How Do Students Give Meaning to Their Teacher’s History Lessons? A Perspective on ‘Mastery’ and ‘Appropriation’

<p>　　This case study examines how high school students in two schools in Japan understand the history classes of their teachers through long-term observations of classes and interviews with students. As an overview of history education research in Japan, it has often been argued how various stances toward learning history can be valued for each student. However, they tend to discuss how teachers and researchers give meaning to learn history, and these arguments go no further than speculative discussion and thus the empirical research examining how students give meaning to their history classes in Japan is scarce.</p><p>　　I clarified how students “master” and “appropriate” history learning through their teachers’ history classes using the concepts of “mastery” and “appropriation” indicated by Wertsch (2000).</p><p>　　As a result of this survey it was found that in the classroom of a teacher who places “lessons through discussions” at the center of the curriculum, students “master” memorizing historical knowledge. Some students referred to interpreting the history, but they did not appear to “master” it, mainly rather “appropriating” the memorization of historical knowledge, for example they placed “lessons through discussions” as the meaning of learning knowledge, which was different to the teacher’s intention. On the other hand, in a class of a teacher who emphasized considering the present through historical events, students “master” understanding the history as well as considering the history in relation to the present. The students compared the learned content with contemporary events and associated them with knowledge learned in other subjects. The author could see how students “appropriate” considering the history in relation to the present.</p><p>　　The primary significance of this research is to show two cases: one where students give meaning to their teacher’s history lessons that differs from the teacher’s intention, and the other where although the teacher’s intention can be well understood, their intention is overly interpreted (from the perspective of “mastery” and “appropriation”) by some students.</p>