Critical thinking and use of film in Norwegian lower secondary history classrooms

David-Alexandre Wagner

doi:10.18546/herj.16.2.08

Abstract

This article examines how Norwegian social studies teachers from lower secondary schools enhance critical thinking when using film in the history classroom. We utilized empirical data from semi-structured interviews with 20 teachers from the same regional area in Norway. The article addresses several questions: What are the teachers' impressions of their students' and their own abilities to be critical towards films? Do they use film to meet competence aims in the curriculum for eighth to tenth grade? Do they use film to enhance students' critical thinking abilities? If so, how? The teachers' answers seem paradoxical. Although they mostly consider critical thinking abilities towards film to be crucial for eighth- to tenth-grade students, who usually lack them, most of the teachers did not clearly link their frequent use of film in the classroom to the development of critical historical thinking skills and dispositions, neither in their alleged goals nor in their actual practices. Although they partly recognized the empathetic value of history films and their worth for debate, the teachers generally overlooked a whole part of their potential. These results are consistent with those of other international studies. They probably bear witness to the predominance of a scientific conception of the use of history in school, rooted in epistemological beliefs that would need to be studied more closely in order to sustain perennial practice changes in the future.

Highlights

There seems to be a general consensus among policymakers, employers, educators and parents about the importance of critical thinking, as a set of competences and of attitudinal dispositions, for students’ future professional and personal lives as empowered citizens of democratic societies in the twenty-first century (Koenig, 2011: 1; Pithers and Soden, 2000: 237)
It is generally admitted that the Norwegian education system grants teachers a lot of freedom of action and interpretation regarding the Standard Core; many teachers are still quite attached to textbooks and to traditionally teaching facts (Koritzinsky, 2014), and the K06 and the textbooks are unclear about the concepts related to historical thinking (Johanson, 2015)
Most of our respondents considered themselves to be critically aware in responding to history films, and while they judged their students to lack similar critical skills, a large majority of teachers did not attempt to bridge this gap, in their goals or in their practices using films

Summary

Introduction

There seems to be a general consensus among policymakers, employers, educators and parents about the importance of critical thinking, as a set of competences and of attitudinal dispositions, for students’ future professional and personal lives as empowered citizens of democratic societies in the twenty-first century (Koenig, 2011: 1; Pithers and Soden, 2000: 237). It is generally admitted that the Norwegian education system grants teachers a lot of freedom of action and interpretation regarding the Standard Core; many teachers are still quite attached to textbooks and to traditionally teaching facts (Koritzinsky, 2014), and the K06 and the textbooks are unclear about the concepts related to historical thinking (Johanson, 2015) In this regard, the new Education Reform, expected to be implemented in autumn 2020, aims at focusing on in-depth learning, critical thinking, ethical consciousness and democratic citizenship to equip students with the context behind fast-evolving economies and societies (Sanner, 2018). History this entails prioritizing core elements including historical thinking/historical literacy and historical consciousness (Ekroll and Helland, 2017), in addition to media and film literacy as a basic competence (Ludvigsen Committee, 2015: 8–10)

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