This study investigated the concepts of terminologies frequently used in history education articles. The terminologies investigated in this study are historical thinking, historical interpretation, historical cognition and historical consciousness. Th...
This study investigated the concepts of terminologies frequently used in history education articles. The terminologies investigated in this study are historical thinking, historical interpretation, historical cognition and historical consciousness. The general meanings of these terminologies are searched first, and then practically used examples in articles are analyzed. Twenty articles, which theoretically discuss history education, are analyzed in this study. The followings are the results and suggestions of this study.
First, it is agreed that historical thinking should reflect the historian's thinking mode. Though some articles tried to classify the elements of historical thinking, other articles criticized this type of study insisting that it reduced historical thinking to general educational thinking. There has been a disagreement between both studies whether the interpretation is an element of historical thinking or not.
Second, some articles criticized that precedent studies on historical thinking had focused on methods than contents; the result than the process of thinking. But history education should concern about cultivating student's desirable historical cognition of historical facts as well as carrying out historical thinking process.
Third, the concept of historical cognition used in articles was difficult to differentiate the view of history. But I think that although the view of history is the general perspective of thinking history and historical facts, historical cognition is formalized from combining the knowledge of historical facts and the view of history.
Fourth, 'historical cognition' was frequently confused with the historical interpretation. Most history education articles argued that the historian's subjective view would be involved in the historical interpretation. We understand historical facts and have the historical cognition on the basis of interpreting historical materials. Accordingly, historical interpretation is the foundation of the historical cognition.
Fifth, the concept of 'historical consciousness' has been used as both historical consciousness representing psychological development and historical problematic or critical consciousness, and confused with historical thinking. It was because the study of the development of historical consciousness in Japan used the components of historical thinking as the concept of 'historical consciousness'. I suggest we should analyze the components of historical consciousness suggested in the study of 'the development of historical consciousness', and classify them into historical thinking and historical problematic or critical consciousness.
Though the concepts of the terminologies investigated in this study cannot be unified or simplified, we should discuss the basic meaning of those terminologies so that the debate and critical comment on history education research might become more active.