Wineberg goes on to discuss dispositions of teachers and methods that successful teachers use to teach history. In one classroom, an increase in student participation was accompanied by responses of increasing complexity, which denotes a more nuanced historical perspective and critical thinking. He notes that “historical understanding is an interdisciplinary enterprise, and nothing less than a multidisciplinary approach will approximate its complexity” (Wineburg, 52) I agree wholeheartedly to that.
After reading this chapter, I’m left with more evidence to support some of my feelings on teaching. Before I moved to Connecticut from Maryland, I took a class in “The foundations of education,” which explored the history and current state of America’s …show more content…
Such an attitude places the capacity of knowing outside of themselves and requires far less development of thought. In my 7th-9th grade years, when we would read from the history textbook in class, the teacher would stop and say, “Wait. Reread that last line. Now is that an opinion or a fact and how can we know? What do you think? Why do you think they did that? How to you think this other group will feel about it? Why? Before we move on, what effects do you think this could have going forward?” We were often drilled on the differences between opinions, assumptions, and facts, and encouraged to make up our own minds based on evidence. If a disagreement came up, we had to form a good rational for our viewpoint and allow it to be subjected to debate from other students. Sometimes we would read narratives with opposing viewpoints and were asked to get inside the mind of each person to better understand context. I think those approaches were so worthwhile and helped me so much as a student. It ENGAGED us in the process of discovering history. It wasn’t just, “sit down, listen, and memorize this,” it was a participatory process that was student led and teacher supported. It made my love of history really bloom. When I transferred to another highschool, it was a totally different story and I honestly felt that the facts and figures, rote memorization approach was disempowering and insulting the class’s intelligence while making the subject matter much more boring, unmemorable, and isolated the information instead of integrating it. There is far more room in our educational system to support deeper learning and critical thinking. So much of the latest research in how students learn best and develop these skills flies in the face of current common practices.
After reading this chapter, I’m left with more evidence to support some of my feelings on teaching. Before I moved to Connecticut from Maryland, I took a class in “The foundations of education,” which explored the history and current state of America’s …show more content…
Such an attitude places the capacity of knowing outside of themselves and requires far less development of thought. In my 7th-9th grade years, when we would read from the history textbook in class, the teacher would stop and say, “Wait. Reread that last line. Now is that an opinion or a fact and how can we know? What do you think? Why do you think they did that? How to you think this other group will feel about it? Why? Before we move on, what effects do you think this could have going forward?” We were often drilled on the differences between opinions, assumptions, and facts, and encouraged to make up our own minds based on evidence. If a disagreement came up, we had to form a good rational for our viewpoint and allow it to be subjected to debate from other students. Sometimes we would read narratives with opposing viewpoints and were asked to get inside the mind of each person to better understand context. I think those approaches were so worthwhile and helped me so much as a student. It ENGAGED us in the process of discovering history. It wasn’t just, “sit down, listen, and memorize this,” it was a participatory process that was student led and teacher supported. It made my love of history really bloom. When I transferred to another highschool, it was a totally different story and I honestly felt that the facts and figures, rote memorization approach was disempowering and insulting the class’s intelligence while making the subject matter much more boring, unmemorable, and isolated the information instead of integrating it. There is far more room in our educational system to support deeper learning and critical thinking. So much of the latest research in how students learn best and develop these skills flies in the face of current common practices.