History – Teaching & Learning Research Initiative

Moving beyond the threshold: A TLRI final report 2014–16

Introduction Moving beyond the threshold set out to interrogate what it means to think historically in the digital age (Tredinnick, 2013). How do university students and teachers use digital media to transform learning experiences? Do digital approaches present novel ways to engage with key historical concepts? Answers to these questions continue to be important and urgent; large-scale investment in educational resources and technology is based on the assumption that current and future students are or will become digitally literate, and that they know how to use digital media effectively and efficiently in inquiry-led and autonomous learning. There is little evidence to prove, however, that the so-called ‘net generation’ (Schulmeister, 2015; Tapscott,

“Better to do than receive”: Learning to think historically through internally assessed course work

Introduction This research project examined the contribution internally assessed course work makes to motivating young people to think historically; that is to develop reasoned, evidence-based understandings of the past that equip them to participate in society as critical citizens who can think independently and adjudicate between competing claims of historical authenticity. Our findings indicate that conducting internally assessed course work makes a major contribution to how students (as novices) learn to think critically about the past. developing the ability to think historically is counter-intuituive and has been described as an “unnatural act” (Wineburg, 2001). It can seldom be acquired from everyday experiences. Rather, it requires systematic instruction in how the discipline