Testing a pedagogy for promoting historical contextualization in classrooms

This study describes the development and testing of a pedagogy aimed at promoting students’ ability to perform historical contextualization. Promoting historical contextualization was conceptualized as three different pedagogical principles: 1) the awareness of the consequences of a present-oriented perspective (presentism) when examining the past using the theory of cognitive conflict, 2) the active reconstruction of an adequate historical context, and 3) performing historical contextualization to explain the past. The effectiveness of these principles was explored in a lesson-unit (four lessons) focusing on the Cold War. In a quasi-experimental pre-test–post-test design with treatment and control groups the effects of the pedagogy on students’ ability to perform historical contextualization, their historical content knowledge, and their situational interest were examined.