Discourses on history education have focused on psychological principles, teaching techniques and teaching materials since mid-1950s. This trend of history education research has been criticized recently. Historical understanding, historical conscio...
Discourses on history education have focused on psychological principles, teaching techniques and teaching materials since mid-1950s. This trend of history education research has been criticized recently. Historical understanding, historical consciousness, history education contents and history lessons cannot be separated from one another. Having teaching techniques and understanding psychological principles are not sufficient condition for effective history teaching.
There has been little research on proving the disciplinary identification of history education and establishing its organization. If the new research area were acknowledged as a discipline, it should have its own studying subject, concept and method. History education, which is one of new research areas in these day, may utilize ones of pre-existed basic discipline in many cases. But it should be explained that those concepts and methods which are used in researching are pertinent to history education.
The necessity of teaching and learning history as a subject should be established also. Most articles arguing the necessity of history subject have focused on external aspects such as practical utilization until now. But intrinsic value should be discussed, and the organization of history education should be presented through reviewing researches for history education to have the root of a discipline.
To establish history education as a discipline, it is necessary to withdraw conflicts on history education research and clarify its character. It is an influential method of establishing the history education discipline that discourses on history education were transposed to subjects of history education research. The relationship between history and history education should be investigated, history understanding should be related to history subject, and the situation of history classroom should be explained theoretically.