What Does It Mean to Learn:
Learning History
What does it means to learn history?

Functioning as Historians: Involving Students in Exploratory Hypermedia Learning Environments.  Mark Grabe and Alex Tyree University of North Dakota
 

 

"One successful approach allowing students to learn within the context of practice is referred to as cognitive apprenticeship (Collins, Brown & Newman, 1989). The basic ideas in cognitive apprenticeship are that students will learn by applying themselves to manageable, but meaningful (i.e., authentic) tasks within a supportive context that models effective strategies. Students need tasks they are capable of performing that require the investigation of historical content. As they become more proficient, they take on more complex tasks and exercise greater autonomy. The supportive framework which allows students to ease into the actual performance of  iscipline-relevant tasks is referred to as scaffolding. Teachers or instructional materials provide scaffolding by
suggesting productive activities or by carefully selecting the learning materials or experiences students encounter.

The fundamental questions relevant to the focus of this paper might thus be: (a) What kind of tasks might represent authentic historical inquiry for younger students? (b) How might students be supported in developing skills relevant to historical inquiry? and (c) How can technology be applied to provide a supportive and efficient environment for the development of historical inquiry skills?"