Digital Collections @ Dordt Master of Education Program Theses 8-2016 Teaching History: Effective Teaching for Learning History - Chronological vs. Thematic Approaches to Student Historical Comprehension Shane Williams Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcollections.edu/med_theses Part of the Curriculum and Instruction Commons Recommended Citation Williams, Shane, "Teaching History: Effective Teaching for Learning History - Chronological vs. Thematic Approaches to Student Historical Comprehension" (2016). Master of Education Program Theses.edu/med_theses/105 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Collections @ Dordt.
It has been accepted for inclusion in Master of Education Program Theses by an authorized administrator of Digital Collections @ Dordt. For more information, please contact ingrid. Teaching History: Effective Teaching for Learning History - Chronological vs. Thematic Approaches to Student Historical Comprehension Abstract This action research study investigated the effects of different types of instruction on student learning of historical thinking.
There are several instructional methods to teaching history but most fall into two major approaches: chronological or thematic. This study used twenty-eight high school students in two sections of a junior-senior World History course. The research project utilized three full eighteen day instructional units: The World War II unit was taught from the chronological perspective, the Cold War unit was taught from the thematic, and the instruction for the globalization unit utilized a blended approach or combination of the chronological and thematic pedagogies. Each unit of instruction ended with a common assessment type that was designed to assess the historical – chronological thinking skills of the students.
It was anticipated that the blended or combined approach would prove to be the most effective method of instruction for teaching history -- when one of the objectives is to emphasize historical thinking skills. The results of the study confirmed this prediction; however, all three methods of instruction showed different areas of instructional effectiveness. The data indicate that selection of the instructional approach by the teacher does matter when it comes to the learning objectives of the course. The blended or combined approach is the most effective approach to teaching history to increase the learning of the most number of students.
The combined approach strongly appears to better meet the needs of the lower level students to demonstrate their understanding of historical content and historical skills like chronological thinking. Document Type Thesis Degree Name Master of Education (MEd) Department Graduate Education First Advisor Steve Holtrop Keywords Master of Education, thesis, teaching, history, comprehension, high school Subject Categories Curriculum and Instruction | Education Comments Action Research Report Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Education This thesis is available at Digital Collections @ Dordt: https://digitalcollections.edu/med_theses/105 Teaching History i Teaching History: Effective Teaching for Learning History – Chronological vs. Thematic Approaches to Student Historical Comprehension By Shane Williams B.E History, 1998 Action Research Report Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Education Department of Education Dordt College Sioux Center, Iowa August, 2016 Teaching History ii Teaching History: Effective Teaching for Learning History – Chronological vs. Thematic Approaches to Student Historical Comprehension By Shane Williams Approved: Dr.
Steve Holtrop____________ Director of Graduate Education September 2, 2016__________ Date Teaching History iii Table of Contents Title Page. ii Table of Content. iii List of Tables, Graphs, and Charts. 1 Research Objective and Hypothesis.
2 Definition of Terms. 16 Design Instruments and Procedure. 19 Data Collection Plan & Result. 24 Data Collection Plan.
24 Data Analysis and Findings: Results. 48 Teaching History iv Tables, Charts, and Graphs Table 1: Advantages and Disadvantages of Chronological and Thematic Approaches. 2 Table 2: Participant Demographics. 19 Table 3: Student Assessment Data.
26, 30 Table 4: Sample Rubric (description with indicators). 27 Table 5: Summary of Collected Assessment data. 29, 31 Appendix Artifact 1: Sample - chronological / timeline graphic organizer. 37 Artifact 2: Sample - Assessment Design to assess Student’s chronological thinking.
41 Artifact 3: Sample - Maps to utilize for Chronological Assessment. 42 Artifact 4: Sample - Thematic Graphic Organizer – globalization. 43 Artifact 5: Sample - Chrono – Thematic Graphic Organizer – globalization. 44 Artifact 6: Two Approaches Questionnaire from former student-teacher.
45 Teaching History v Abstract This action research study investigated the effects of different types of instruction on student learning of historical thinking. There are several instructional methods to teaching history but most fall into two major approaches: chronological or thematic. This study used twenty-eight high school students in two sections of a junior-senior World History course. The research project utilized three full eighteen day instructional units: The World War II unit was taught from the chronological perspective, the Cold War unit was taught from the thematic, and the instruction for the globalization unit utilized a blended approach or combination of the chronological and thematic pedagogies.
Each unit of instruction ended with a common assessment type that was designed to assess the historical – chronological thinking skills of the students. It was anticipated that the blended or combined approach would prove to be the most effective method of instruction for teaching history -- when one of the objectives is to emphasize historical thinking skills. The results of the study confirmed this prediction; however, all three methods of instruction showed different areas of instructional effectiveness. The data indicate that selection of the instructional approach by the teacher does matter when it comes to the learning objectives of the course.
The blended or combined approach is the most effective approach to teaching history to increase the learning of the most number of students. The combined approach strongly appears to better meet the needs of the lower level students to demonstrate their understanding of historical content and historical skills like chronological thinking. Teaching History vi Preface Think about the following. When you are asked simple questions like, “What did you do today?” or “What did you do this week?” our minds tend to internalize those questions to formulate our responses by ordering the sequence of events for that day or week and how it unfolded experientially.
How about “sharing your life’s significant events?” When you look back and reflect upon your life or a period of your life--for example, sharing with others your faith journey--you tend to think internally of the sequencing order of events that have shaped your faith until its present view. When you share your responses, in either of these two scenarios, you tend to pick the key points of the day, week, or your life sequentially, in chronological order. The various events, even without their context, tend to become synchronized in some organized chronological order or sequence. Your response will more than likely include, in sequence, some events in your personal life, professional life, events that may have taken place at home, school, with family or friends, at church, on travels, or at work.
Those personal events may or may not have any causation to each other but become correlated into the “causes” of your faith journey and who you are today. However, when you are sharing life events, the contexts of those experiences may or may not be established. Simply, a basic form of thinking historically, or chronological thinking, was implemented in response to the questions. One does not have to go beyond the first chapter of Genesis for evidence that God formed everything in an orderly sequence or chronology.
God created chronology and subsequently all humanity within that construct and provided a revelation of who and what He is and why. How does God’s example assist us in the learning of history (His-story) when it is apparent He created both the chronological and thematic (conceptual) approach for our understanding of Him through His word? The Bible is a chronology of God--not a concordance (but a concordance certainly can allow us to focus on a deeper aspect of God’s complexity). However, can we understand God without the chronology (Bible) of His revelation for us? Would we understand His story from only the concordance? Teaching History 1 Introduction Teachers of history, or the study of past events, desire to excite and engage students in the learning of history. To enhance engagement and active learning of history, teachers have conceptually organized their history courses from very different perspectives.
History is a very complex arena of knowledge that requires domain-specific thinking skills (Dynneson & Gross, 1999). History intersects with every knowledge system and leads to the transference of historical thinking skills into other dimensions of knowledge, like the historical chronological development of math, science, religion, and language. Whereas other knowledge systems, like theology (study of faith, reasoning, and religion), utilize historical thinking skills because they themselves are historical, historical thinking abilities are the essence of history (Drake & Nelson, 2009). The historical thinking skill of cause and effect and continuity or change is applicable to many of the other domains.
In an applicable environment, teachers of history need to know the purpose of history and “teach” it to the educational level of which they are learning history. Problem and Statement of the Research Objective After understanding the nature of history, teachers need to address how history should be taught. What approach should be used for students to learn history and gain the skills of historical thinking? That is, which approach is most effective in teaching historical thinking? What this implies is that teaching history includes historical content but also includes historical thinking skills that go beyond just historical content. The “ole adage” of depth versus breadth is a debatable but insufficient approach in its understanding of the intent of history.
This paradox of history’s intent and depth versus breadth debates leads to two basic approaches to teaching history: the chronological approach and the thematic approach. The approach to teaching history becomes very significant because the approach should align with the purpose of history, that is, develop the skills and abilities of historical thinking (Singer, 2015). Which teaching approach most effectively reinforces the purpose of history? For a teacher of history, the subject should be centrally focused and appreciated Teaching History 2 while honoring the students-- a subject centered approach that allows the instructor and students working together to understand history and gain critical thinking skills. Research Objective and Hypothesis Either the chronological or the thematic approach can be effectively used by teachers (Boadu, 2015).
Different teachers bring different skill sets and personal preferences to the teaching of history. The teacher’s worldview of the purpose of history will determine the approach they will most likely implement in their classrooms along with their own experiences and learned methods. If the focus is to gain historical content knowledge in depth at the expense of developing historical thinking skills, the thematic approach may be emphasized. If the focus is to gain a deeper application of historical thinking skills at the expense of historical depth, the chronological approach may be emphasized.
Here is a simple illustration of the difference between the two approaches; chronology helps organize the teaching of history while themes help organize the content. Table 1 (Tew, 2014): Advantages of Disadvantages of Advantages of Disadvantages of Chronological Chronological Thematic Approach Thematic Approach Approach Approach Framework is already Becomes too linear Emphasizes Themes struggle to in place Limited depth of perspectives or points incorporate cause and State Curriculum and content of view. effect, especially Standards employ this Content coverage, Not restricted by between historical approach. exclusion of “time” (periodization) events/themes.
K- 12 Scope and perspectives or point Student – Centered – Deemphasizes sequence better of views increased interest chronological organized. Transition Content is rushed to level. from grade-to-grade get from “point A to Relevance to present Unit-to-Unit design Smooth Unit-to- Unit point B. could be dis-jointed.
Transition Aligned textbooks More open ended.