Stimulating historical thinking in the infant years : the use of artefacts

Abstract

The main aim of this dissertation is to test whether five and six year old children could be helped to comunicate information acquired from an historical source, and whether they could be aided to recognise that historical sources can help answer questions about the past. This work was carried out largely through discussion sessions with the children, either as a whole group or individually. In most cases, artefacts were introduced, but during the first two chapters which represent the first two sessions with the children, one may notice the absence of actual artefacts. This is because these initial meetings, which are more on an introductory level are based more on an awareness of the self and self and the close surroundings, rather than on pure historical concepts and understanding Apart from the introduction, each chapter is based on individual sessions which were held successively with the children. The introduction, on the other hand, serves to enable the reader to become familiar with the work, and to give a general view on the teaching of history with young pupils. All the sessions were held with the same group of children, but they were shared out on two scholastic years - year one and year two. The primary reason for this is to test the childrens' development in historical concepts from one year to the other, and also to test whether historical concepts acquired during one session are sti11 remembered after a lapse of quite a long period of time. Most of the sessions held are recorded on tape or video, which may serve as evidence as to the work carried out. In some sessions, (the first two), no form of audio or visual recording is opted for. This is not without reason. The use of a cassette recorder or video camera may have hindered the children in their work, given that they were being submitted to an altogether innovative task, and innovative methods of teaching. Instead, other recording methods were used in this case (written records on forms - see appendices for specimen forms).