Integrating the critical thinking approach with web resources: an application to history teaching in a junior high school

摘要

The goal of our research and development is to offer students the opportunity to become researchers of history by using technology. The project is to enrich students' historical understanding by providing multiple perspectives and contextualized environment. The study found that our Web-Based Historical Curriculum critical thinking instructional modules of history and doing history project have the potential to scaffold construction of an integrated understanding of historical content and context. The study demonstrated that students' perception of the subject of history is changed-they no longer see history as a static-descriptive subject. With the learning modules designed to nurture students' capability of critical thinking in learning history, students do not only know what happened in the past, but also realize how to make inquiries and search for answers. Moreover, the implementation of critical thinking instruction modules of history shows that students' capability of thinking of history in a critical way is enhanced to different degrees-some realize better techniques while the others less so. As a result, it is important to design a long-term project with aims to developing such techniques for long-lasting effect.