Options
From hysteria to historia : an integrated model of looking through a historical lens and mastery of written argument for highly abled learners
Author
Lim, Doreen Li Huang
Supervisor
Tan, Liang See
Abstract
This quasi-experimental study explores the effects of intervention and motivational influences that affect high ability learners‘ historical reasoning and mastery of essay skills. It replicates some aspects of De La Paz‘s study (2005) on the effects of historical reasoning instruction and writing strategy mastery in middle school classrooms. The experimental group (n = 25) was taught an integrated model of historical inquiry and written argument structure while the control group (n = 28) was not. The model provides a conceptual framework for high ability learners to integrate the five Cs—Concept, Context, Comparison, Critique and Collective Evaluation of historical inquiry into written argument. It was designed to articulate explicitly the simultaneous processes of critical and creative thinking. Students‘ essays were coded according to argument structure and historical accuracy, which measured critical thinking, and persuasive quality, which measured creative thinking in terms of multiple interpretations of sources, synthesis, and reconciliation of conflicting arguments.
The word history originated from the Greek word, historia, which meant "knowing or learning about the past by inquiry". Ironically, some of the high ability learners in the sample often took historical sources at face value and did not question assumptions. While they were capable of organising contents under concepts, they did not apply their conceptual understanding to their written argument. Hence, their essays stopped short of reaching the highest level of persuasiveness which required higher levels of criticality and creativity. Underperforming students misinterpreted sources out of context, gave one-sided argument, and regurgitated facts without answering the issue in the historical question. Given this problem, this study seeks to help high ability learners progress from a state of hysteria to the state of historia. By modelling the integrated model, this study aims to help them overcome their state of anxiety from not being in control of their written argument to the state of being in control of it. It seeks to find out whether the teaching of the integrated model improves the quality of students‘ argumentative essays in terms of their definition of concepts, thesis statement, balanced arguments, historical accuracy and persuasion. In an increasingly knowledge-intensive world, it is crucial for students to take away with them a historical lens and see historical inquiry as a life skill that enables them to analyse and interpret texts beyond face value.
Apart from examining the effects of intervention through the teaching of the integrated model, the study measured the motivation of the participants. The scope of this study focused on the ability/expectancy factor and perceptions of effort required as motivational factors.
In this research, significant differences were found between the experimental and control groups in the quality of thesis statement and definition of concepts produced. More significantly, mastery of essay elements was found within the experimental group from post-test 1 to post-test 2. A significant interaction effect was seen in the mean scores between the two groups and the motivational factor of effort required on written argument.
The word history originated from the Greek word, historia, which meant "knowing or learning about the past by inquiry". Ironically, some of the high ability learners in the sample often took historical sources at face value and did not question assumptions. While they were capable of organising contents under concepts, they did not apply their conceptual understanding to their written argument. Hence, their essays stopped short of reaching the highest level of persuasiveness which required higher levels of criticality and creativity. Underperforming students misinterpreted sources out of context, gave one-sided argument, and regurgitated facts without answering the issue in the historical question. Given this problem, this study seeks to help high ability learners progress from a state of hysteria to the state of historia. By modelling the integrated model, this study aims to help them overcome their state of anxiety from not being in control of their written argument to the state of being in control of it. It seeks to find out whether the teaching of the integrated model improves the quality of students‘ argumentative essays in terms of their definition of concepts, thesis statement, balanced arguments, historical accuracy and persuasion. In an increasingly knowledge-intensive world, it is crucial for students to take away with them a historical lens and see historical inquiry as a life skill that enables them to analyse and interpret texts beyond face value.
Apart from examining the effects of intervention through the teaching of the integrated model, the study measured the motivation of the participants. The scope of this study focused on the ability/expectancy factor and perceptions of effort required as motivational factors.
In this research, significant differences were found between the experimental and control groups in the quality of thesis statement and definition of concepts produced. More significantly, mastery of essay elements was found within the experimental group from post-test 1 to post-test 2. A significant interaction effect was seen in the mean scores between the two groups and the motivational factor of effort required on written argument.
Date Issued
2011
Call Number
D16.4.S55 Lim
Date Submitted
2011