom

ABSTRACT

The main aim of this paper is to compare the opinions and perceptions of trainee teachers in Spain and the United Kingdom on the most appropriate procedures, activities and exercises to assess historical knowledge. A closed questionnaire was developed with a Likert-type scale (1–5). The sample was 506 questionnaires of students of the Teacher Training Master’s degree in the speciality of Geography and History in Spain (344) and PGCE and Teach First in United Kingdom (162). The research involved 22 universities, 13 from Spain and 9 from England, with a wide territorial representation. The results show significant differences between the two countries, quite clear educational profiles for Spain, and more diffuse ones in United Kingdom.

KEYWORDS:

• History education
• assessment
• teacher training
• education research

Acknowledgments

This article has been possible thanks to the research project funded by Ministry of Science, University and Innovation, co-funded by FEDER funding PGC2018-094491-B-C33, and project “Competencias docentes y métodos activos de aprendizaje. Una investigación evaluativa con el profesorado en formación de ciencias sociales” (20638/JLI/18), funded by Seneca Foundation. Agency of Science and Technology of Murcia.

In addition, we would like to thank Professor Arthur Chapman for his help in collecting information from the questionnaire in England, as he helped us to get in touch with all the English universities from which information has been collected.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Fundación Séneca [35500 / 20638/JLI/18];Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities [11550 / PGC2018-094491-B-C33].

Notes on contributors

Cosme J. Gómez Carrasco

Cosme J. Gómez Carrasco is Senior Lecturer in Social Sciences Teaching at the Faculty of Education (University of Murcia). Before it, he was predoctoral fellowship at the University of Castilla-La Mancha (2004-2007), postdoctoral fellowship in the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris (2008-2009) and postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Historiography “Julio Caro Baroja” in the University Carlos III of Madrid (2009-2010). Also, he has been invited professor at Centre de Recherches Historiques (EHESS, París), Honorary Researcher Associate at University College of London - Institute of Education, and visiting student at the European University Institute (Florence). He is coordinator of two research project of History Education and he has participated in sixteenth projects on Early Modern History, historiography, history education and other social sciences. His current research interests are the assessment; analysis of textbooks, didactic methodology, teacher eduation, historiography and social history.

Pedro Miralles Martínez

Pedro Miralles Martínez Teacher during 37 years in all educational levels: Primary Education; Geography and History teacher in Secondary Education; and senior lecturer at university. He worked in permanent teachers' training in Teachers and Resources Centres. He belongs to the research group 'Didactics of Social Sciences' and he is the Principal Investigator. He has directed or participated in more than twenty research and innovation projects on didactics of social sciences in Education. He is the author of more than a hundred papers and more than a hundred conferences and communications in scientific meetings. It is remarkable the publication in WOS and SCOPUS journals.

Jairo Rodríguez Medina

Jairo Rodríguez Medina received his Ph.D. in Educational Research from the University of Valladolid in 2019. After completion of his degree he was appointed as a Faculty Fellow in the Department of Pedagogy. He is a Postdoctoral Fellow in Transdisciplinary Education Research at the University of Valladolid. His primary research interests include social interaction and communication in autism, evidence-based interventions, observational methodology, and graph analysis. He is studying patterns of social interaction and friendship in elementary schools at recess time among children with and without autism.

Javier J. Maquilón Sánchez

Javier J. Maquilón Sánchez, is Professor of the Department of Research Methods and Diagnosis in Education at the University of Murcia. His main lines of research focus on the educational and social factors that affect academic performance. Innovative teaching methodologies mediated by ICT. He has participated and directed educational research and innovation projects, given lectures, teacher training courses, presented papers and published more than one hundred works, including articles, books and book chapters.