Making history relevant to students by connecting past, present and future: a framework for research

Abstract

History teaching usually focuses on understanding the past as an aim in itself. Research shows that many students don’t see the point of this and perceive history as not very useful. Yet history plays a major role in the orientation on present and future. If students fail to see this, the question arises whether this is due to a lack of explicit attention in history classes on the application of knowledge about the past to the present and the future. This article explores two questions: (1) If history is to be more relevant to students, what kind of objectives should play a central role in history teaching? (2) What kinds of teaching strategies align with these objectives in history teaching? The first question is answered by means of historical and educational theory. The second is answered by exploring a number of teaching strategies that have been described in the literature, as well as a small-scale experiment conducted by the authors. This article aims at providing a basis for developing meaningful history curricula as well as for research into educational strategies which can be deployed to teach students how to make connections between past, present and future.

Keywords:

• History instruction
• secondary school curriculum
• educational strategies
• historical significance
• meaningful learning

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Dick Van Straaten

Dick Van Straaten is a lecturer in History Education at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences and a researcher at the Knowledge Centre for Teaching and Education at this university (Wibautstraat 2-4, 1091 GM, Amsterdam, The Netherlands). His main interest in teaching is historical consciousness, for which he has edited a textbook which is used in many universities in the Netherlands and Belgium. He is co-author of a handbook on history teaching for student teachers in the Dutch-speaking area. His research explores strategies to make knowledge about the past meaningful for students.

Arie Wilschut

Arie Wilschut is a historian, professor of Social Studies Education at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences. He has played a leading role in the reshaping the Dutch history curriculum, which is now based on 10 associative eras supporting students’ orientation in historical time. His main research interests are consciousness of time in teaching history, on which he published the study Images of Time (2012), the relevance of history for students (with a focus on citizenship) and the role of language in teaching and learning the social sciences.

Ron Oostdam

Ron Oostdam is professor of Learning and Instruction and research director of the Knowledge Centre for Teaching and Education at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences. He is also professor of Educational Studies at the University of Amsterdam, Research Institute of Child Development and Education.