Computer-mediated critical doing history project

Computers in Human Behavior Computers in Human Behavior 23 (2007) 2144–2162 www.elsevier.com/locate/comphumbeh

Computer-mediated critical doing history project Shu Ching Yang *, Li-Jung Huang Graduate Institute of Education, National Sun Yat-Sen University, 70 Lien-hai Road, Kaohsiung 80424, Taiwan, ROC Available online 31 July 2006

Abstract The goal of computer-mediated critical (CMC) doing history project was to offer students an opportunity to become researchers of history by using technology to engage in historical enquiry. The project integrates Paul’s critical thinking modules, Hexter’s Doing History model and Anderson-Inman and Kessinger Gather Model, as well as using primary sources on the Internet to have learners engage in historian-like knowledge building activities. Thirty-three participants from a junior high school joined the history workshop as an extracurricular school activity. The researchers collected information through surveys, online discussion, and assignments; then conducted data analysis on the findings. The collected data were qualitatively analyzed to identify the themes related to the changes and critical abilities in students’ thinking about history. The study found that the thoughtful and creative use of computer technology, combined with critical thinking in conducting historical inquiry, contributes to learners’ historical knowledge, critical thinking skills, and interest in learning history. The students were positive about their gains in computer literacy, motivation to learn history, as well as their knowledge of history and research skills. A valuable finding was that the majority of the students went through epistemological shifts towards viewing learning history as a constructive, analytic, investigative activity. Through the doing history project, learners’ critical historical thinking is promoted to varying degrees, and that most learners are capable of developing a thoughtful and critical disposition toward history learning. However, although learners value the interactive communication and considered it a worthwhile endeavor to broaden their understanding of the history, learners did not engage in deep interactions from both quality and quantity of their online participation. Moreover, given the time limitation of 4 months, an only slightly higher level of historical causal reasoning was found in their knowledge building. Despite the fact that a concept of historical critical thinking was germinated in students’ minds, there was still much to learn for mastery of the subject and much to be desired in scaffolding

*

Corresponding author. Fax: +886 7 5255892. E-mail address: [email protected] (S.C. Yang).

0747-5632/$ - see front matter Ó 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2006.02.018

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learners’ historical reasoning. The paper concludes with some recommendations for the future design of technology in history learning. Ó 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Computer-mediated learning; Critical historical thinking; Doing history project; Computer-mediated communication

1. Introduction Researchers maintain that today’s society requires complex thinking that yields multiple solutions, involves multiple criteria, and demands nuanced judgments as both the demands of our present society and the increasing need to compete in the global economy require that all students achieve high levels of literacy, communication skills, and critical thinking skills (Garcia & McLaughlin, 1995; Resnick, 1987). Perkins (1992) argued that contemporary education must go beyond simply presenting students with information and ensure that students retain important information, understand topics deeply, and actively use the knowledge they gain. Paul (1995) harshly criticizes many contemporary educational practices emphasizing rote memorization, which he calls ‘‘the unending dominance of unimaginative didactic teaching’’, perpetuating an ‘‘anti-intellectual culture’’. In response to the challenges of the dramatic and inescapable change of the times, Paul advocates a comprehensive conception of critical thinking as a necessary tool to bring about readiness to meet impending challenges. Helping students meet these challenging demands is surely the responsibility of all teachers. Yet the study of history provides an ideal opportunity to develop and practice the kind of complex thinking skills needed for a rapidly changing world. History learning shares the spirit of critical thinking (Brophy, 1992; Reed, 1998). History offers insights from the past, views of diverse peoples in diverse times and settings, and multiple perspectives on complex issues and events. It strengthens one’s critical reading, communication, information and thinking skills. Historical understanding promotes learners’ active and critical construction of meaning by encouraging students to question the past, interpret and grapple with evidence, make reasoned inferences about historical events, and shape informed opinions on their own, which are essential to the education of an informed and humane citizenry (Thornton, 1997). However, in Taiwan’s middle school social studies and history classrooms, the prevalent mode of instruction tends to emphasize traditional, teacher-dominated, exam-oriented, textbook recitation to large-groups. History teaching objectives tend to focus more on historical understanding rather than on historical thinking such as chronological thinking, historical analysis and interpretation, historical research, and historical issueanalysis and decision-making which the United States, Germany, United Kingdom emphasize in each level of K 12 education. In this case without knowing how the history they receive has been arrived at, students often see history as a series of mysterious assertions of an isolated event that can be learned only in the sense of learning by heart. Rotelearned history can serve only the interests of quiz contestants, it offers little of substance to assist students in obtaining the judgments, perspectives, and knowledge of humans and society that characterizes the independent and critical thinking important to today’s society.

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Levstik and Barton (1996) argue that historical understanding does not come from repeating content from history texts or classes, rather, Brophy (1992) emphasizes that historical understanding involves active construction of meaning, problem solving, and critical thinking. National History Standards insist that authentic historical understanding requires more than retention of names and dates. Rather, students should understand history as a problem-solving activity, and teachers should position students to write historical narratives based on a critical evaluation of historical records (Crabtree & Nash, 1996). In order to have learners achieve a higher level of historical understanding, a number of researchers have argued for the importance of providence of the historical documents in the classroom (Newmark, 1997; Singleton & Giese, 1999; VanFossen, 2000). They contend that students need a variety of artifacts (i.e., photographs, art), primary and local documents at hand to inquire into historical questions, which help students learn abstract historical concepts contextually (Schrieber, 1984), expose students to multiple perspectives often lacking in traditional textbooks, and personalize and ‘‘give voice’’ to the past (McMurtry, 1995; Tally, 1996). In response to the call for critical historical thinking, this study explores the effects of cultivating critical thinking skills, within history education through Internet technology, to achieve its greatest potential. Although it is prevalent within schools that critical thinking has an important place within education, the application of critical thinking to education is seldom practiced. Furthermore, as students often do not see the nature of evidence gathering, the interpretation of history and the discursive nature of history texts, they tend to view history texts as relaying ‘‘objective truth’’ that they do not question or otherwise think about critically. Given this, the integration of Paul’s critical thinking modules into history learning is designed to have learners acquire knowledge of historic subject matter in the context of doing a history project. We teach students how to use the elements of critical thinking (reasoning, inferences, etc.) to analyze primary source documents and learn to use these skills as part of their effort to solve historical problems. Dewey believed that projects could be designed so that practical activities would ‘‘inevitably result not only in students’ amassing information of practical and scientific importance. . . but also (what is more significant) in their becoming versed in methods of experimental inquiry and proof’’ (p. 217). In his writing about teaching history to young people, Stearns (2000) contends ‘‘The key to developing historical habits of mind. . . is having repeated experience in historical inquiry. Such experience should involve a variety of materials and a diversity of analytical problems. . . What matters is learning how to access different magnitudes of historical change, different examples of conflicting interpretations, and multiple kinds of evidence’’. With this, the electronic doing history project is designed to foster an authentic way of learning history not just as a school discipline based on the transfer of standard knowledge, but as a chance to gain awareness and familiarity with the procedures for sustained exploration of apprentice historians. Recognizing the Internet’s potential for creating multiple sources and perspectives and the importance of providing historical documents, the computer-mediated critical (CMC) doing history project was designed to create relevant and cohesive digitized collections of normally inaccessible materials (Trentin, 2000; Yang & Huang, 2003). The Web-based environments are online collections of primary, secondary source documents and expert opinions interlinked in ways that support, with designed navigational features and educationally relevant hypermedia, resources so as to enhance comprehension and extend learning. Furthermore, leveraging the powerful effects of computer conferencing on learning

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processes, the asynchronous discussion forum is designed to provide information, generating ideas, and scaffolding thinking, allowing for collaborative learning in environments where learners construct historical understanding through creative and critical exploration rather than being taught specific knowledge. With this background in mind, the project offered learners web resources in history and provided critical history thinking modules by integrating Richard Paul’s model for critical thinking into a history workshop as an extracurricular activity. The project investigated how students’ ability for, and inclination toward, critical thinking about history, and their knowledge of history could be nurtured. In this project, critical thinking was developed through instructional intervention in analysis and interpretation of primary source documents, doing electronic history projects as well as online discussion. This series study, in particular, analyzed the interactive quality of learners engaging in computer-mediated communication to promote their critical thinking about history. The study contributed to an understanding of how Internet technology can be incorporated into the history curriculum by infusing critical thinking and doing history activities. Implications for the implementation of the doing history projects will be discussed. 2. Methodology 2.1. Participants The 33 participants, 9 boys and 24 girls, in this study were students in their second year at Chi-Jin Junior High School. They selected the course as an extracurricular activity and joined the project voluntarily. It should be noted that the learners took part in the critical historical workshop an extracurricular activity, a non-credit course with no grades or pressures. Therefore, the participants were not obligated to accomplish all the required tasks mentioned above, however, they were encouraged to work on it. 2.2. Context of the study In order to give readers a general sense of the context in which the study took place, this subsection briefly describes the overall course structure. The CMC doing history project offered learners Thematic history learning web resources and provided critical history thinking modules by integrating Richard Paul’s model for learners’ conducting the doing history project The procedural framework is illustrated in Fig. 1.We integrated Internet technology into the history curriculum, and required students to use it extensively in their projects. Computer-mediated critical history aims to help students develop historical understanding with a critical and creative disposition. Specifically, the instructional objectives for this endeavor were to: (1) provide students with multiple information sources about the late Chin dynasty by designing web learning resources, and further to have them compare multiple perspectives on the thematic events by reading and studying primary source documents; (2) provide students with an information-literate experience in web technology by engaging in the doing history project and online discussions that lead to the construction of multimedia content to add to the website; (3) enhance students’ discourse synthesis ability, namely, learning how to search, organize, and compose information for a research project – and most importantly; (4) offer critical thinking modules, providing students with a strategy for critical thinking

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Fig. 1. The interface design of the CMC history learning website.

about multiple, conflicting documents, and to provide them with opportunities to engage in historian-like activities. Prior to the project, we instructed learners about collaborative skills such as role responsibility, taking-turns, communication (how to discuss, negotiate, encourage and solve problems), trust building, and resources sharing, etc. (specifies positive interdependence and individual accountability, gives the criteria for success, and explains the social skills to be used). They were also offered a 6-h workshop to familiarize them with the use of technology (video cameras, camcorders, homepage tools, digital cameras). After familiarizing students with general web design and cooperative skills, students were instructed about historical concepts and critical thinking through targeted instructional modules. Well-designed worksheets were provided to enrich learners’ prerequisite and required historical knowledge regarding specific historical event for a project. The worksheet required learners to read information on the E-Thematic history learning website and engage in thematic discussion to orient and scaffold learners toward historical thinking. Students were involved in tasks while working on the doing history project that required learning how to pursue historical inquiry by using the Web and other documents for general research purposes, such as critically searching for, organizing and synthesizing information, and proposing a hypothesis for their projects. The doing history project was considered to be the learners’ portfolio. Students could create their electronic projects in whatever format they liked. That is, they could assemble and compose the information they found from the Web or book references in any artful or creative format they liked. 2.3. Thematic history learning The CMC doing history project enhances students learning history through quick and extensive access to primary sources. Many primary sources are collected on the website

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which is not limited by the technology to printed documents such as letters, newspapers, diaries, official documents and poems. Artifacts (art, articles of contract, weapons, tools, etc.), places (ecosystems, dwellings, and other buildings and structures), sounds (music, stories, and folklore), and images (paintings, photographs, and videos/movies) can also be considered primary sources. Introducing and using primary sources in the history classroom leads to active learning and to the development of critical thinking and enhancement of the learning process by allowing students to construct their own understanding of people, events, and ideas. The CMC doing history learning website focuses on the theme related to wars in the late Chin Dynasty. Currently, we have developed the themes of the Opium War and the Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895 in the late Chin Dynasty. The interface design and framework of the website is presented in Fig. 1. 2.4. Critical thinking history instructional modules Richard Paul’s model for critical thinking, complemented by Ennis’s critical thinking model, improving minimal proficiencies by activating critical thinking (IMPACT), was used as the basis for the critical historical thinking training in this study. The instructor integrated Paul’s model into critical thinking history instructional modules by: (a) teaching the model explicitly by providing a packet of handouts that graphically displayed and further explained the model; (b) training students to use the elements of reasoning to analyze primary source documents and historical problems; (c) giving worksheets that required students to use the model; (d) conducting classroom and online discussions by focusing on the elements and standards set forth in the model. Some units included clarifying history concepts, recognizing primary and secondary documents, making interpretations and inferences, critically employing evidence to reconstruct a past event and evaluate how the evidence bears on a hypotheses, etc. Students were presented with a historical concept, primary source, or section of the textbook and model of the kind of historical thinking to apply. It was hoped that the learners acquired subject matter knowledge of history in the context of critical-thinking exercises and applied it in their struggle to deal with thought-provoking, open-ended questions in the doing history project. 2.5. The computer-mediated doing history project The students had to complete several assignments for the course during the semester. The main assignment associated with the CMC doing history project on the Web, was used as the task for the study. Using the resources from the Thematic history learning website, students found a range of resources to study the theme of the Opium War and the Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895. The CMC doing history project integrates Hexter’s Doing History model and Anderson-Inman and Keissenger Gather Model (2000) to trigger a learning process in historical inquiry that is based on research strategies such as data collection, analyze and interpret primary source documents, formulating and substantiating a hypothesis. In Promoting Historical Inquiry, Anderson-Inman and Kessinger outline six steps in the GATHER Model. They are: 1, get an overview (G); 2, ask a probing question (A); 3, triangulate the data (T); 4, hypothesize a tentative answer (H); 5, explore and interpret the data (E); 6, record and support your conclusions (R). The students were encouraged to follow this six-step model to pursue their historical inquiry. They were

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required to compose their projects by presenting their personal perspectives on a select topic. The subjects participated in groups of 4–5 according to their personal preference and were instructed to understand the gist of a project, and get acquainted with the hardware and software they would use in its design (see Fig. 2). Students were guided through the creation of a project, which contains features that students were asked to include in their multimedia project. These included identifying their hypothesis of the theme, stating the position, providing reasons for each position, and summarizing positions. The multimedia project also introduced students to constructing the websites and incorporating multimedia elements to include in their projects, including text, scanned and digitized pictures, and digitized movies and sound. By participating in these activities, students developed an understanding of the goals that guided their history work and the purpose for which they were acquiring skills. 2.6. Survey After the project was finished, a survey was given to elicit relevant information on the participants’ perception of, and attitudes towards CMC history learning, using the Web to complete their historical projects, as well as critical thinking instructional modules of history. The opening questions survey focused on the learners’ self-evaluation of E-Thematic history learning, including their perception of E-Thematic history learning, themed discussions, searching and organizing data, and the ability to make an inference as well as learning gains.

Fig. 2. The instructional design of E-doing history project.

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3. Findings and discussion The study investigated how students’ ability of and inclination toward critical thinking about history, and knowledge of history were nurtured as they engaged in the CMC history project. Several themes emerged which were distilled from the learners’ responses to surveys, projects, online discussion and researcher’s observation to discover the changes and critical abilities in students’ thinking about history. They were identified and are discussed below. 3.1. Learners’ perception of the value of online-discussion The interaction on the discussion board provided students a chance to ask questions, to think about the questions, and to make their inferences. The teachers could provide justin-time support, challenge learners to think deeply, engage in critical thinking that focused on issue analysis and stimulated constructive reflection on the part of the learners. From the survey, students indicated that they were given opportunities to appreciate and accommodate diversified opinions and to augment the richness of their own interpretations and thus develop their ability to think critically about history. Although there was not much two-way dialogue, learners remarked that they were exposed to multiple perspectives on a given topic and challenged to think deeply and reflectively by looking at their peer’s comments. Following are students’ responses. 3.1.1. Exposing multiple perspectives Different opinions presented on the discussion board helped students to think about certain historical events from different viewpoints. It helped students realize there is not one single way to explain history, depending on which perspective one takes and what context one considers. The following episodes showed that learners become comfortable with the fact that often there is more than one perspective.  It helps me to accommodate others’ opinions. Different people view things differently. It helps me to see what I had never seen. . . I realized that there is not only one single way to view an event. You will have different thoughts when you see things in different ways. It helps me to realize that there is more than one reason for an event. (S22)  It helps me to see the complex connections of an event. . . I understand that there are different viewpoints with different interpretations and opinions. (S26)

3.1.2. Understanding more about history Through interaction among peers, students learn more about the course of history. They no longer view history simply with intuition. As learners remarked:  It helps me to think about what I had never thought about. I can learn about different opinions, too. I can understand more about history. . . I can learn what I would never learn from a textbook. We got to analyze and evaluate the evidence and make inferences. History is not right or wrong. The primary sources made me look at the issue or event from different angles; I think it broadened my perspective to look at it from angles that would not have occurred to me with my own personal biases and background.

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 It made me look at different ways of thinking to gain better knowledge of my old ideas and to form new ideas based upon other people’s perspectives.  Sometimes you did not think clearly, but somebody else would discuss the issue indepth. They presented their arguments and illustrated points with evidence so that we might support their perspectives if they were sounder than ours. (S2) 3.1.3. Reflecting on their thoughts when encountering different opinions The learners’ recognition of the contextual relativity of historical knowledge was prompted through the illumination of the values and perspectives different individuals brought to the discussion forum. Engagement with perspectives different from their own not only generates learners’ reflection on their own perspectives but also facilitates the development of more open meaning perspectives, as the learners learn to expect and seek out multiple versions instead of blindly accepting the authorized version of history. They remarked that:  When we propose a question and answer ourselves, one can only get one answer. However, if you put the question on the discussion board, you will get various responses. Some agree with you and others disagree with you. When someone holds different perspectives from ours, we have an opportunity to reexamine and refine our own opinions, and ask ourselves ‘‘Is my thinking justified? Whether what I think is true’’. (S24)  It can train students to make judgments and learn other opinions. They get to understand history more after discussions. It is very helpful for getting new opinions and different thinking. I learned a lot. (S17) 3.1.4. Enhancement of critical thinking skills The discussion board contributes to learner’s ability to evaluate, present and analyze other’s points of view. Through discussing different opinions with others, students’ frame of reference is broadened and deepened. It is helpful for them to improve their ability to judge and approach questions fair-mindedly. They mentioned that the use of multiple perspectives and primary resources helped them learn to see that multiple realities exist. They began to trust their own intellect rather than depending on the ideas of others for all of their knowledge as learners remarked:  I can know others opinions and double-check with my own thoughts. . . However, I would not change my attitude much if I think my points are more justified. I will spend some more time thinking about the accuracy of opinions different from my own. I will also accept/appreciate others thinking. (S30)  I think that the topic on the discussion board helps me to understand other people’s opinions and therefore to broaden my own thoughts. I will no longer be limited by my own belief. Thus, I can judge historical events fairly. (S21)  It made me look at different ways of thinking. I can try to see things in different shades of gray instead of black or white.  I need to study more on that to come up my points or view.  I am not clear on that; I need to study it more. . . From the above comments, we see by picking out and reflecting upon these various types of arguments, the student determine the degree of reliability and strength of support

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for statements about history. The student becomes aware of the quality of support for a historical interpretation. Moreover, as learners engage in comprehensive thinking, they are committed to respecting the opinions of others and carefully expressing their ideas in writing. It is particularly commendable and praiseworthy to find that a number of learners comments indicate they hold in abeyance the determination of meaning and live with the uncertainty this entails. Regarding students’ attitude toward different opinions and their accommodation, the following examples are illustrated. From Table 1, we can see S17 mentioned ‘‘the ambitions of Japanese’’ without specific focusing on the topic and analysis. S26, S24 and S21 explained the factor of invasion by elaborating the results of restoration and the limitation of land resources. After the reviewing and comparing the peers’ various points, S17 reflected on his ideas by furnishing warrants for a claim. It shows that the asynchronous discussion encourages learners’ open-mindedness and inquisitive speculation by forcing their attention directly towards their own thought processes. 3.2. The patterns of interactive messages To investigate the patterns of computer-mediated communication in asynchronous discussion forums, the total number of messages from students and teachers were analyzed. Table 2 showed that participants posted a total of 319 messages for 16 themes. Among the messages, 78.37% shoot for the individual discussion for each theme, 16.93% for replying to others, while teacher replies account for 4.7% of the messages. The pattern showed a number of stand-alone messages either in response to others, or weaving two or three replies, yet generally, they were primarily dominated by monologue. It appeared that learners tended to post to get their viewpoint out on an issue, but they were not much explicitly responsive to the postings of their peers. Only a few parties kept the conversation

Table 1 Learners’ response about the Meiji restoration in a thread Writer

Time

Content

S17

10/05 7:29:02 pm

S26

10/07 12:51:54 pm

S24

10/23 4:21:25 pm

S21

11/01 1:37:58 pm

S17

11/02 12:39:39 am

Japanese are ambitious. Japan is not large enough for them to rule with satisfaction. The status of Japan will be higher if it could expand its territory After the Meiji Restoration of Japan, it became a constitutional monarchy. Japan was getting stronger as it started to develop its military and economy. However, because Japan is small the country decided to invade other countries, as it grew stronger Japan is a constitutional monarchy, which avoided learning from the West. It is a small country. Industrial development made Japan believe that it was capable of invading other countries After the Meiji Restoration, Japan was a strong country especially militarily. As a small country, the large population and demands of all kinds led Japan to invade other countries for resources. Also, Japan wanted to see if their restoration was successful or not Oh! Yes! After the constitutions, Japan became very strong (especially its army). The Japanese are too ambitious but Japan is a small country. Therefore, they wanted to expand their territory. . .

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Table 2 Participants’ weekly participation in online discussion form Weekly theme

Total messages

A1 A2 A3 A4 A5 A6 A7 A8 A9 A10 A11 A12 A13 A14 A15 A16

29 29 41 26 21 22 22 22 15 20 19 16 12 11 6 8

Total

319

Total of reply messages 24 26 15 17 14 22 19 16 13 19 19 13 10 11 6 6 250 (78.37)

Total peer-responses 4 2 23 6 4 0 3 3 1 1 0 3 2 0 0 2 54 (16.93)

Total instructor-responses 1 1 3 3 3 0 0 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 15 (4.70)

going for several exchanges with three threaded replies of five or six messages. In other words, learner interactions appeared more reflective of one-way than two-way interactions. According to Moore (1989), distance education involves three styles of interaction, that is, learner–learner, learner–instructor and learner–content interaction. The pattern of the findings reflected more learner-and-content interaction, with fewer learner and learner interactions and learner and instructor interactions. On close examination of message content by teacher and peer replies, it was found that teacher messages aimed toward clarifying students’ inquiries or questions, illustrating a pedagogical practice or a specific example. The findings showed relatively few posts by teachers, which might be partly explained by the fact that the instructor tended to publish the procedural posts on the message board or during class, such as announcements, logistical information, and information about requirements, reminding participants what materials they needed to read and tasks necessary to complete during the week. 3.2.1. Content analysis of peer-reply messages Regarding the messages of peer reply (see Table 3), they could be grouped into the following six categories, showing social/cognitive compliment, recognitions and gratitude (n = 19, 35.2%), followed in turn, responding by elaborating, illustrating one’s point of view (n = 15, 27.8%), signaling for one’s ignorance/lack of knowledge (n = 8, 14.8%), Request for clarification to one’s question (n = 5, 8.8%), Holding the interpretation (n = 4, 7.4%), leading to spur deep thought or dialogue (n = 3, 5.6%). As can be seen that the social/cognitive compliment accounts above one thirds of peer replies, indicate learners’ desire to maintain, socialize, personalize or energize the flow of conversation. One-fourth of peer-reply messages demonstrate learners’ response by elaborating and extending their perspectives for the given historical theme. There are five messages requesting clarification as they did not understand peer reasoning, or a message failed to provide reasons and evidence that was clearly linked to their claims. While eight messages of learners’ signaling for their lack of knowledge could invite peer’s further

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Table 3 Frequency of six forms of peer-response messages Code

Category

Explanation

Examples

Total (%)

R1

Social/cognitive compliments, recognitions and gratitude

Responding to others with agreement, compliments, gratitude, or giving feedback, selfappraisal

‘‘Cool!’’, ‘‘I think so. . .’’, ‘‘Thanks for. . . response’’ ‘‘Thank teacher. . .’’

19 (35.2%)

R2

Signaling one’s ignorance/lack of knowledge

Acknowledging one’s ignorance regarding the topic, or one’s failure to get the meaning, or simply replying ‘‘having no idea’’

Yah, I have no idea about it. I did not get it.

8 (14.8%)

R3

Request for clarification to one’s question

The learners ruminate, request, make statements or pose self-questions that indicate they are checking their own general or specific levels of understanding

‘‘I don’t understand. . . I can’t identify the information’’ ‘‘I think your answer is more abstract, could you more specific. . .

5 (8.8%)

R4

Holding one’s Interpretation

Replying by acknowledging one’s failure or lack of confidence in interpretations and showing effort for searching for more information to make a claim

‘‘This is difficult. . . I will answer it after I study it’’ I think it might be. . ., but I think I need to read more documents before I make my point of view

4 (7.4%)

R5

Attempting to spur deep thought or dialogue

Responding by analyzing the topic, raising different lines of inquiry for further study

‘‘I think. . . the point is. . .’’, ‘‘We can start from. . . aspect and think. . . What is the difference between A and B, What if. . ., Is any other way to. . .

3 (5.6%)

R6

Responding by elaborating, illustrating one’s point of view

Responding by expressing one’s opinions, statements or propositions regarding historical topic

‘‘In my personal opinion, . . .’’, ‘‘I think X is. . .’’

15 (27.8%)

elaboration for the topic although the intensity of the invitation is not as strong as learners direct request for clarification to one’s question. Although the pattern of discussion found two-way interactions relatively low among learners, still, peers’ interactions and teachers’ responses play an influential role in nurturing historical thinking. For example, it is commendable to find that there are four messages showing learners’ reflection on their interpretations and an effort to search for more information to make a solid claim, as learners commented ‘‘This is difficult. . . I will

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answer it after I study on it’’, ‘‘ I am not sure about it, I will look into more documents and evidence before I make my claim’’. Furthermore, some learners play a tutor role to clarify peer’s misunderstanding, confusion, questions, or to raise another line of research for peers’ further discussion and reflection. This echoes Bates’ assertion that computer conferencing ‘‘allows mature learners to bring their own experience and expertise to the learning process’’ (1995, p. 226). Indeed, the social/cognitive compliment messages surely have value in online discussion; however, it would be more constructive if learners engage in more intellectual historical inquiry by arguing, persuading, or defending their perspectives. Given this, how to scaffold so learners focus more on essential and substantial content and stimulate them to expand and build on their knowledge construction, facilitating the movement of their online communication from social, reactive to fully interactive and reflective is a prime task. 3.2.2. Content analysis of messages regarding critical historical thinking In order to understand learners’ development of historical thinking, the content of messages were encoded along three categories. Table 4 showed that the category of general opinion occupies most (64.52%), whereas focus on theme and causation account for 29.44% and 6.05%, respectively. The distribution showed that learners express their thoughts by offering general opinion or personal views without further developing an idea in the messages. Although some portions of the messages (29.44%) address the issue by specifying the themes, still there is much room to be desired for learners’ higher-level of historical reasoning. Due to the time limitations, the learners may have needed more scaffolding in order for them to take full advantage of the online resources and critical thinking modules offered in the workshop to practice and enact their critical historical reasoning. Regarding individual participation in the forum, the study shows great variability in the interaction of the participants. The number of posts made by participants themselves averaged 7.5, whereas peer responses averaged 1.2. The students engaged in active discussions and exchange of ideas that augmented the typical communication patterns of formal classroom meetings, remarking that computer conferencing allowed them to have discussions that fostered learning. While a few students did not contribute and join in the peers’ interactions, some learners interacted with others more frequently and were enthusiastic about sharing their ideas, and considered it as a good outlet for not only socializing but also intellectual exchange. On average, participants reported that they spent half an hour weekly on computer conferences and that the time spent was worthwhile and enjoyable. In particular, reading the messages took more time than they had expected. Although one may argue that some participants did not contribute substantially to the discussion, they participated as ‘‘vicarious interactors’’ as Sutton (2001) advocates. That is, they cognitively processes content while absorbing the interactions of others and use the discussion board as resources for ideas and thinking. This is verified from interviews with some lurking learners, they expressed their enjoyment of reading the messages although they did not post their own. Some learners reported their lack of contribution was due to personal computers not connected to the internet at home, some attributed it to lack of time due to their over scheduling other school work, some pointed out their need for more clues in the messages, more time to digest materials and work on their projects, as well as more guidance due to lack of required background preparation for understanding a given theme. While two learners frankly admitted their somewhat passive attitude, as the course was non-credit,

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Table 4 Frequency of different levels of historical thinking messages Code

Category

Explanation

Illustrative example

Total (%)

C1

Express opinions

Messages that offer general advice or personal views without further developing an idea

160 (64.52%)

C2

Focus on theme

Focus on the theme clearly and support their statements by illustrating or specifying in terms of the particular historical content to which they refer

C3

Analyze causation

Construct ones’ assertion, claim by elaborating causation or furnishing grounds or warrants for a claim

‘‘Japanese are ambitious. . . they expanded. . .’’, ‘‘. . .it is due to the aggravations of Japanese’’. ‘‘Because they are selfish. . . they don’t think about the future of the country’’. ‘‘The importance of a local place. . .’’ ‘‘Japan got stronger after the reformation. Japan invaded other countries because they are too small, they are ambitious. . .’’. ‘‘Tian-jin agreement gave Japan a good reason to attack China, the war between Japan and China thus started. . .’’ ‘‘Under the tension of the SinoFranco war, Japan wanted to expand her territory and invade Korea. Tian-jin agreement was signed to disfavor China and Korea. . . Japan could invade Korea easily’’. ‘‘I believe the Chinese people were not fighting together. . . There was no way for northern military to win when they were fighting by themselves. . . economic issues were related with political issues, Cih-si took money from the military. . . how could we ever win under that circumstances?’’

73 (29.44%)

15 (6.05%)

with no grades or pressure to push their online participation although they think it is worthwhile endeavor. For those learners who did not have computer or internet connections at home they experienced greater barriers to accessing the history website, some selfdirected learners were willing to spend time in an internet cafe´ to read and post messages. The essence of a history e-learning is to provide learners with opportunities to participate in communities; access and discuss exemplary models and materials; co-construct, review, and publish ideas that reflect their historical thinking and interpretation. The learning community should be designed to support the collective intelligence and meeting of minds through interactive and reflective dialogue. There seems to be a mutual desire for goals such as the exploration of multiple perspectives or the development of shared understanding, therefore, increasing the likelihood of effective discussions within the forum is an important goal. 4. Conclusions The CMC doing history project challenged learners to conduct historical inquiry with technology while facilitating the development of historical thinking, sharpening critical

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thinking and problem-solving, enhancing computer literacy, as well as nurturing interpersonal and teamwork skills. The study showed that most students generally found their initial experiences with the project to be a combination of positive, rewarding, constructive, empowering, and challenging. They appreciated that the critical thinking modules taught them a series of critical thinking exercises in history education. They enjoyed the ease of accessing and viewing dynamic multiple sources of information. They particularly valued the interactive communication on the discussion forum which broadened their understanding of the history content domain and supported further development of critical reflection. While learners recognized the need for greater interactive dialogue and considered it a worthwhile endeavor, they did not bring those concerns to the online discussion. The study showed that a number of learners give voice to ones’ perspectives without going beyond a single reply, while a small group of learners became ‘‘lurkers’’, who seldom posted messages. Generally speaking, learners did not engage in deep interactions and still there is much to be desired in learners’ higher-level of historical reasoning. Therefore, how to scaffold and have learners engage in interactive, reflective, and constructive dialogue is the next step. Having learners keep track of the overall topic of the discussion and pay attention to who said what and to whom, would further propel learners to reflect on their interpretation, in light of others perspectives, and enable them to make better justifications and provide a foundation for the development of dialectic thought. Through the critical historical thinking modules, it was found that students’ recognition of history had been changed. They acknowledged their previous belief of history as a subject requiring only memory and repetition, or history as a school subject and no more. After the modules, they realized the unique structure of history. They learned they should gather information, evaluate the evidence, make judgments and justify their arguments in order to re-interpret and reconstruct a historical event. The project-based doing history investigation affords students opportunities to work through the documents, experience the messy world of historical interpretation as expert historians participate in their fabrication of meaning, and it helps them adopt an inquiring habit of mind into how history is made. The study found that critical historical thinking is promoted to varying degrees, and that most learners develop a thoughtful and critical disposition toward history learning. The students were more capable of and responsible for engaging in the kind of strategies that historians did, they gained better knowledge of what happened in the specific historical event, and realized how to make inquiries and search for answers. A concept of history using empathy, reconstruction, heuristics of corroboration, sourcing, and context was germinated in students’ mind, although there was still much to learn for mastery of the content domain. Paul and Elder (2001) proposed a process with six stages for the development of critical thinking: (1) the unreflective thinker unaware of significant problems in one’s thinking; (2) the challenged thinker aware of problems in one’s thinking; (3) the beginning thinker who is trying to improve but without regular practice; (4) the practicing thinker who recognizes the necessity of regular practice; (5) the advanced thinker who advances in accordance with practice, (6) the master thinker with skilled and insightful thinking as second nature. They argued that to advance beyond ‘‘beginning thinker’’ one must realize that there is a body of interrelated knowledge about the mind and skills potential for the mind that must be mastered at progressive levels of depth and skill, and that one must monitor one’s movement through these levels of excellence via planned practice. The study showed the differences in students’ ability for applying critical thinking with most of the learners still in the stage of the unreflective and challenged thinker. Only a few

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students moved toward the stage of ‘‘the beginning thinker’’. The results may indicate that 4 months is not long enough for learners to apply critical thinking skills in their history projects, particularly for those who lack historical background knowledge. Additionally, the specific practice of critical historical thinking skills, using Paul’s model, were introduced and modeled but the critical, causal, as well as argumentative, skills were not given much practice and modeling (guided and apprenticed) due to time limitations. As the development of historical critical thinking does not grow merely out of a short-term workshop; but takes time, effort, support; good instructional design and learner-generated initiatives for sustained development of reflective and active learning. With this, future study might extend the time, and scaffold different levels of strategies and practices corresponding with their developmental level of historical thinking ability and knowledge. The project should require and encourage the learners to justify, defend and flesh out the connections they have made from the larger body of information, while developing the analytical skills necessary to think reflexively about the topic. Furthermore, the discussion should evoke more reflection-stimulating responses by requiring that participants’ read and respond to peers postings to force them to think and form ideas. It is hoped that, by facilitating the movement of on-line communication from reactive to highly interactive and reflective, it will result in participants seeking common meanings as they engage in critical thinking that focuses on issue analysis and problem solving of authentic history inquiry. 5. Implications This study is the researchers’ and instructors’ first joint effort and the students’ first attempt at this type of activity. The study showed that computer-mediated history learning via critical thinking modules has the potential to empower students when implemented appropriately. Although the positive learning effects on students were quite acceptable, there are still some issues that need to be addressed and reflected upon. 5.1. Students’ knowledge of history has to be considered in the design of history projects During the project, it was observed some learners approached their knowledge building with less of a sense of synthesis and integration and had more difficulty in hypothesizing and synthesizing than other successful learners with much more historical knowledge. This suggests that learners with less prior knowledge need more scaffolding and guidance to ensure their learning outcome is in accordance with the original target objectives. As historical understanding requires a basic knowledge of content domain and the historical context, learners need contextual knowledge and perspectives of time and place of a historical event in order to construct justified historical arguments. The handouts and written instructions could be more elaborate and structured to provide apprenticeships that help them explore a topic thoroughly and lead them toward critical thinking. As they progressively take ownership, the cognitive scaffolding should be gradually withdrawn or phased out. 5.2. Promoting and apprenticing language and information literacy within learners’ ZPD The Internet allows learners immediate access to an extraordinary wealth and variety of information. For some learners who are weak in reading or have less historical knowledge,

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they might feel cognitive overload from such a wide array of source material and thus not show much interest and effort in interpreting the literary documents. According to Percoco (1998), young people are often more animated about history learned from oral sources and films than from print, and that excitement may make a weak reader more willing to tackle difficult reading material. The use of non-print sources can also strengthen the ability of average or strong readers to benefit from reading multiple print sources (Wilson & Memory, 2001). Given this, the website might provide more non-print sources (movies, film, cartoons, simple versions of stories, etc.) as legitimate historical evidence to help students with reading difficulties to participate more fully in their assigned project and research. As learner’s progress and their ZPDs grow, the teacher might require progressively more print material assignments as learner’s mastery of the skills increase. Regarding information literacy, as the study showed that learners learned a set of information skills, involving operations and presentations, using Internet technology. However, some learners find challenges in managing the deeper level of information communication, evaluation and transformation. In terms of Eisenberg and Berkowitz’s Big Six,1 a process model of how people solve an information problem, the learners mastered the basic level, but lacked advanced ability; how to use, synthesize and evaluate information. In order to successfully complete the doing history project, learners not only need to gain technical and conceptual experience in using the Internet, but the ability to critically synthesize and evaluate foundational information. Given this, it is important to employ Big Six as a template, particularly for less information literate learners, by integrating information search and use skills along with technology tools in a systematic process to find, use, apply, and evaluate information for specific needs and tasks for the doing history project 5.3. Expanding and refining the website The design of learning materials, supplementary information and related links provide a variety of information in the CMC history learning website. The survey showed that most students found the information helpful for their further study about a historical topic, particularly the quality of the images. While the students appreciated the finite scope of the information, especially when preparing reports, they expressed considerable frustration over the inadequacies of the materials. They complained that the textual descriptions were uneven, sometimes either too deep or too shallow. They thought the database should incorporate more multiple primary and secondary resources to access on demand, such as a digital library. Furthermore, some students who were less literate in reading comprehension felt the content was too difficult and dense for them to understand, particularly the classical Chinese and literary language used in ancient China. They suggested rewriting the ancient or literary texts or illustrating them with more pictures to make the vernacular more understandable. However, there were also some literate learners’ who preferred more detailed and comprehensive documents, they did not like a simplified version of historical 1 Developed by Mike Eisenberg and Bob Berkowitz, Big Six integrates information search and use skills along with technology tools in a systematic process to find, use, apply, and evaluate information for specific needs and tasks. Big Six is a process model of how people solve an information problem. Eisenberg and Berkowitz found that successful information problem solving encompasses six stages: (1) Task Definition; (2) Information Seeking Strategies; (3) Location and Access; (4) Use of Information; (5) Synthesis; (6) Evaluation.

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documents because they could not capture the whole essence of an event. Given this, providing a full range of materials for learners’ reference is the best solution. Some sophisticated features might include topic introductions, expert commentaries, critical reviews, heated debates or controversies as well as associated video clips of different aspects of historical events. As the learners came to the course with various levels of prior knowledge, beliefs, values, cultural backgrounds and different life experiences, how to promote and apprentice the novices within their ZPD hinges both on the productive use of tools and the instructor’s curriculum design. With respect to tools, the website should be designed to easily adapt to different expectations and learner preferences. Future websites could exploit the complementarities of multimedia resources, and multiple perspectives, to represent and convey information while providing diverse examples at the learners’ request. With respect to curriculum design, the instructor could design assignments and handouts that help students explore the assigned topics thoroughly, leading them toward critical thinking. A given assignment should place responsibility on the learners to base their work around an integrative, conceptually based thesis by fostering creative, critical and synthetic approaches to various sources of primary material, by discovering relationships and building arguments. Acknowledgements This article was written under a grant from the National Research Council (NSC 902520-S-110-003-), the Department of the Republic of China (ROC) executive branch. The authors thank the instructor for her help in the implementation of the project and data collection, as well as students for their participation. References Anderson-Inman, L., & Kessinger, P. (2000). Promoting historical inquiry: GATHER model. Available fromhttp://anza.uoregon.edu/TeachersWWW/GATHER_Intro.html. Bates, A. W. (1995). Technology open learning and distance education. London, NY: Routledge. Brophy, J. (1992). Fifth-grade U.S. history: how one teacher arranged to focus on key ideas in depth. Theory and Research in Social Education, 20(2), 141–155. Crabtree, C., & Nash, G. B. (1996). National standards for United States history. Los Angeles: University of California at Los Angeles, National Center for History in the Schools. Dewey, J. (1933). How we think. Boston: D.C. Heath. Ennis, R. H. (1996). Critical thinking. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Garcia, E. E., & McLaughlin, B. (1995). Introduction. In E. E. Garcia & B. McLaughlin (Eds.), Meeting the challenge of linguistic and cultural diversity in early childhood education. New York: Teachers College Press. Levstik, L. S., & Barton, K. C. (1996). They still use some of their past: historical salience in elementary children’s chronological thinking. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 28(5), 531–576. McMurtry, J. (1995). Eyewitness culture and history: primary written sources. Canadian Social Studies, 30(1), 9–11. Moore, M. G. (1989). Editorial: three types of interaction. The American Journal of Distance Education, 3(2), 1–7. Newmark, M. S. (1997). Navigating the internet for sources in American history. The History Teacher, 30, 283–292. Paul, R. W. (1995). Critical thinking: How to prepare students for a rapidly changing world. Santa Rosa, CA: Foundation for Critical Thinking. Paul, R., & Elder, L. (2001). Critical thinking: Tools for taking of your learning and your life. NJ: Upper Saddle River. Percoco, J. (1998). A passion for the past: Creative teaching of U.S. history. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Perkins, D. (1992). Smart schools: From training memories to education minds. New York: Basic Books.

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