End of term tests in history as an access to the study of teaching practices. A methodological survey and two case studies.

This research project pursues two objectives. It wants to collect written 11th and 12th grade end of term tests in history in a systematic way, and make these available for further educational research by the Specific Teacher Training in History K.U.Leuven in collaboration with other partners (e.g. Centre for Instructional Psychology and Technology, K.U. Leuven). Up to now, written end of term tests are practically never used as a starting point for historical-didactic research into existing teaching practices.This project uses the data as a new approach to study the tension experienced by history teachers between the focus on the present and the focus on historical thinking. Ongoing research - through questionnaires and a set of behavioral tasks linked with in-depth interviews - probed for (epistemological and other) beliefs of student teachers in this matter. Now the other side of the spectrum is investigated. It is not beliefs that are probed, but the concrete teaching practice, through analysis of end of term tests, effectively used in Flemish history education. To what extent and in what way the present (whether in relation to the past, or autonomous, etc.) is covered in these end of term tests, forms the central theme of this research.

Keywords:History education, belgium, 11th and 12th grade, Assessment, Secondary education, The position of the present, Written end of term tests

Disciplines:Instructional sciences