Skip to Content
Citation: 

Éthier, Marc-Andre and David Lefrançois. “Learning and Teaching History in Quebec: Assessment, Context, Outlook.” In New Possibilities for the Past: Shaping History Education in Canada, edited by Penney Clark, 325-43. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2011.

Abstract/Summary: 

This chapter discusses the history curriculum in francophone Québec in relation to the research on teaching and learning of history in schools. The chapter seeks to address the contexts of program changes in francophone Québec, the layers of the content and the research conducted on historical thinking. The chapter begins with an overview of the citizenship goals and the types of history education. Éthier and Lefrançois then discuss textbooks and how they affect history education in Quebec. Subsequently there is a discussion of assessment tools and methods, such as the competency level scale, percentage outcomes and ministerial tests. The authors then shift the focus of the chapter to research completed on teachers and students in relation to historical thinking. Research on teachers’ views on reforms, practices and teaching conditions are examined and how students’ views of the past are moving away from the “end product of historical thinking to the process of this thinking.” The authors have three main conclusions: emphasis is placed on historical thinking on paper but not in reality, researchers have begun to take interest in the teaching and learning of historical thinking in schools, and most of the research in this area continues to focus on the social representations of students and teachers.

Source/Credit: 
Erika Smith