Volume 11, Issue 1 2022 Archives

Index

Edward Tan Yu Fan

Volume 11, Issue 1 2022

What does it mean to make comparisons?

Author/s:

Edward Tan Yu Fan (Ministry of Education (Singapore) Keywords History Approaches to teaching history The comparison of sources forms a cornerstone of the historical discipline; however, there remains room for exploration in terms of what are the various moves that goes into the operations of comparing between sources. This article examines the role of comparisons, […]

Edward Tan Yu Fan (Ministry of Education (Singapore)

Keywords
History
Approaches to teaching history

The comparison of sources forms a cornerstone of the historical discipline; however, there remains room for exploration in terms of what are the various moves that goes into the operations of comparing between sources. This article examines the role of comparisons, and corroborations, in academic History, and gleams from it meaningful considerations and processes that can potentially inform classroom practices.

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Related Teaching Materials

Attachment	Size
Appendix 1	143 KB
Appendix 2	221 KB
Appendix 3	234 KB

Using LORMS to Assess Conceptual Understanding of Change and Continuity in Upper Secondary History Examinations

Author/s:

Seow Yongzhi

Seow Yongzhi (Broadrick Secondary School (Singapore) Keywords History Approaches to teaching history This paper identifies a gap between the teaching and assessment of historical concepts in upper secondary history in national examinations. It proposes four structured-essay question (SEQ) framings to assess students’ understanding of change and continuity, to be graded using the Levels of Response Mark […]

Seow Yongzhi (Broadrick Secondary School (Singapore)

Keywords
History
Approaches to teaching history

This paper identifies a gap between the teaching and assessment of historical concepts in upper secondary history in national examinations. It proposes four structured-essay question (SEQ) framings to assess students’ understanding of change and continuity, to be graded using the Levels of Response Mark Scheme (LORMS). The four framings are: the evaluation question, the watershed question, the given change question, and the periodisation question. These SEQ framings are practical and useful because they (1) dovetail with humanities teachers’ training and present practice, (2) structure scaffolds for conceptual teaching of change and continuity, and (3) provide a pathway for lateral expansion of assessment practices, to align with the syllabus and Teaching and Learning Guide (TLG).

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Related Teaching Materials

Attachment	Size
Appendix A	315 KB
Appendix B	170 KB
Appendix C	219 KB
Appendix D	138 KB

Asking ‘How’ to Infuse Temporality into Upper Secondary Historical Inquiry

Author/s:

Lim Ying Xuan

Lim Ying Xuan (Chung Cheng High School (Yishun),(Singapore) Keywords History Approaches to teaching history This article proposes the usage of ‘how’ questions to develop historical understandings and an appreciation of the historical process. ‘How’ inquiries elicit a temporal dimension that is necessary for historical understanding, especially bolstering the concept of chronology. This article contends that more […]

Lim Ying Xuan (Chung Cheng High School (Yishun),(Singapore)

Keywords
History
Approaches to teaching history

This article proposes the usage of ‘how’ questions to develop historical understandings and an appreciation of the historical process. ‘How’ inquiries elicit a temporal dimension that is necessary for historical understanding, especially bolstering the concept of chronology. This article contends that more thought should be put into the pairings of question forms with particularities of the past. Classroom inquiry should be further modelled on the approaches used by professional historians, pairing an often neglected ‘how’ dimension to the ‘why’ dimension that predominates current inquiries. Asking ‘how’ resists a ‘flattened’ form of history that inhibits understanding of second-order historical concepts, and prevents students from falling into rabbit holes of factorization and weighing that are acutely ahistorical and unnuanced. This article contends that students are already equipped with some of the necessary tools for teachers to use ‘how’ more often in classrooms. In the quest for greater historical understanding, asking the historical ‘how’ appears as the next practicable step to help students have a better glimpse into the historian’s craft.

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Historical Investigation: The Importance of Process over Product in the Historical Discipline

Author/s:

Oh Ying Jie

Oh Ying Jie (Beatty Secondary School (Singapore) Keywords History Approaches to teaching history Since its inception in 2014, Historical Investigation (HI) has been an integral part of the lower secondary history syllabus. However, some history educators have found the process to be extremely tedious and many would rather opt for direct instruction or to undertake a […]

Oh Ying Jie (Beatty Secondary School (Singapore)

Keywords
History
Approaches to teaching history

Since its inception in 2014, Historical Investigation (HI) has been an integral part of the lower secondary history syllabus. However, some history educators have found the process to be extremely tedious and many would rather opt for direct instruction or to undertake a simplistic version of HI. This article looks at why HI remains essential to the teaching and learning of history as a discipline and why teachers should place emphasis on “the process” rather than simply on “the product” when designing HI.

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Use of Cartoons to Identify Students’ Alternative Conceptions of History in a (Singapore) School

Author/s:

Lloyd T.C. Yeo

Lloyd T.C. Yeo (Academy of Singapore Teachers (Singapore) Teddy Sim Y.H. (National Institute of Education (Singapore) Keywords History Approaches to teaching history This article uncovers the alternative conceptions that students have of the study of Singapore during the Temasek period through students’ cartoons, in the process deriving implications for future teaching through an analysis of the work […]

Lloyd T.C. Yeo (Academy of Singapore Teachers (Singapore)
Teddy Sim Y.H. (National Institute of Education (Singapore)

Keywords
History
Approaches to teaching history

This article uncovers the alternative conceptions that students have of the study of Singapore during the Temasek period through students’ cartoons, in the process deriving implications for future teaching through an analysis of the work performed by students. The discussions are drawn from a workshop session conducted by a History Master Teacher at the Academy of Singapore Teachers and cartoons from a selected batch of Secondary 1 students from a school that chose to participate in the learning of Singapore’s pre-modern (Temasek) history through the cartooning approach. The investigation of alternative conception demonstrates that students’ concepts of old Singapore can be affected—not surprisingly—to some extent by presentism in the categorical aspects of life identified on Temasek (architecture, religion, royalty, ordinary life). While it is pertinent to rectify students’ inaccurate alternative conceptions, teachers’ responses and class instruction should not devolve into an identification exercise of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ interpretations. Surfacing alternative conceptions creates classroom opportunities to induct teachers into certain aspects of the topic more deeply and to link the alternative conceptions of presentism to other concepts of history such as historical evidence, perspectives, as well as change and continuity, which allow students to better appreciate history along with contemporary issues of heritage.

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Related Teaching Materials

Attachment	Size
Appendix	1 MB

Going Beyond Facts: Developing Conceptual Understanding in Young Historians

Author/s:

Candice Yvette Seet Siew Yan

Candice Yvette Seet Siew Yan (Loyang View Secondary School (Singapore) Teo See Hian (Loyang View Secondary School (Singapore) Amelia Yeo Jiaxin (Kuo Chuan Presbyterian Secondary School (Singapore) Keywords History Approaches to teaching history This article discusses the merits of the intentional use of conceptual lenses that spirals across the four years of a student’s secondary-level History education to […]

Candice Yvette Seet Siew Yan (Loyang View Secondary School (Singapore)
Teo See Hian (Loyang View Secondary School (Singapore)
Amelia Yeo Jiaxin (Kuo Chuan Presbyterian Secondary School (Singapore)

Keywords
History
Approaches to teaching history

This article discusses the merits of the intentional use of conceptual lenses that spirals across the four years of a student’s secondary-level History education to develop conceptual understandings and powerful knowledge. By developing a concept-driven set of inquiry tasks that spans across levels, it allows repeated engagement with familiar first and second-order concepts, and opportunities for students to deepen their understanding.

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HSSE Online

Index

Edward Tan Yu Fan

Authors List

Authors List

What does it mean to make comparisons?

Using LORMS to Assess Conceptual Understanding of Change and Continuity in Upper Secondary History Examinations

Asking ‘How’ to Infuse Temporality into Upper Secondary Historical Inquiry

Historical Investigation: The Importance of Process over Product in the Historical Discipline

Use of Cartoons to Identify Students’ Alternative Conceptions of History in a (Singapore) School

Going Beyond Facts: Developing Conceptual Understanding in Young Historians

HSSE Online

HSSE Online