The objective of this article is to suggest historical picture as an effective study materials for living history in elementary history education and to find a study method f of living history using historical pictures, moving one step further from ge...
The objective of this article is to suggest historical picture as an effective study materials for living history in elementary history education and to find a study method f of living history using historical pictures, moving one step further from general theory of utility. For this purpose, I analyzed the contents of living history by understanding the actual condition of the study contents of living history and historical pictures contained in elementary social studies text books and by collecting and classifying historical pictures that can be used in the class. I also devised a study model to have a class utilizing historical pictures effectively and proceeded with the process of analyzing the study effect after applying the model to real class.
I defined the concept of living history, the premise of this study, as the restoration of the world of experience and cognition of the people who lived at the time by understanding everyday life of our ancestors which have been changing in the stream of time and by examining the aspect and cause of the change from cultural and microscopic viewpoint based on the concept of living history discussed in historical science. I limited the historical pictures in this article to rock painting, mural painting, genre painting, folk painting, and historical painting, which shows the phase of the time and the lives of the time as historically worthwhile paintings which contains various elements of historical tales.
If the class ends up as mere appreciation of art, it cannot increase thinking power which is the ultimate goal of history education although historical pictures are by themselves study materials which arouse curiosity and interest. The most important work in devising a history study method using historical pictures is reading historical pictures analytically. Understanding everyday lives of our ancestors which have been changing in the stream of time and finding the aspect and cause of the change through the process of reading pictures analytically are core elements of living history study. I devised a living history study model using Panofsky's process of interpreting picture in the following order : information collection→description of facts→research→inference of meaning→restorative activity of meaning, and I proceeded with the class according to the type of historical pictures in 5 phases for this goal.
When I applied the devised living history study model to real class, living history study using historical pictures converted boring history class centered on cramming and listing into interesting class and was useful for developing history study for students to participate rather than history study for students to watch. It was concluded that students' acquisition of concept, which was done by reading pictures analytically and by approaching everyday life history, can approach the level of understanding social context. It was also concluded that the method increases the understanding of historical structure and historical thinking power in the process of analyzing and presenting historical pictures.
In this article, I will propose the following to find more effective study method of living history based on these results.
It is necessary to carefully select and present historical pictures according to study subject to retain the value of historical pictures and maximize educational effect and it is necessary to guide students continuously in relation with other classes to find stories from historical pictures. It is also necessary to select and organize the contents of living history study in order to restore the change of their experience and cognition three-dimensionally and to express the phases of the times from the viewpoint of various historical entities based on the division of social position, class, gender, and age.