Energizing the History Classroom - Featured Reading

Energizing the History Classroom: Historical Narrative Inquiry and Historical Empathy

Sherri Rae Colby Links to an external site.

Texas A&M University, Commerce

This article Links to an external site. presents a historical narrative model designed to encourage analytical thinking. My historical narrative inquiry model (a) teaches procedural knowledge (the process of “doing” history); (b) enhances interpretative skills; (c) cultivates historical perspectives based upon evidentiary history; and (d) encourages student authorship of historical narratives. The instructional model emphasizes small- and large-group activities, including oral presentations, discussions about primary documents, and considerations relative to the creation of written history. Students generate their own historical narratives in order to articulate their perspectives. The purpose of the model is to facilitate students’ historical understandings by developing more empathetic perceptions of the people of the past. Continue reading here Links to an external site..

To continue reading click on this Link Links to an external site. to the complete article.  For further study, you may follow this link to Dr. Colby's dissertation Links to an external site..

Colby, Sherri Rae. Students as Historians: The Historical Narrative Inquiry Model’s Impact on Historical Thinking and Historical Empathy. Doctor of Philosophy (Curriculum and Instruction), December 2007, 338 pp., 9 tables, 19 illustrations, references, 279 titles.

The dissertation explores middle-school students’ abilities to engage in historical thinking. I dispute the Hallam-Piaget model, which discourages analytical thinking through the assumption that children lack skills to think critically about history. My historical narrative inquiry model (1) teaches procedural knowledge (the process of “doing” history); (2) enhances interpretative skills; (3) cultivates historical perspectives based upon evidentiary history; and (4) encourages student authorship of historical narratives. In the fall semester of 2006, with a classroom of twenty-five seventh-graders, I initiated a research study designed to explore the impact of the historical narrative inquiry model through a sequence of thirty-two lessons. The lessons involved small- and large-group activities, including oral presentations, discussions about primary documents, and consideration of the relation between narratology and the creation of written history. Students generated their own historical narratives in order to articulate their perspectives. Eight students having varied reading- level proficiency served as primary participants in the study. Each of these students received pre- and post-intervention interviews. Outcomes reflected the enhancement of pedagogy intended to facilitate historical thinking and historical empathy in the classroom.