Improving Historical Thinking in Primary School Pupils: Results from a Quasi‐Experimental Study
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7346/sird-012025-p86Keywords:
Historical thinking, history education, historical knowledge, second-order concepts, historical competenciesAbstract
Over the last decades, history education has been recognized for its potential to foster cognitive skills associated with critical thinking. For those involved in educational research it is important to ask whether and how these forms of thinking can be developed as early as primary school. To address these questions, a pedagogically significant model of historical thinking, sensitive to the specific challenges faced by children, was selected. This model formed the basis for a program that was tested in several 5th grade classes. The results indicate that even students at this educational level can, when supported by formative assessment, develop higher-order thinking skills connected to historical thinking and critical thinking. They also suggest the possibility of applying this teaching model in other contexts.
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Copyright (c) 2025 Valentina Della Gala, Antonio Calvani
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