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Citation: 

Gago, Marilia. “Children’s Understanding of Historical Narrative in Portugal.” In International Review of History Education, Vol. 4: Understanding History: Recent Research in History Education, edited by R. Ashby, P. Gordon and P. Lee, 77-90. New York: Routledge Falmer, 2005.

Abstract/Summary: 

History teaching should be focused on how and what children understand about history and how historians carry out research. This study explores how students think about historical accounts, why differing accounts exist and the pattern of the progression of ideas. One of the main reasons for the research is to implore history educators to garner a deeper understanding of students’ historical cognition. The author offers the reader a framework for the nature of historical narrative and describes the study design and students’ understanding of the historical narrative. From the results of the study, Gago separates five levels of progressions in students’ responses: tell,  knowledge, difference, author, and nature, and discusses each of them in turn using excerpts from student responses for illustration. The chapter provides a comparison between British and Portuguese students’ responses in each of the five categories. Gago concludes that students’ understanding varied in their degree of sophistication, which increased with age. It is imperative that frameworks be developed with students to further their understanding of why there are multiple historical accounts.

Source/Credit: 
Erika Smith