Investigating adolescents’ historical reasoning skills when analyzing and interpreting an image
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Author (Corporation)
Publication date
10.01.2024
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Collections
Type
01A - Journal article
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Editor (Corporation)
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Parent work
Historical Encounters
Special issue
DOI of the original publication
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Series
Series number
Volume
11
Issue / Number
1
Pages / Duration
95-112
Patent number
Publisher / Publishing institution
University of Newcastle
Place of publication / Event location
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Abstract
This study investigated adolescents’ (secondary school students, N = 145, M age 13.9 years) historical reasoning skills when analyzing and interpreting an image. Presumably, historical reasoning can be fostered when engaging in inquiry-based writing. However, in past research using inquiry-based writing tasks, textual sources rather than images prevailed. The present research investigated students’ writing skills when interpreting a historical image. Participants were presented with a historical photograph and were asked to write a structured text about their analysis and interpretation of this image. A scoring rubric was developed to assess the quality of students’ historical reasoning skills, specifically: (1) asking and answering historical questions, (2) reasoning about images, and (3) reasoning with images. Findings show that the factor structure of the scoring rubric largely overlaps with theoretically distinguished components of historical reasoning. Students were able to ask historical questions and write a well-structured text. However, most students did not describe and analyze the source of the image and did not refer to the main message of the image. Further, many students could not identify the image’s relevance for the present. Importantly, the findings imply that students’ methodological competencies to critically analyze and interpret the used image were not elaborated. Possibly, they do not receive sufficient training addressing these skills. This seems problematic, not only in history education but also when deriving meaning from images in everyday life.
Keywords
Subject (DDC)
370 - Erziehung, Schul- und Bildungswesen
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ISBN
ISSN
2203-7543
Language
English
Created during FHNW affiliation
Yes
Strategic action fields FHNW
Publication status
Published
Review
Peer review of the complete publication
Open access category
Diamond
License
Citation
VAN LOON, Kevin, Dominic STUDER und Monika WALDIS WEBER, 2024. Investigating adolescents’ historical reasoning skills when analyzing and interpreting an image. Historical Encounters. 10 Januar 2024. Bd. 11, Nr. 1, S. 95–112. DOI 10.52289/hej11.107. Verfügbar unter: https://doi.org/10.26041/fhnw-8086