History teachers' conceptions of inquiry-based learning, beliefs about the nature of history, and their relation to the classroom context

The present study provides a comprehensive picture of history teachers' conceptions of inquiry-based-learning (IBL), based on interviews with 22 secondary school teachers. The results indicate that, although most teachers' beliefs about the nature of history were conducive to teaching hist...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Teaching and teacher education 2016-04, Vol.55, p.57-67
Main Authors: Voet, Michiel, De Wever, Bram
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Historical reasoning
History education
Inquiry-based learning
Teacher beliefs
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Summary:The present study provides a comprehensive picture of history teachers' conceptions of inquiry-based-learning (IBL), based on interviews with 22 secondary school teachers. The results indicate that, although most teachers' beliefs about the nature of history were conducive to teaching historical reasoning, their conceptions of IBL often remained limited to critically evaluating information, instead of using the available information to conduct inquiries into the past. Furthermore, teachers' conceptions of IBL appeared to be strongly connected to the context in which they worked. Based on these findings, several implications for supporting history teachers' adoption of IBL are discussed. •Most history teachers' held beliefs that stressed history's interpretative nature.•Yet, student inquiry was often misconstrued as a critical evaluation of sources.•Only a few considered full investigations of a problem statement about the past.•Teachers' epistemological beliefs partly influenced their conceptions of inquiry.•These conceptions could also be linked to the context in which teachers worked.
ISSN:0742-051X
1879-2480
DOI:10.1016/j.tate.2015.12.008