Historical Skills in Compulsory Education: Assessment, Inquiry Based Strategies and Students’ Argumentation

Abstract

This paper makes a reflection on the assessment of historical thinking in compulsory education. First, the article reflects on the type of knowledge that is being evaluated (memory or understanding). According to current thinking, assessment should meet the teaching aims set out by the teacher, it should be another means of monitoring and improving students' learning, of correcting mistakes made during the process and of taking relevant decisions. Secondly, there will be an analysis of the cognitive model of learning history proposed by international studies. The application of educational competences to assessment processes needs to be adjusted to the epistemological, pedagogical and cognitive fundaments of each subject. Finally, the article will make some proposals for evaluation, firstly by using methods of inquiry, problem-based learning and related teaching strategies, in addition to the use of tools to assess more complex skills of historical thinking with students argumentation. Historical thinking requires a variety of assessment tools that are able to capture the different capacities of the students in their interpretation of the past and their historical skills.