Adolescents' Ideas about Explanatory Assessment in History.

This paper traces some ideas produced by adolescent students when deciding among different explanations of a past situation. For this purpose, a sample of 270 Portuguese students ranging from 12 to 20 years old, attending 7th to llth grades, was analyzed in a qualitative approach. Students' ideas were mapped through five levels of progression, in light of a theoretical framework considering criteria for assessment of explanatory validity. The results of this research suggest that adolescents argue for and against explanations by applying, at various levels of sophistication, criteria of explanatory consistency and methodological detachment. In history education, this is relevant to designing instruction that will enable students to reason about explanatory validity and to help them progress beyond stereotypes or commonsense views when deciding among several versions of the past. One appendix contains different sample historical versions of an event, and the other contains the task questions. (Contains 1 table and 22 references.) (Author/SLD) ******************************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ******************************************************************************** Adolescents' Ideas about Explanatory Assessment in History PERMISSION TO REPRODUCEAND DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) Isabel Barca Universidade do Minho-Instituto de Educacao 4710 Braga Portugal Fax:351 53 678987 E:mail: isabar@iep.uminho. pt ABSTRACT U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement EDUC TIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) This document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating it. 1=1 Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality.U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement EDUC TIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) This document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating it. 1=1 Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. Points of view or opinions stated in this document do not necessarily represent official OERI position cr policy. This paper traces some ideas produced by adolescent students when deciding among different explanations of a specific past situation. For this purpose, a sample of 270 students ranging from 12 to 20 years old, attending the 7th to 1 1 th grades, was analyzed in a qualitative approach. Students' ideas were mapped through five levels of progression, in the light of a theoretical framework considering criteria for assessment of explanatory validity. The results of this research suggest that adolescents argue for and against explanations by applying, at various levels of sophistication, criteria of explanatory consistency and methodological detachment. In history education, this is relevant to designing instruction that will enable students to reason about explanatory validity and to help them progress beyond stereotyped or commonsense views when deciding among several versions of the past.