Historical thinking concepts and their developmental logic

In didactics, "concepts" are understood as subjective bundles of ideas that people require in order to explain the world to themselves in a meaningful way. Children may have very simple concepts about, for example, "change and continuity" or "cause and consequence", but in the course of their brain development these concepts become more and more complex and refined - and thus more and more suitable for understanding the complex world. Conceptual learning aims to promote this process and to help learners to develop ideas that are as close to science and academic disciplines as possible. Historical learning with concepts is still in its infancy in the German speaking realm. It is a promising way for history education to familiarize students with the principles of the subject and to help them to integrate concrete historical content into more abstract supra-temporal patterns. However, there has been a lack of empirical research that tells us how historical concepts typically develop in students and what ideas typically prevail at a given age level. Such studies on the "developmental logic" of historical conceptions are important because in conceptual learning, learners` existing conceptions are central and need to be known these are then to be consciously developed in the classroom. The volume presents an investigation enquiring into the developmental patterns of seven historical concepts throughout the schooling period. It involved interviewing 20 children in the final kindergarten grade, 20 in the fourth grade, 20 adolescents in the eighth grade, 20 in the twelfthhirteenth grade, and 20 history students about their historical conceptions - with questions such as "What changes, what stays the same?", "What is better today than in the past, what is worse?", "Who brings about change?", "Were people morally better or worse than us in the past?", or "What can we even find out about the past?" The answers were used to infer the conceptual level that the respondents had apparently already reached. Other related aspects such as individual interest in history were also surveyed. With the help of complex statistical analysis procedures, not only was the age-typical distribution of the levels and the development patterns that could be derived from them subsequently presented, but connections with possible other influencing factors were also searched for (e.g., the gender of the respondents or the importance that history has for them). Practical conclusions for teaching history are drawn from the results. To promote conceptual historical learning, the volume also proposes a multilevel conceptual model, reviews the state of the debate on historical concepts, and summarizes the state of research on the development of historical consciousness.